How do you download your photos from your Canon digital camera?

[joe.pelayo]

Hello everybody.

Recently I bought a digital camera (nothing too fancy but quite enough for me) it is a Canon PowerShot A430. It uses MMC cards and has an USB cable to connect. Once I managed to download my photos using digiKam but ever since I have been unable to do it again (and I don't remember the exactly steps I followed). The program recognizes the camera model and attempts to synchronize: it says "Connecting to the camera", "Listing folders" and "Ready" but it does not show any picture to download (it seems to be empty when it is not). When I am using Gnome another program (based in gphoto) attempts to get the photos but gets stuck while 'Loading drivers for the camera'.

Has anyone experienced problems with Canon cameras under Linux? (this specific model perhaps)

What do you do to retrieve your photos?

Thanks.
Joe,

[Seve]

Hello Joe:
I have a canon power shot s500
just plugged it in to test and I apparently have been using gthumb
you can control this from /System/Preferences/Removable Drives and Media/Cameras

Seve

[joe.pelayo]

Hello Seve.

I tried to get the photos with gthumb but it failed. It opens a window "Import Photos" where it recognized the device and says it is using PTP mode. Then it starts to load the drivers and finally it displays "PTP I/O error" and a "Initializing camera", then it gets stuck.

Any suggestions? Do you think it is a kernel problem with the USB?

Thanks.
Joe.

You may need to reformat the card in the camera Maybe something got corrupted. Use this as a last resort. Do you have another machine (windows) to try it on? I have two Canon cameras, an old A200 and a newer S80 and they both work fine with Gnome/Gthumb.

Edit: Or maybe try it with a cheap USB card reader?

Wayne

[mnisay]

yum install digikam

or

yum install f-spot

there's more....

[joe.pelayo]

Hello.

Wayne: I will try what you suggest (it is a tiny 16MB card almost empty anyway) and yes, I do have a Windows XP system which recognizes it like a charm (both through USB or plugging the MMC card directly in a Card Reader).
mnisay: I have already tried digikam with no results. I will give f-spot a shot.

Something else I wanted to ask about this, I know you have to put the camera in "Play" mode, however, to transfer files (through USB), do I have to press anything else?

Thanks.
Joe.

With my A200 you have to press a button on the back of the camera to turn it on, I guess that's play mode, but with the S80 it goes into play mode automatically as soon as it's plugged into the USB cable (in Fedora) When connected to our iMac though, when it's plugged in the menu on the camera screen comes to life and you have to select 'Transfer' from that menu. Perhaps that's the step you missed?

Wayne

[mnisay]

i had an officemate that plugged her same Canon PowerShot A430 with my current FC6 box,
both my digikam and f-spot detected it with no problem at all.

i am using the latest 2911 kernel though.

try this when you plug yours

#lsusb

#dmesg

would show you if it detected it.

[joe.pelayo]

Hello .

Wayne: I used the "Low level format" option of the camera to format the card (without use because it still does not 'see' the files). In my case I have to turn on the camera and then a small wheel to select the "Play" mode. Once there if I plug in the cable then I loose control of the camera (pressing its buttons is useless and in Windows it can transfer the files in this state). However my doubt was regarding to a function hidden in the "Menu" which allows to select photos and order the transfer (I have tried this option too).

mnisay: F-spot recognized the camera too but failed to retrieve its contents.

The thing I can not understand is the fact that the system actually recognizes the camera properly (at least it prints its model name) and digikam "connects" and "lists its folders" but does not display anything (no photos). I would rather a complete incompatibility instead of this.

Thanks.
Joe.

Originally Posted by joe.pelayo

Hello .

Wayne: I used the "Low level format" option of the camera to format the card (without use because it still does not 'see' the files). In my case I have to turn on the camera and then a small wheel to select the "Play" mode. Once there if I plug in the cable then I loose control of the camera (pressing its buttons is useless and in Windows it can transfer the files in this state). However my doubt was regarding to a function hidden in the "Menu" which allows to select photos and order the transfer (I have tried this option too).

Joe.

Have you tried it the other way? I mean plug in the camera then turn it on? does that make a difference? That's the way I usually do it.

Wayne

[joe.pelayo]

Hello mnisay.

I attach the output of the commands you suggested me to use.
The first command returned a "CANON" string somewhere but I could not find any reference to my camera in the second one.

Thanks.
Joe.

[lazlow]

Joe

A lot of people over on digital camera review STRONGLY suggest not plugging the camera into a USB port. A lot of people have had there cameras ruined by a voltage spike thruough the USB line. Considering a card adpater is like $15, I would much rather buy one than risk my $xxx camera.

Lazlow

[joe.pelayo]

Hello Wayne.

I have tried it both ways but it does not make any difference. In fact when the camera is off, the system does not even notice it has anything plugged on it. I have connected it when the camera is on and still it will be recognized but its photos won't be displayed.

Joe.

The worst thing about this is that I can not even change it in the store just because it does not work under Linux because it is not supposed to (only in Windows or MAC, GRRR)

[joe.pelayo]

Hello Lazlow.

I think that will be my move. The fact is that I already have a Card Reader (which I have not managed to make work under Linux, but it is still there and Windows at least can take advantage of it).
Is there a particular brand/model of such adapters you can recommend me to avoid running in trouble in Linux? It requires the service pcscd, right?

Thanks.
Joe.

What I don't understand is you say it worked once. So, you're obviously doing something different from the first time you tried it, or so it appears!

Wayne