Starting to have switcher remorse... Help!

[3-22]

I'm a recent Dual G5 2GHz w/ OS X 10.3 switcher. It's going pretty well and it's a fun computer. The problem I'm having is things don't always "just work" as I hoped. (Much to the dismay of my wife and I, for the price we paid) The system is fairly stock, except a few things installed.

I have had numerous problems with iPhoto, but the most recent issue is driving me nuts. if anyone can help me, I'd appreciate it.

i have a SmartDisk CF Reader on my USB port. OS X detects it fine, but my images from my digital camera are all garbled on preview. Large blocks of colors will be off, and horizontal lines slide around. The wierd thing the "garbled-mess" is different everytime I mount the CF card and view a JPG. Here is the wierd thing, if I do a Get Info on a "garbled" JPG and open the little preview the image looks fine.

I've tried formatting the CF card, changing USB ports, etc. Finally I tried the new CF reader on my Windows XP laptop and the pictures came up perfectly. So now I have to import the pictures via my XP laptop. Sending them over the network to the my Mac box. There has got to be a better way...

Has anyone seen or heard of such a thing? I think the hardware is fine (atleast on my XP boxes), so I think it's the Apple driver or something. (I just plugged the USB reader in, I did not install anything.) Would I call Apple for this or SmartDisk?

Thanks, for any help.

 

[filmmaker2002]

Have you tried plugging your digital camera directly into your G5?

 

[kettle]

hmm

Have you tried a different app? It sounds like yer iPhoto is corrupt in some form, can you get the images from the reader straight to the desktop and open them in preview?

If the images are ok from the networked "windoze slab top", the jpg files should be sound from the camera.

The visual disruption sounds like the preview is being made before the complete jpg file is on the hard drive.

Tell us what a full image looks like, is all the data in terms of file size complete? Is the full image visually complete?

Personally, I'd like to see some screen shots, your opening paragraph seems like a not so subtle "slagging off" of the Mac ideal. If you have given up on switching, then I'm sorry the little detective work of your own was unavailable, except to find a WINDOZE solution to a "so far" isolated case of a Mac creating corrupt previews in iPhoto.

Anyone else have this problem with a dual G5 and iPhoto?

Also, I'd like to find a wayof stopping iPhoto from opening when I connect my camera. It used to ignore it when it used normal canon talk and only activate when using P2P. This must be another Panther feature.

 

[chewbaccapits]

To the first poster..It reads as if your pictures are corrupted because every time I've gotten something with that "jarbled mess" description, its always turned out to be a corrupted file....Just my experience....As far as the second poster....When you first launch iPhoto it first asks you if you want iPhoto to be turned on when you connect your camera...

 

[Jays]

Try using "Image Capture" (in your application folde) it is way better and faster for importin photos from cameras.

 

[3-22]

Re: hmm

Originally posted by kettle
.....

Tell us what a full image looks like, is all the data in terms of file size complete? Is the full image visually complete?

Personally, I'd like to see some screen shots, your opening paragraph seems like a not so subtle "slagging off" of the Mac ideal. If you have given up on switching, then I'm sorry the little detective work of your own was unavailable, except to find a WINDOZE solution to a "so far" isolated case of a Mac creating corrupt previews in iPhoto.

...

I've have been troubleshooting it for some time actually. I'm just frustrated cause I bought my Mac so I woudln't be trouble-shooting bazaare problems (compared to XP) and I feel like I have been doing that since day one. Now I know a lot can be chalked up to a "new user" and learning curve, but other things are just darn wierd.

1) I bought the CF reader (my old one wasn't compatible wih OS X) becasue of my import problems with iPhoto. I bought this CF reader because it's on Apple site hoping compatibility would be fine.
2) The garbled images are wih the preview app in OS X (not using iPhoto). The images are also garbled in PhotoShop and Safari.
3) If I view the preview thumbnail in the JPG's Get Info the (little) picture is fine.
4) Importing from the camera directly was giving me some strange results, and after a botched import lost a number of photos I tried the CF reader route.
5) I have tried different cables, CF Cards, etc.

I even thought it might be a RGB and CMYK thing, but I don't see how.

In summary...

OSX:
Camera Pic > CF Card Reader onMac > OS X Preview = Garbled

Same Data via XP:
Camera Pic > CF Card Reader on PC > FTP'd to Mac > OS X Preview = Fine

The only thing I haven't rulled out is my camera is somehow now taking corrupt JPG's, but I have hundreds of other pics from it in IPhoto that are fine. New pics with it are easily viewed on the camera and my XP box. I don't like getting out my XP laptop, help!

I've attached a sample picture, maybe this might help...

