Transfering from camera to imac - Help

It should work perfectly.

Open a program with your iMac called "Image Capture," go to PREFERENCES, and make sure iPhoto is supposed to open when you plug your camera in. If it still doesn't work, then select the preferences so that Image Capture is supposed to open when you plug a camera in.

If it still doesn't work, I would buy a card reader...even though plugging in the camera worked fine with my Mac. I would make sure you have opened up iPhoto before and you should be set.

I'd second the card reader. Even if you get your camera and Mac working fine, there's a good chance your camera is sending files via USB 1.1 speed. A card reader would utilize USB 2.0, plus give you the option for a plethora of other card types should you run into that in the future.

Card readers are nice, and often times around us, my printer and monitor are both card readers.

I echo the comment that it "should work perferctly" - a description of how it should work: You plug your camera in, turn it on, and iPhoto launches itself, and after a few seconds asks if you want to import "number" of items.

A few points to check -

If it's a point and shoot, make sure that the camera is switched to "display" images. On my little Elph SD450, the down load does not start if the camera is set to the "take pictures" or "movie" position - only when it is set to the view pictures position.

If you've installed other imaging software, the new software may have taken away the iPhoto default setting, and that correction is addressed above.

On the cardreader side of things -

A card reader might be nice, but it shouldn't be absolutely necessary to fix your issue. In fact, you should have the same issue with a card reader as your camera if your system isn't set up to import the images from the camera for whatever reason. I added a Sandisk card reader recently that sits in it's own little stand - http://www.compusa.com/products/pro...17325&Pn=ImageMate_12_In_1_Memory_Card_Reader and plugged it into into a USB 2.0 add-on card on my dual 1.42 PM G4 and it was a whole new world of speed. I also like it because I can plug all sorts of different cards into it.

If your camera is set up to transfer using the faster usb, and given that you have a new mac, you won't see a speed increase with a card reader on the transfer.

Good luck. Let us know when the issue gets resolved and how.

A card reader is faster and safer than using the camera; my theory has always been that if something goes wrong, I'd rather it happen between the computer and a $25.00 card reader than the computer and my $1600 camera!

Using a card reader is easier on the camera battery, too, so that it is not being drained excessively quickly during the transfer process.

Edited to add: I do not use iPhoto; when I initially upload from card reader to computer it is to a Pictures folder in Finder; I also then upload a second time into Aperture so that then I have the flexibility of working in Aperture and CS2 together or independently. I can say that uploading directly into just a plain folder is a bit faster than uploading into Aperture. Don't know about iPhoto, since I haven't tried that.

If my camera can transfer via USB 2, can a USB2 card reader still transfer files faster? I think the answer is "yes", but I still want to know.


And I agree that a card reader will not fix the problem. iPhoto or whatever software you're using still has to read from the card.

law guy said:

I added a Sandisk card reader recently that sits in it's own little stand - http://www.compusa.com/products/pro...17325&Pn=ImageMate_12_In_1_Memory_Card_Reader and plugged it into into a USB 2.0 add-on card on my dual 1.42 PM G4 and it was a whole new world of speed. I also like it because I can plug all sorts of different cards into it.

Click to expand...

I have that same Sandisk card reader and it works great, it also can come off of the stand which makes it great for traveling, I brought it on my trip right now in Europe.

I bought mine from Amazon, they have it for $26.99 with free shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...367269?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&link_code=xm2

Any other card readers to check out before I go and buy that one? I've been using my camera for the past few months and really need to spend the change and pick one up...