Setting Date and Time
The world is full of VCRs set to the wrong time and wrong date. They are owned by people who either don’t know how to set them, or by people who don’t need to set them. Unlike VCRs, where a correct date and time is not often needed, setting the date and time correctly on your digital camera is more than worthwhile.
Each time you take a picture with your digital camera, a digital image file is written to the digital photo storage media in your camera. This file contains the “picture,” plus it contains “metadata.” Metadata is a fancy term that means data or information about the picture. Most digital camera vendors conform to an industry standard; the cameras write this metadata in the EXIF format in each picture file.
In addition to writing precise time and date data, most cameras also write dozens of camera settings used for each photo, too! This means you can read these settings while the digital photos are in your camera, or later when you open up an image file with any one of many software applications that allow you to read the f-stop, the shutter speed, the exposure mode, whether you used a flash or not, as well as lots of other information that you can use to learn how to shoot better photos. EXIF data can also become useful when you begin managing your digital image collection with an image management application such as Cerious Software’s ThumbsPlus, or ACD System’s ACDSee.
Providing that you set the date and time correctly, you can sort all your photos by date and time, or even search for photos taken on a specific day and at a specific time. If you don’t set the date and time on your digital camera, you’ll miss out on this valuable capability.