Hmm, attach didn't work.. Here is plan B:
Example Garbled Pic

See link for example... Notice if you drag this image to your desktop, and do a Get Info the preview is fine. (at least it was when I just tried it)

Thanks, for any help...

 

[xjohn]

What were your import problems with iPhoto before you switched to the CF reader?

I used to have trouble importing large amounts of photos from my camera, and then realized that the problem was that my camera was powering off. Turning off the auto-power-off feature during imported solved the problem.

I felt silly at the time, but thought I'd share this in case you were having a similar problem.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

i take it your camera doesnt have a usb port to plug into the computer? also what type of camera?

 

[3-22]

Originally posted by Dont Hurt Me
i take it your camera doesnt have a usb port to plug into the computer? also what type of camera?

It does have USB, I was doing USB for a while then recently it stopped working realiably. it would say importing 98 photos or soemthing, but I would have like 20 imported. (in no particular order either) I tried the CF reader route just because I thought I might have more control in seeing what was going on in the CF card.

Also, I thought it mind be the power-off or low batteries but it doesn't appear so.

The camera is a Canon PowerShot A40.

I'm playing around with just using Image Capture and the camera via USB now. Messing with the optons, maybe this might do something.

 

[khollister]

I downloaded your example photo and confirmed the behavior you have been describing. However, when I attempted to open the file in Photoshop CS, I got a dialog box stating "The document may be damaged (the file may be truncated or incomplete)", so the images are getting corrupted either in the camera or in the transfer via the card reader. Photoshop also displays a normal looking thumbnail in the Photoshop browser. I'm assuming the example was dragged out of the finder from the mounted card? Try that if it's not what you are already doing, i.e. don't use an image app to import the photos.

I have several cheap - no name card readers, and all work fine with my Mac's, so I tend to believe the reader is not the issue. That pretty much leaves the camera, however odd that may seem. A pretty definitive way to test this is:

1) mount card via USB reader
2) copy JPG that displays normally from Mac to the card
3) eject card
4) reinsert card and open file - does it look OK?

If so, I think we have a camera that is creating broken JPG's

What camera is this?

 

[3-22]

khollister, good idea. I used a JPG from the internet to eliminate my camera from the equation. i copied it to the CF card, and after a few ejects/inserts it started to get the odd color patterns and bars.

I just browsed the AppleCare discussion board, and there is a thread going on about this now. It appears to be happening to a number of G5 owners, regardless if they are using Panther or not. Hmmm... Now I just have G5 Rev. A remorse...

 

[khollister]

Interesting - I found the thread at Apple. It appears there are some folks having trouble with powerBooks as well. I have mounted/unmounted a CF card with some images on it several times on my G4 PM with Panther - no problems. I'm charging a set of batteries for my Olympus E-20 and I'll see if I have problems. I haven't used the camera since upgrading to Panther.

 

[3-22]

Originally posted by khollister
Interesting - I found the thread at Apple. It appears there are some folks having trouble with powerBooks as well. I have mounted/unmounted a CF card with some images on it several times on my G4 PM with Panther - no problems. I'm charging a set of batteries for my Olympus E-20 and I'll see if I have problems. I haven't used the camera since upgrading to Panther.

I'd be interested to see what you find... You mentioned new PowerBooks, i wonder if it's a new chipset or a USB 2.0 issue. (even though my device is only USB 1.1) Thanks.

Well hopefully this will eventually get some attention at Apple. I'm a bit disappointed in my AppceCare phone support. He agreed it appears to be an issue for G5 boxes and various memory card readers and cameras. BUT... Since this is a 3rd party product he can not escalate it any further. I agued that this wasn't an acceptable answer, I could understand if these items weren't listed on the compatibility list or it was one particular brand. The only common thing is G5 USB... I didn't excpect a quick simple answer, but it would be nice if they could forward them on... Oh well, that's why they call it "bleeding edge"...

Thank you to everyone for posting your ideas/suggestions..

 

[GyroFX]

are you talking about the icon of the pictures coming out all wAcKo? If that's the case, i've had that problem. It seems to be fine after I've run Norton Utilities: Sys works 2.0. I fixed all the problem with the drive and then optimized the sys with speed disk. I think everyone should clean up their systems after certain installs...but i may be wrong. Anyway...GL

 

[Macette]

given the number of image-related problems in Panther (scanner problems, iPhoto problems, CF card problems etc), I would say Apple will be releasing a big update to Image Capture and related stuff sometime soon. I don't anybody working with images who hasn't come across some flaw since installing Panther. And since photoshop fiddlers are one of Apple's biggest customer bases, I reckon they'll be wanting to keep us happy.