New Camera

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If it ain’t one thing, it’s another! My six year old digital camera (Sony) gave up the ghost lately and I won’t bore you with how. It was only a 4 megapixel model and one of my complaints with it has always been the required delay between shots. I decided to buy one that’s a little faster (sometimes called “instant shoot” I guess) and that uses standard batteries as well since I’m tired of buying expensive batteries when I’m such an occasional photog. I settled on this one which arrived today: Canon PowerShot A1000 IS 10 Megapixel Digital Camera. Since, as with most, it only comes with a 32 meg memory stick, I bought a couple of 4 gig Kingston cards, one for the camera and one for my “pocket spare” just in case.

Out of the box initial “test” is OK and I have made a few pix onto one of the 4 gig cards, only to discover that my existing external USB card reader DOES NOT support SDHC cards! It’s always something, isn’t it? I guess I’ll visit my ol’ buddies at Cyberguys and buy one of these: Cyberguys.com – Epraizer UP-850 62 in 1 SIM Card Reader Black. 62-in-1 oughta get it, do ya think, especially since SDHC is in the list! Just another routine day in the world of technology, huh?

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(Edited by DaveA on 13-Nov-08 14:27. )

Have you tried just plugging the camera and using Windows Explore see the camera?

I just checked you link and it says
“Computer Interface: USB 2.0 Hi-Speed (mini-B jack) ”
so just using the USB cable should allow you to use Windows Explorer.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Good point, Dave, and I haven’t got that far yet but I will in just a few minutes. Yeah, the camera does have a USB “port” and Canon provided a cable, so I’ll give it a try. But, I just like to have a card reader for the “convenience” and ease of pulling out the memory stick and reading it in to the computer. I’ve also on occasion helped someone with other card formats to put pix on CDs and so on, so it’s nice to have a reader attached to the PC. Thanks.

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I u/l a “camera” utility a few weeks back, because my new camera didn’t come with software.
post 738,286
I have a slightly newer version …

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Thanks for the offer, Chris, but “software” isn’t necessary. See post 742,499 above to Dave. Maybe someone else needs it.

Besides which, I’m in the minority who no longer use MS Word and Open Office Writer won’t deal with MS’s macros in its native form.

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Works like a charm, Dave, thanks again. Just as a test, I connected the Canon provided cable with the camera powered off. As soon as I turned the camera ON, Windows Explorer “saw” it immediately as in this attachment. I copied my first few test pix to the hard drive in about one or two seconds and they’re pretty large images with this camera (3,648 x 2,736 pixels). I think I’ll lower that default to something a little more (or less!) in line with my modest needs. The 4 gig cards should MORE than take care of my amateur shooting.

Now, on to learning more about how to work the darn thing…

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Make sure that you check this out on BOTH XP and Vista?

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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One of the supposed benefits of using a card reader is to reduce the drain on the camera’s battery and thereby make your recharging cycles longer. For lithium-ion batteries, you might break even within the lifetime of the camera.

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>make your recharging cycles longe
OK, sounds good to me. I love/hate batteries.

If I understand this thread, I spend, say, $20 for one of these card readers, and instead of plugging the mini-usb cable between the camera and the computer, I slip the little blue thumb-sized card out of the camera and into the reader?
And, we hope, remember to slip it back in when I’m done.

I assume also that software will look for and find the blue card as a new drive, rather than looking and finding the camera as a new drive.

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You assume correctly. See my slightly different clip than the one to Dave. The current card reader I have shows up as two drive letters, whether there is something inserted or not. The camera, plugged in directly via USB, only shows in Explorer when it’s connected AND turned on.

Not to worry about putting the stick back in the camera. It becomes habit after a time or two of turning on the camera and getting an error message!

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Thanks Al.

>turning on the camera and getting an error message!
yabbut, not nice when I’m in a canoe on a lake 100 miles north of the camera card!

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Aha! That’s why I always carry a couple of spare AA batteries AND an extra memory card in this little improvised carrying case which you can clearly see is a purpose re-directed electric shaver container. When I bought this new camera, I bought two 4 gig cards rather than one larger variety.

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Question about that memory card?
Does slipping it in and out of the camera/card reader wear it out more quickly?
Leaving the memory card safely inside of the camera means I’m not messing about – trying to flip the card in the right direction for inserting into the proper slot which may cause wear and tear on the little connectors?

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Boy, I can only answer from experience, without “technical” justification for same. The Sony camera I just retired is SIX years old and I’ve used the memory stick ever since I’ve had it, inserting and removing pretty regularly from both the camera and my card reader. That stick has never given me any problems, nor has it once failed to register or read quickly and correctly. So, my conclusion would be that the connectors are not subject to much wear and tear and are pretty durable. Even the little teeny, tiny memory card I bought with my Palm Treo smartphone seems darned reliable, albeit with a few “permissions” and “ownership” glitches, owing more to the OS than the card. Now, that little card is so small that I’ve occasionally had to plug it in to the reader and remove and re-insert it in order to get Windows Explorer to see it, but nothing major. What with no moving parts, I’d think that memory cards are pretty doggoned stable. YMMV though…

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I think just about everyone has been burned on making assumptions about compatibility at one time or another, and at least some of those chips come with a free adapter as part of the package, especially if it’s a pack of two.

Screen resolution is very low compared to possible print resolution, and you may one day want to have an exhibition-quality print made from that high-resolution image, provided, that is, that you saved the original image ‘somewhere’. Your new camera has five times the resolution of the old and (sigh) it probably cost less.

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Hi Al

I may have to consider acquiring a reader sometime. It’d be handy when I am helping others download their pictures since there are so many different types of cards “out there”.

Thanks for the info and your perspective about durability of these cards!

