Importing Images From Digital Cameras

[Mike Cachia]

I am currently using a "Try Me" version of Adobe Photoshop Elements - giving it a go before I buy it. I'm using a PowerMac G4 running System 10.2.6.

When I plug in my Sony DSC-F717 and attempt to import the digital photos, the camera does not show up in the import menu. I realize Elements Help talks about installing drivers and the camera's image software, however, OS 10.2.6 has the Sony Camera's drivers built in. There are no problems importing digital photos from this camera into iPhoto. The camera's image software only works in System 9.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Joe Henry1000]

Hey Mike,

If it were me, I'd just import to your Pictures folder (using Image Capture) or use iPhoto to import. Then use Elements for retouching/editing. You can't really import images into Elements like you can with iPhoto. PSE is an image editing program not a cataloging app. You can use PSE's Browser once you have your images imported onto your Mac. Just open the Browser from the File menu and navigate to your Pictures folder (if that's where you imported to). Once you click on the folder containing your images the Browser will display thumbnails of your photos.

This is how I deal with my photos:

1. Import my photo's into my Pictures folder with OS X's Image Capture. These are my originals and never get touched (I edit/retouch copy's only).

2. I then import into iPhoto. I use iPhoto for Red Eye removal and organizing/cataloging my many thousands of images.

2. I have iPhoto set to automatically open any image I double click in PS Elements for editing. This is done in iPhoto's Preferences.

I didn't really answer your question Mike as it's the middle of the night (02:45), I'm at work (on a XP PC-ugh), and I don't remember exactly how to access your camera directly from PSE. Sorry.

;-)

Joe

[Juergen D]

Mike,

Quite a few folks here in the forum would also encourage you to get a card
reader. Definitely my preference.

Juergen

[Beth Haney]

Amen to Juergen's suggestion! While the risk is pretty small overall, direct downloads between the camera and the computer could result in loss of images or damage to the equipment if the planets aren't lined up correctly. Better safe than sorry.

[Peter Gaunt]

In article <2ccd6adc.-1@webx.la2eafNXanI>, Mike Cachia
<mcachia@shaw.ca> wrote:

> I am currently using a "Try Me" version of Adobe Photoshop Elements - giving
> it a go before I buy it. I'm using a PowerMac G4 running System 10.2.6.
>
> When I plug in my Sony DSC-F717 and attempt to import the digital photos, the
> camera does not show up in the import menu. I realize Elements Help talks
> about installing drivers and the camera's image software, however, OS 10.2.6
> has the Sony Camera's drivers built in. There are no problems importing
> digital photos from this camera into iPhoto. The camera's image software only
> works in System 9.
>
> Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Does the camera show up as a drive on your desktop? If it does just
open the drive (works just like any other drive) and drag the picture
files out of it into a folder on your main drive. You can then do with
them whatever you want.

I always operate this way since I don't want to go through all the
hassle of firing up iPhoto and so on. I usually preview the images in
Graphic Converter instead of PE2 since it has, in my opinion, better
image browsing facilities. While I'm doing this I discard any images I
don't want to keep and can then work on what's left with PE2.

I really can't see the point of PE2's import functions quite honestly.

[Joe Henry1000]

Ok, not that anyone asked but I'm going to play devils advocate on the whole card reader issue. Last fall I taught a community ed course on getting started with digital photography. I'm by no means a professional photographer (I'm not even a rank amateur ;-) but as the Mac guy in my town I somehow became the expert on this subject (Ha!). Anyway, much of the introductory content of the class had to do with what you need and how to go about getting into digital photography, but the last couple of sessions were geared more toward what you do after you take pictures. Consequently I had a significant number of students who were already into digital photography.

Of those who already had camera's and were fully into digital photography, three out of a class of 25, had problems related to the use of card readers. Two had damaged the CF card eject mechanism in their camera's and one had damaged a 128mb CF card while inserting it into his card reader,rendering it useless.

As some of you know, I also have a part-time Mac repair/tech support gig on the side. I don't deal with digital camera's at all, other than to help people get them working with their Mac's, but I still get calls regarding broken camera's. In the last 6 months, I've fielded 2 calls for help with digital camera's and card readers. One was a damaged eject mechanism and the other was another damaged CF Card.

I don't want anyone to get the impression that I'm trying to dissuade Mike from going the card reader route. Many people use and like them. Just that in my experience, I've seen more problems because of them (the repeated ejecting and inserting of CF card's into readers and camera's) then just plugging a USB cord directly into the camera.

This might just be a CF card thing. I've never had any negative experience with SD cards or memory sticks.

Anyway, just thought I'd through that out there. Food for thought and all. :-)

Joe

[Peter Gaunt]

In article <2ccd6adc.2@webx.la2eafNXanI>, Beth Haney
<member@adobeforums.com> wrote:

> Amen to Juergen's suggestion! While the risk is pretty small overall, direct
> downloads between the camera and the computer could result in loss of images
> or damage to the equipment if the planets aren't lined up correctly. Better
> safe than sorry.

I've often seen this mentioned as a problem but wonder how real the
risk really is. I download directly from my camera (Olympus C3020Z) and
have had the batteries fail on more than one occasion with no problem
whatsoever. The only thing which happens is that the Mac throws up a
message telling me not to disconnect the device without first
dismounting it. Replacing the camera batteries and reconnecting to the
Mac has never resulted in any problem. The images are still there, the
card and camera still work and the computer is undamaged.

Does anyone have any instances of actual problems being caused or is it
another myth?

