AES wrote:
Can anyone say what's the minimal software needed to download photos
from a Canon PowerShot A710 to a Mac iBook running OS 10.3.9 via the USB
cable?

I really don't want to keep all, or in fact any, of the extensive suite
of Canon software that comes with the camera on my Mac. I just want to
download the images, in JPEG, not necessarily even RAW, format; and then
deal with them with my own software.

Thanks . . .

I have a Canon Powershot S80 and have installed on my iMac G5 all of
Canon's software (from a CD labeled "Canon Digital Camera Solution Disk
Ver. 26.0"). The Canon suite on my hard drive is contained in a folder
called Canon Utilities, of size 179.8 MB. The suite consists of
folders called CameraWindow (126.2 MB), ImageBrowser (44.7 MB), and
PhotoStitch (8.9 MB). In addition, the installation placed on my hard
disk ArcSoft's PhotoStudio in another folder, of size 19.5 MB. My hard
drive is a 250 GB unit, so the total disk space occupied by all of
these programs (just under 0.20 GB) is hardly significant.

CameraWindow is for transferring photo files. I have never used
PhotoStitch, but since it takes only 8.9 MB, there is very little disk
space to be gained by deleting it.

I don't know if CameraWindow requires the presence of ImageBrowser, but
in any case I recommend that you keep ImageBrowser. I have found it to
be extremely useful. It will show your photos (in small and enlarged
views, singly or side-by-side in groups of two, three, or four) and
will provide for printing or emailing them. ImageBrowser also shows
the intensity histogram and all technical data about the camera
settings for each photo, as well as the folders into which your photo
files have been placed. By default these folders are named by the date
the photos were taken, but you are free in ImageBrowser to rename the
folders and the photos any way you please, and to reorganize your
photos however you want to. In contrast, I have been thoroughly
baffled by iPhoto the few times I have tried to use it and found it
unwilling to rearrange photo files the way I wanted to have them
organized.

ArcSoft's PhotoStudio is an image-editing program. It is loaded by
ImageBrowser if you ask to Edit a photo file. If you have Photoshop or
Photoshop Elements, you may not need PhotoStudio, but I don't have them
and so have tried PhotoStudio for a few editing jobs. It has given me
excellent red-eye removal, more subtle and pleasing than some other
programs with one-key red-eye removal commands. Again, if you delete
PhotoStudio, you have saved less than 20 MB, which seems a bit foolish
in case you might some day want to try it for editing jobs not well
done by other programs.