How to put edited pictures back into your Digital Camera (converting images to dcf compatible jpeg)

So It's Christmas!

And you bought your girlfriend the perfect gift ... as perfect as a third world's month internship salary can buy :

A decent Digital Camera!

The Story (skipable):

As a graduating electrical engineer specializing on computer engineering you've "modded" a few gifts before... You remember hacking that MP3 player's firmware on her birthday, so that it would spell her name instead of it's logo... Ahh The Joy of identifying the image/correcting the checksums... all that HEX...
You thing that this one should be really easy! I'll just put one of my sketches as an opening screen for the camera...heck it even HAS this feature so there's no risk of "briking" (ie. turning into an useless BRICK) this one...The only thing you need to do is get your sketch drawing into the device

Problem:
Most digital camera makers obey a design Standard when it comes to file format ( the Digital Still Camera Image File Format Standard (Exif) ) known as dcf. it's mostly JPEG with thumbnails and EXIF data, all wrapped together into a single file disguised as one friendly .JPEG extension... The great thing about it is that it allows people with DCF compatible cameras to view/print out their pictures on DCF compatible equipments without the need for a computer...
The 'not so great thing' is that this Standard does NOT say anything about the camera being able to read "JFIF" JPEG ...the image format we all know (and export from image editors) as JPEG...
This means that if your camera CAN read JFIF (the normal JPEGs) you're in luck and ou don't need this instructable (don't worry you can still hang around and see the pictures :P )
In my case, the Digimax A503 from samsung DOES NOT READ JFIF...

To find out if your camera can read normal JPEG simply copy an image that wasn't taken from a Digital Camera (or edit and save one that was) and save it on your camera's memory or memory card in dcim xxx .JPG (if it all sounds too hard... just take a dummy picture with your camera, browse your camera , find its name , rename the normal JPEG (the edited picture) to the same name of the picture you took and overwrite it on the camera)

This instructable is not intended to explain what's the DCF standard (search "exif.org" for that) , I'm keeping this as simple as possible as it is intended to anyone that can google it...

Step 1: Converting Your Image

In spite of the lack of resources concearning this subject (I couldn't find much!) There are several ways of doing this ,if anyone finds a better free conversion tool or if I manage to finish coding my own, please let me know so we can edit this later...

The Simple Alternatives (for now)

+Sony's PSP Image Converter Plus:
Guess what? the PSP is DFC compliant! meaning that you can use this converter (NOT FREE) to generate Jpegs compatible with your dcf reading camera!

+ Panasonic's Image Creator (FREE!!!):
A simple program made by panasonic in order to convert Slideshows and Other Images into dfc compatiple Jpeg format

+ Taking a picture of a picture (FREE)
But you didn't need an Instructable for that...

Comments

[cardboardguy]

Useful article. The updated link for Panasonic Image Creator 1.5 is below.

http://panasonic.net/avc/projector/software/imagecreator.html

It works great!

[eparker4]

hey

[self-propelled]

Very useful. For those interested, I found a useful discussion of how to get your camera to display different JPEGs here - and from that, another free program called Camerizer that aims to do a similar job, but uses Python so might be a better option for those on OS X, Linux etc. Haven't tested it yet.

[waltbosz]

Thanks for writing this guide. I used it for a bit of a prank on a friend.

Also, the link for the ImageCreator software in your guide is dead. I found it at http://panasonic.net/avc/projector/download/p1sd.html

[Proteus]

Thanks for the heads up , I've just fixed the link with yours =]

[PhotoMaster]

Works like a champ on my D90. I have wanted to do this for years on my D70. Awesome job!

[rorionp]

mine works too very cool Fuji E900 works

[VietxKiiD]

plz sum1 help me i dont kno how to do the code for a kodak C713 :O

[VietxKiiD]

um i have a kodak C713 and im not sure how to do it please sum1 help :O

[mangenoll]

I really like your drawings! Can't you publish a instructable that learn us other to paint that great? Really nice :)

[boethius]

Very useful ! Thanks ! The software is for widows only, I will have to find my old PC in the garage...

[misjah]

Ok, this is good..... but how to convert video to be able to play it on digital camera. My digimax captures to mjpeg with audio, but when I try to convert with pc to the exact type of video digimax won`t play it....

[Eromanga]

Thanks for the info. I've wanted to put some images back onto the camera for showing off purposes - now I know how to do it. By the way your English is better than some native English writers I know.

[rayhosler]

Good work. One note. The ImageCreator 1.5 jpg file is limited to SVGA (800x600).

[Proteus]

Ow , and if anyone knows camera specific issues please contact me for collaboration privileges =)

[Des6]

You are also a talented artist! Awesome drawing!

[Proteus]

Thanks =D

[imasuperhero]

This is really cool, but just an FYI, I have an Olympus camera and I saved edited pictures to my camera card using the memory card slot on the computer, when I put the card back into the camera the card was corrupted. Olympus informed me that you can't let the computer write to the card. Unfortunately I didn't learn that until I lost 2 cards.

[Hungry_Myst]

Err, can't you just get the camera to re-format the card?

[imasuperhero]

No, I actually sent the whole camera in to Olympus because I thought it had to be the camera since two cards were affected. All they did was send a note back to me informing me not to use the cards because they were corrupted. Luckily, after several phone calls to their customer service I got them to replace the cards.

[Hungry_Myst]

Wow, that's weird. Not to mention really bad software design.

[Proteus]

ummm personaly I've never ran into trouble but I have only messed around with images on SD-cards and Sony memory sticks... Olympus uses 'xD' right?

[imasuperhero]

Yes, they use xD, I'm not sure if Fuji cameras would be affected also.

[Chris Bilton]

Yesss, Yess, finaly an answer to my problem, you guys are great. Hey! and you have girlfiends as well, ("you bought your girlfriend the perfect gift ...")geeks can have romance AND sort out techi stuff. Happy Christmas and an instructable New Year.

[Jesus10555]

OMG, I can't believe this. I've spent countless hours trying to figure this out, going through google, and such. and all my hours ended up wasted. and I just did this in about 5 minutes, this is awesome, I didnt expect it to work (for me) but it worked out great, and I'm Happy, lol, thanks

[Proteus]

Yeah... There seems to be little to nothing on this subject online =]

[Jesus10555]

haha, I'd go with "nothing" Well, I knew "Exif" when I ran across it in here. which I found from my research. other than that, nothing :(

[Jesus10555]

I figured I'd confirm my camera for anyone else who has it, The Polaroid PDC 4055 is a go, it works.