--
Pete
====
*** Email is pete -at- dawnsun -dot- net

[Barbara Brundage]

Pete, it is very rare, but I myself have known two people who now consider that when they decided not to use a card reader, they made a $500 mistake.

[Joe Henry1000]

Pete, it is very rare, but I myself have known two people who now consider
that when they decided not to use a card reader, they made a $500 mistake.




Hi Barb,

What happened that cost them $500?

Joe

[JodiFrye]

sounds like camera=$500

[Beth Haney]

Yep, that was my take, too. $500 = cost of new camera. Personally, I just wouldn't want to subject my camera to the dangers lurking in my den! :)

[Barbara Brundage]

Yes, that was it. They managed to fry the camera somehow when a direct camera>computer download went bad.

[Mark Reibman]

Joe, To my way of thinking, if my chances of damaging a CF card reader were higher than frying the camera I'd go with using the CF reader. I can surely recover from the disappointment of a dead CF easier than I can from ruining a $500+ camera. The owner of a camera repair store was quick to recommend the card reader so I guess it's based on his experience with repairing cameras.

Beth,

My astrologer friend calls that mercury in retrograde. :)

[Joe Henry1000]

Well I have to admit that I've never heard of a camera getting fried while attached to a computer with it's USB cord. Weird! No doubt Mark that I'd choose a damaged CF card over a ruined camera as well. The three instances that I noted where the eject mechanism were damaged were, from what I was told, very costly as well: $200+ if I remember correctly. Still cheaper than a new camera though.

I'm definitely going to research this more. I'm planning on retiring my Kodak DC290 soon and I don't want to risk my new camera. Plus, I just bought a $700 Sony Camcorder that has both a USB and Firewire interface. I'd really be bummed if something happened to that! Unfortunately there probably isn't much I can do about it. Firewire is the only way of getting video into my Mac. I could use a reader for the memory stick instead of USB I suppose.

Joe

[Bert Bigelow]

Well, Joe, if you're playing devil's advocate, I'll take the other side. <grin>
I have two digital cameras, a Nikon and an Olympus. Both use CF cards, but the Oly also has an SM slot. I have taken thousands of pictures with both cameras over the last three or four years, and I always use a USB card reader. I have two, one for each type. I have never had a problem with ejecting or inserting cards into either camera or into the card readers. I can't imagine what you would have to do to damage a CF card. A hammer and chisel, maybe. SM cards require a little more care, as the card-edge contacts are exposed. Just have to keep your greasy fingers off.
I think the risk of damage to either a card or a camera when connecting or disconnecting to/from the USB bus is minimal.

I started out connecting the camera to the computer and uploaded directly. I found it to be a pain to do all the hookups...didn't want to drain batteries during the long upload process...oh, I should explain that my Nikon is an old CP 950 which does not have USB...just an RS-232 serial channel, and it was incredibly slow uploading pix. When I got back from an Alaska trip, I had about 200 pix in the camera. It took five hours to upload them! That's when I bought my first card reader. Of course, nowadays, most cameras have USB, so uploading from the camera is probably just as fast as from a card reader.
I guess it just seems to me that popping the card into a reader and plugging it into the USB connector on the front of my computer is so quick and simple. My oldest CF card has been in and out of the camera a hundred times, at least. Still works perfectly.
bert

[Joe Henry1000]

Well, Joe, if you're playing devil's advocate, I'll take the other side.
<grin>




Bert, there are already too many devil's on that side ;-)

The really funny thing about this whole deal is that my new camera is going to be a Kodak DX6490 <http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml;jsessionid=SUHMH1N2YTXGNQHIO3JHW GY?pq-path=1336&Submit.x=26&Submit.y=11&pq-locale=en_US&_requestid=102078#> which comes with an EasyShare dock. I won't have to worry about regular USB connections or frying my camera (I hope).

Still a little bothered about my Camcorder though. Still researching.

I can't imagine what you would have to do to damage a CF card. A hammer
and chisel, maybe.




Well that was my thought as well, but as I never actually saw the cards I just accepted what they said happened at face value. Who knows?

Joe

[Dave Hamer]

If there is going to be any damage, it will most likely occur with the
connectors pins in the card readers.

Dave

[Beth Haney]

My guess is the cards were damaged through improper use of the reader. There are all kinds of warnings on those things that tell you to always make sure the card is unmounted before taking it out. That's really easy to verify on my Macs, but I've noticed when I'm working on the the Win XP machine I just have to trust (not easy) that it dismounted correctly when I hit Eject.

Somebody on the forum removed their card improperly a while back and had to send it to a data recovery place to salvage the images. So, yes, using cards has its pitfalls, too, but the combined cost of the lost card and price of image recovery was a heck of a lot less than what it would have been to replace a camera. Let's face it - there's no foolproof way to deal with this, so you go with what gets you off the cheapest if you screw up! :)

[Kyle White]

Sitting on both sides of the fence.

I have three CF cards on the go, so I find using a card reader a definite "plus". (I love having 10 rolls of film equivalent in my pocket!)

On the flip side, my sister's Canon S200 had the little latch on the CF card door break off when she was switching cards, which would be a "minus". And she downloads from the camera via USB.

So I'd say that the robustness of the camera's CF socket (all aspects) and desired ease of use are points for consideration.

Kyle

[JodiFrye]

I find that problems usually occur when people aren't careful with their equipment. They jam things in and out etc...they just don't have respect for the things they own. I 'BABY' everything I have that's especially digital to the point of 'ridiculous' to the not so careful people but my stuff still holds strong.