Acer Digital Camera 300Electronic User’s Manual

Introduction to Acer Digital Camera 300 1

Touring Your Camera 2

Preparing the Camera for Using 4

Installing batteries and neck strap 4

Installing digital camera software 5

Using Your Camera 6

The digital camera mode 6

The PC camera mode 18

The video camera mode 25

Using the cradle 30

Installing the cradle 30

Troubleshooting Tips 33

Service Information 35

Technical support 35

CopyrightCopyright (c) 2001 by Acer Communictions & Multimedia Inc. (Acer CM). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro-duced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system or translated into any language or computer language, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual or otherwise, without prior written permission from Acer CM.Brands and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

DisclaimerAcer CM makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this material, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantabil-ity and fitness for a particular purpose. Acer CM assumes no responsibility for any error that may appear in this document. Acer CM makes no commitment to update nor to keep current the information contained in this document.

Taking care of your camera• Do not use your camera over the following environmental range: temperature: O C to 40 C, relative humidity: 45% ~ 85%.• Do not use or store your camera in environments listed below:

Direct sunlightHigh humidity and dusty places.Next to the air conditioner, electric heater or the other heat sources.In a closed car that is directly under the sun.Avoid shaky places.

• If your camera becomes wet, wipe it with dry cloth as soon as possible.• Salt of seawater may cause severe camera damage.• Do not use organic solvents, such as alcohol, etc., to clean your camera.• If the lens or viewfinder is dirty, please use the lens brush or soft cloth to clean the lens. Do not touch the lens with your fingers.• To prevent electrical shock, do not attempt to disassemble or repair your camera by yourself.• Water may cause a fire or electric shock. Therefore, please store your camera in a dry place.• Do not use your camera outdoors when it is raining or snowing.• Do not use your camera in the water.• If the foreign substance or water gets in your camera, please tum the power off immediately and disconnect the batteries and the trans-former. Remove the foreign substance or water, and send it to the maintenance center.• Transfer the data to the computer as soon as possible to avoid losing your image data.

Introduction to Acer Digital Camera 300

1

wing features:sea mode; selectable 640 x 480, 352 x odeidelityages in digital camera mode

ft.(0.6m) to infinity from camera for

age handlingC

e capturing device for PCith a PC

Introduction to Acer Digital Camera 300

Acer Digital Camera 300 is equipped with the follo• Small size for easy carriage and convenience of u• High resolution: 640 x 480 pixels in digital camer

288, 320 x 240 or 176 x 144 pixels in PC camera m• 24-bit true color representation for high image f• Onboard 8MB memory to store up to 95 ~128 im• Mode selectable flash light• Built-in self-timer• Fixed focus : 8 inch(0.2m) for macro mode, and 2

normal mode• Electronic shutter• Easy recognizable LCD screen for camera and im• USB interface for easy and quick connection to P• Automatic power-off system• 3 operation modes:

Digital camera mode for taking photosPC camera mode for using the camera as an imagVideo camera mode for capturing motion clips w

Touring Your Camera

2

ViewfinderLens

Macro switch

USB connector

Status display

MODE button

Neck strap holder

Battery compartment cover

Touring Your Camera

Shutter

Flash light

Self-timer activation indicator

Front

BUSY indicator

MACRO indicator

POWER button

Rear

SELECT button

Touring Your Camera

3

Turn off flash

Enter auto flash mode

elete all images in memory

Enter self-timer mode

Delete the last image

Image counter

Battery status

The status display

Preparing the Camera for Using

4

o AAA alkaline batteries into the hen you install.

trap.

Preparing the Camera for Using

Installing batteries and neck strapOpen the battery compartment cover and insert twcompartment. Note the polarity of the batteries w

Refer to the illustration below to install the neck s

Now you are ready to use your camera!

Preparing the Camera for Using

5

ur CD-ROM drive. The following er screen automatically.

pear, open Windows Explore and D-ROM directory. igital camera software. Follow the

oftware, you have the choice to go ther items to install the bundled

Installing digital camera softwareInsert the digital camera software CD-ROM into yosoftware installation menu will appear on comput

Note: If the software installation menu did not apdouble-click the “Autorun.exe” icon in the C

Click Digital Camera 300 Driver first to install don-screen instructions to proceed.When you are done installing the digital camera sback to the software installation menu and click osoftware programs.

