TechSupport
Email your questions to: apanswers@timeinc.com, Twitter @AP_Magazine and #AskAP, or Facebook. Or write to Technical Support, Amateur Photographer Magazine, Time Inc. (UK), Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hants GU14 7BF
Camera not recognised
QI have a Sony Cyber-shot DSC- QX100, but my computer suddenly doesn’t recognise it even though it comes up in File Explorer. I click on camera and it won’t upload or show photos I have taken. Before this happened, I used to plug in the lead and straight away my photos used to upload, but now nothing happens. Is the camera too old for Windows 10 or is there a simple explanation? Paul Goodman
AThis sounds as if the action Windows needs to take when it detects the camera is connected to a USB port has changed somehow. This action is called AutoPlay and can be manually configured. In the search bar to the right of the Windows icon at the bottom left of the screen, enter AutoPlay and ‘AutoPlay settings’ should appear. Click on that and you will see a switch at the top, which should be enabled, called ‘Use AutoPlay for all media and devices’. Below this will be a number of device names, each with a drop- down menu of action choices. Your QX100 might be specifically listed, but if not, you can configure the ‘Memory card’ device. Choose the desired action from the drop- down menu. Then connect your QX100 to verify that the action works.
Digital contact sheets
QI have a large number of negatives in clear 35mm storage pages. I would like to convert these to digital contact sheets, but there doesn’t seem to be a photo scanner available that can scan the whole film at once. As a result, I have to take out each strip individually and place it in the carrier mechanism. The ideal would be to scan in the clear pages – is there a scanner that can do this? Nigel Totman
AMost flatbed scanners are designed to scan reflectively. Flatbed scanners that have a dual function in order to scan slides and negatives are certainly available and should do the job you describe. In transparency mode, the light source shines from above and through the media being scanned.
The next consideration is the area that can be scanned. Many flatbed scanners with filmscanning capability only illuminate a fraction of the area that can be scanned reflectively. Thankfully, there are some scanners, such as Epson’s Perfection V850 Pro Photo, which afford a much greater area of transparency scanning. The V850 is supplied with a holder for scanning three 35mm strips of six frames each at a time. However, there should be space to scan up to five strips without removing them from the transparent sleeves.