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[indent]

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… when I am helping others download their pictures …

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[/indent]Exactly! My local experiences have been running into people who have NO IDEA what to do to get pix out of their cameras and onto their hard drives. Every once in awhile I “assist” someone with a card different than I have and put his/her pictures on a CD to save them some grief. A card reader has been a handy gadget to have around, more for helping others than myself. Example: It wasn’t too long ago that my son’s mother-in-law wanted to have some pictures printed at Kroger and had no idea what to do. I tried to tell her to just take the memory stick to Kroger and they would deal with it. But she was scared to death. So, I had my son bring the stick to me and I put the pix on a CD for Kroger to deal with.

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Oh my yes I’ve had some situations that have been complicated by the person’s camera not having the standard USB port and the required cable being left at their home so time is lost.

So now I have another question about transferring pictures using the reader. Can a CD be burned directly from the camera card to the CD? Or does the Pic data have to be transferred to the HD first making the burning process faster perhaps?

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I hardly ever use native Windows for making CDs, rather preferring to use AShampoo for my CD work. As you can see here, AShampoo doesn’t care where the files are that I want to burn, camera or card reader. However, I don’t ever do it that way, as I usually choose to copy the files to the hard drive, if for no other reason than to save them for more permanent future use.

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Hi Al

I use Nero still or on the Mac there is a “burn” option which works just fine. I figured it’d be easier to have the pics on the HD but when they belong to someone else, I don’t necessarily want to keep them so it is copy/burn/delete.

Thanks for your replies! Enjoy the rest of Sunday!

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Skitterbug, another way of looking at it is to compare inserting and removing a memory card to inserting and removing a USB cable. If you damage the card the cost to replace it is much less than repairing/replacing your camera when you damage its USB slot.

Cheers,

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Hi Paul

You have a good argument there! I never thought about the little port being damaged. I guess if it ever is, then it is time for that card reader!

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This is just a crazy followup of something that would probably never be tried by anyone but me, but here goes. As I mentioned earlier ( post 742,499 ) connecting the camera directly worked as you said and I copied pictures from the camera to the local drive without a problem. So, that might come in handy in the future.

Last night, I was going to try to put a couple of pictures BACK on the camera’s memory stick so I could more easily take them with me today to show my wife. No way – the direct connect via the camera’s USB port is a one-way street! When you try to drag some files in Windows Explorer, it jumps over the camera item in the left pane. As I said, I’m probably the only guy who would ever try that, but there ya have it.

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>probably never be tried by anyone but me,

Yup.
post 738,286 was version 3
Version 5 transfers images both ways.

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Never did load any Canon software. I was using the camera’s USB connector directly to Windows.

Never mind… my new little card reader arrived yesterday and it works just fine on my SDHC cards. And boy, do I mean little. I didn’t realize when I ordered it that it’s only about 2 x 3 inches. See here.

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Hi Al,

I came across the same thing when I updated recently from my Canon A30 to a Panasonic Lumix. The 32Mb card included in the purchase was not going to do for me for very long, so I went the whole hog and bought an 8Gb card.

And then had to buy the new card reader. I did this willingly, because I carry both the camera and reader with me at all times. I use the camera frequently for all manner of work things (serious and fun) and like the ability to read directly to the computer without having to install camera drivers on each.

Best of fun learning to play with the new camera. But just remember when you send your images to your loved ones that you reduce the size of them first. Even with broadband connections, many people don’t like their bandwidth taken up with large image downloads in emails.

Johanna

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Good points. Yes, I DO always resize any images I send to people to something small enough to “fit on screen” like 1,024 x 768 or so. The only reason I even keep the higher resolution copies is that it makes for cleaner resizing to smaller sizes for hard copies, etc. Cameras are fun, aren’t they? I don’t know how we got by before digital came along!

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>I don’t know how we got by before digital came along!
Just like we get along now without the implanted telephones that are on their way (hooray!).

You’re right about DigCams.
I found my self yesterday taking a photo of my pencil-and-paper notes of preparation for an application, solely to put an image in the notes that accompany a video training course. How geeky can you get?
I wanted to show whoever was watching the (Camtasia screen) video that I really, really do sketch out my ideas with paper and pencil before committing them to computer-ese.

But it seemed so natural to take a photo and paste it straight into the course notes …..

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You’ll want to purchase a graphics tablet next Chris… that way you can sketch your ideas on a piece of ‘virtual paper’, and have it in the computer right away.

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>You’ll want to purchase a graphics tablet

$2?

Where’s Jezza when I need him …..

… also who has some spare dog-tags. I don’t need a dog.
or a hand-towel.
I’ve got a cat …..

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Scanners work well for this type of thing, and you get a better image.

Sorry,Al, for keeping up the “HiJacking”

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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>you get a better image.
I agree, but in this case I wanted to emphasize that “this is how I work, at my desk, like this”.
Clarity of what was written wasn’t as important as the “‘atmosphere” or scene.

I do like the idea of screwing around with the touch pad, though. (post 742,645)

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> Sorry,Al, for keeping up the “HiJacking”

No sweat!
post 742,668

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I had the same card reader problem when I bought my Canon PowerShot A590 IS. I prefer to use a card reader so I bought Sandisk SDDR-99 ImageMate 5-in-1 Reader/Writer for about $20 (even less if you shop around). The card reader gives me more flexibility.

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I know what you mean. After all these years, I just feel better having a card reader, so I’ve ordered an improved one. This is really funny – they sell more “flavors” of these than ice cream (6 in 1, 9 in 1, 62 in 1, etc.) because of an industry running rampant. ( Cyberguys.com – Epraizer UP-850 62 in 1 SIM Card Reader Black )

And add to that list – measurement, just like TV screens! My new camera does NOT have a 2.5″ screen, by quite a bit as a matter of fact. BUT, it’s much, much larger than my old one!

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