Click this item to install digital camera softwareClick this item to install Presto! Mr.Photo GoldClick this item to install Presto! Image FolioClick this item to install Presto! VideoWorksClick this item to open Electronic user guideClick this item to install NetMeetingClick this item to install Acrobat Reader

Using Your Camera

6

ation modes: Digital camera mode, ese modes, you can not only use d show images in various ways.

and download them from your cam-

OWER button. The camera beeps ra will appear on the status display.

uto mode. You can choose to turn it

age 13.

photos taken. You can choose to let

w picture counter” on page 16.

Using Your Camera

Acer Digital Camera 300 provides 3 different operPC camera mode, and video camera mode. With thDigital Camera 300 to take photos, but capture an

The digital camera modeIn digital camera mode, you can take photos, viewera and save them as files.

Taking pictures

Turn on the power of the camera by pressing the Ponce and enters camera mode. The status of came

: This icon indicates that the flash light is in A

off. See “Turning on/off the flash light” on p

: The counter that indicates the number of

the counter display in another way. See “Vie

Using Your Camera

7

wer becomes low, the battery icon

ject to be taken. Make the object

BUSY indicator will flash, indicating

take the next photo. The memory of

USY indicator flashes. still until the BUSY indicator

is turned on and not used for 2 min-

he camera beeps once and the

: Indicates the battery status. If the battery powill become empty.

Look through the viewfinder to determine the obappear in the center of the viewfinder.

Press the shutter. The image will be taken and thethat the camera is saving the image to memory.When the indicator becomes off, you are ready to camera allows you to take up to 95 ~ 128 photos.Note: Do not press the POWER button when the B

After the shutter is pressed, hold the camerabecomes OFF to prevent blurred images.To save battery power, if the camera power utes, it will be turned off automatically.

Turning off the cameraPress and hold the POWER button of the camera. Tpower will be turned off.

Make the object appear in the center of the viewfinder.

Using Your Camera

8

s on the status display.

hoto taken will be deleted.

es on the status display.

in camera memory will be deleted.

Managing photos in camera

Deleting the last photo taken

Press the MODE button 4 times. The icon flashe

Press and hold the shutter for 1 second. The last p

Deleting all photos

Press the MODE button 5 times. The icon flash

Press and hold the shutter for 1 second. All photos

Using Your Camera

9

OWER button.era to PC using the USB cable. When ry will appear on the status display.

n Windows Taskbar, and choose Pro-

Or, right-click on the icon on he submenu that appears.

Downloading photos from cameraTurn on the power of the camera by pressing the PRefer to the illustration below to connect the camconnected, the number of images in camera memo

Power on your computer. Click the Start button o

grams > Acer DC 300 > DC300 Digital Camera.Windows Taskbar and select “Digital Camera” in t

Using Your Camera

10

mputer screen and start creating

e image thumbnails will appear on ge to switch among the pages.ownload. You can:tely. Click on the thumbnail again

s on a page. photos.ecify the file name and location and u will be prompted to enter a prefix

ill be named in the format of (pre-“Mypic” as the prefix, the images in , “Mypic002”...

The image preview window will appear on your cothumbnails of the photos in the camera.

If there are more than 20 photos in the camera, thdifferent pages. Click on the tab on top of each paChoose the thumbnail of the photo you want to d• Click on each thumbnail to select a photo separa

and the photo is not selected.• Click on the Select All button to select all photo• Click on the Unselect button to cancel selectingClick Save. A Save as dialogue box will appear. Spclick Save. If you have selected multiple photos, yofor the file name of the photos. The image files wfix)001, (prefix)002.... For example, if you entered camera will be saved using the names “Mypic001”

Using Your Camera

11

iew windowe preview window.eleted from your camera.

Deleting photos in camera in the image prevSelect the photo(s) you want to delete in the imagClick on the Delete button. The photo(s) will be d

Using Your Camera

12

window. The Image Browser win-owse the photos in your camera.

Using the image browserClick on the Browser button in the image previewdow shown below will appear. You can use it to br

In the Image Browser window, you can:

Click the button to go to the previous photo.

Click the button to go to the next photo.

Click the button to zoom in on the photo.

Click the button to zoom out on the photo.

Using Your Camera

13

ommended that you use the flash .

flashes on the status display.

Options

Using the flash lightYour camera is equipped with a flash light. It is recwithin the best working range as illustrated below

Turning on/off the flash light

Press the MODE button. The icon appears and

Using Your Camera

14

ng. The one selected will flash.

light will be disabled.o recharge for the next shot. During g is completed when the FLASH

Flash light OFF

Press the SELECT button to select from the followi

Now you are ready to take pictures.Note: If the macro function is turned on, the flash

It takes about 11 seconds for the flash light tcharging, the FLASH indicator blinks. Charginindicator becomes off.

Auto flash light

Using Your Camera

15

e (from 8 inches to 2 feet), turn on

n” position. The MACRO indica-

light will be disabled.

the position marked .

the .

Using the macro functionIf you need to shoot objects at a very close distancthe macro function before shooting.

To turn on, slide the Macro switch to the “macro o

tor will be on.

Note: If the macro function is turned on, the flash

To turn off the macro function, slide the switch to

Slide the switch to position marked

Using Your Camera

16

can view picture counter by the tos allowed in the remaining mem-

ken

d in the remaining memory space

ictures.

f pictures ry). For re 20

0”.

will appear “2”

above the

View picture counterThe picture counter provides 2 display modes. Younumber of pictures taken or by the number of phoory space.

View picture counter by the number of pictures ta

View picture counter by number of photos allowe

Now you are ready to press the shutter and take p

Normally, the picture counter shows the number otaken (or the number of pictures in camera memoexample, if you have taken 20 pictures (or, there aimages in camera memory), the counter shows “2

If there are 102 pictures in camera memory, an “1”at the lower right corner of the status display, andappears on the picture counter.

Press the MODE button twice until the picture counter flashes.

Press the SELECT button until “REMAIN” appears counter.

Using Your Camera

17

ra take pictures 10 seconds after the

will flash.

matically.

ting

er

Enabling self-timerThe self-timer function allows you to let the cameshutter is pressed. To enable self-timer:

Press the MODE button 3 times. The self-timer icon

After10 seconds, the camera will take picture auto

Press the shutter and the camera will start genera

beep sound. The icon flashes and the self-tim

activation indicator blinks.

Using Your Camera

18

0 as a motion image capturing encing, capturing snapshots and so

era to PC using the USB cable. “PC”

Windows Taskbar, and choose Pro-al Camera 300 App. Or, right-click

“PC Camera” in the submenu that

The PC camera modeIn PC camera mode, you can use Digital Camera 30device for your PC. You can use it for video conferon.

Using Digital Camera 300 as a PC camera

Refer to the illustration below to connect the camwill appear on the status display.

Power on the computer. Click the Start button ongrams > Acer Digital Camera 300 > Acer Digit

on the icon on Windows Taskbar and select

appears.

Using Your Camera

19

video.

tton. The image will be captured wing the captured image.

napshot button several times.

e Snapshot Browser window, or

The PC Camera window will appear showing the

Taking snapshots

In the PC Camera window, click the Snapshot buand a Snapshot Browser window will appear sho

If you want to capture multiple images, click the S

Click the button to save current snapshot in th

the button to save all snapshots.

Using Your Camera

20

. The video will be rotated 90 ou to place the camera in different eo.

Rotating video

In the PC Camera window, click the Rotate buttondegrees counter-clockwise. This is convenient for yangles and maintain the correct orientation of vid

Using Your Camera

21

window. The following Video For-

ction/meaningstbox to select different resolution for a window.d compression of the image in the PC

e of the captured image file according tion and Pixel depth/compression

Video settings

Video formatClick the Video Format button in the PC Cameramat window will appear.

Items FunResolution Click in the drop-down li

viewing in the PC CamerPixel depth and compression Selects the pixel depth an

Camera window.Size Shows corresponding siz

to the selection in Resoluoptions.

Using Your Camera

22

indow. The following Video

f you have multiple devices installed p-down listbox and you can click to driver.

Video sourceClick the Video Source button in the PC Camera wSource window will appear.

Options in the Capture Source tab

This tab allows you to select a video input source. Iin your system, device names will appear in the drochoose one of them to use with the digital camera

Using Your Camera

23

ess, contrast and sharpness..., etc. of to adjust.lt values.

Options on the Device Settings tab

On this tab, you can adjust the saturation, brightnthe image in PC mode. Drag the slider of each itemClick Default button to reset the settings to defau

Using Your Camera

24

video settings of your digital cam-

Options in the Camera Controls tab

On this tab, you are able to access other advancedera. Drag the slider of each item to adjust.

Using Your Camera

25

tion video and save it as a video file. is installed. If not, please install it

era to PC using the USB cable. “PC”

Windows Taskbar, and choose Pro-ideoWorks. The following Video-

The video camera modeThe video camera mode allows you to capture moNote: Make sure the Presto! VideoWorks software

first.

Using Digital Camera 300 as a video camera

Refer to the illustration below to connect the camwill appear on the status display.

Power on the computer. Click the Start button ongrams, Presto! VideoWorks 4.x, then Presto! VWorks main screen will appear.

Using Your Camera

26

the submenu that appears.

to highlight Acer DC300 Video

Click Capture and select Select image source in

The Select Source dialogue box will appear. ClickCamera and click Select.

Using Your Camera

27

nter of the screen. Click the icon

Click Capture Video.

The video capturing window will appear on the ce

to continue.

Using Your Camera

28

r of frame rate. The larger the num-captured and played back. However, rame rate.y the length of time in the box if you

n in the Captured file name box. If r location, click Browse... button to

ing the video output size and com-

o start capturing video.

The following dialogue box will appear.

Click in the Frame rate box to specify the numbeber of frame rate is set, the smoother the video is the file size also becomes larger if you set higher fClick the Capture time limit checkbox and specifwant to limit the capture time beforehand.The default path of the captured video file is showyou want to save the captured video file to anotheselect a new path.Click the Video... button for more options, includpression.Click the OK button to continue.The following dialogue box will appear. Click OK t

Using Your Camera

29

ar on the bottom of the screen.

uring is done. You can click the but-

the video clip (such as adding special ends and family. For details, please

old the POWER button for two sec-nload the photos in camera.

When capturing is in progress, the status will appe

The Capture window will appear after video capt

ton to playback the video clip.

Now you are ready to use VideoWorks to work on effects to the clip..., etc.) and share it with your frilook under the Help menu of VideoWorks.

Note: In Video Camera mode, you can press and honds to activate the image browser and dow

Using the cradle

30

ws you to fix the camera on various

llation hole on the bottom of the le is appropriately fixed.

Using the cradle

The cradle that comes with your digital camera allosurfaces for different applications.

Installing the cradleInsert the screw on the cradle into cradle the instacamera. Rotate the cradle clockwise until the crad

Using the cradle

31

r

Pull the metal ring outward.

Clip the cradle on the LCD screen of notebook computer.

Placing the camera on top of computer monito

Placing the camera on a notebook computer

Using the cradle

32

Troubleshooting Tips

33

e POWER button and can't take

old, replace it.

15 seconds to charge the flash light usy and cannot take pictures. Wait

era to PC.not have sufficient storage space. oad your images. If the problem per-atch in your hard drive before pro-

es you want are stored prior to

r, but the Digital Camera 300

and there is enough power in

n it on and then connect the camera

Troubleshooting Tips

The LCD panel remains blank when I press thpictures.Check that the battery is correctly inserted. If it is

The camera can not take a picture.When the FLASH indicator is on, it takes up aboutfor the next shot. During this time the camera is buntil the indicator becomes OFF.

Cannot download all my images from my camThe RAM memory installed in your computer may Close all software programs and proceed to downlsists, download images in batches and store each bceeding to the next batch. Make sure all the imagclearing the camera memory.

I have connected the camera to the computedriver says “Device not ready!”.Make sure that the batteries are installed correctlythem. Check if the camera power is turned on. If not, turto the computer again.

Troubleshooting Tips

34

from my computer while run-puter freezes. running the Digital Camera 300 . Do not unplug the camera from .

In Windows 2000, when I unplug the cameraning Acer Dgitial Camera 300 driver, the comUnplugging the camera from your computer whiledriver will cause the computer to become unstableyour computer when the camera or driver is in use

Service Information

35

300 and the camera driver program, ions of the problem you came upon, ystem) to the following addresses:

acer.comipherals.nlcm.com.twom.cn ice@acercm.com.twtion and news release, please visit

.com

se consult the following web

e Active Share)t.com olio, Presto! Video Works)

Service Information

Technical supportIf you encountered problems using Digital Cameraplease send an E-mail (containing detailed descriptthe hardware and software environment of your s

USA: support-sc@apa.Europe: service@acerperTaiwan: service-tw@acer

China: service@aps.cAsia and other countries: IMGserv

For free driver program updates, product informathe following web address:

http://www.acerCM

For questions about the bundled application, pleaaddresses:

http://www.adobe.com (Adobhttp://www.newsof

(Presto! Mr. Photo Gold, Presto! Image F