Dangers in copying pics from camera to computer

On Thu, 2 Feb 2006 12:48:29 +1300, Peter Huebner
wrote:

In article ,
says...

Any one who is even a little bit serious about photography would buy a card
reader ... they ain't all that expensive!


A statement that is not necessarily appropriate.
My camera uses xD cards. My card reader has a dual slot for xD cards, and it's
extremely difficult to actually push the tiny card into that huge slot and find
the proper position.
What's more, the card reader (HP) is actually A LOT slower reading info from
the card than my camera (Oly 5050), despite the fact that it transmits data to
the comp via ethernet rather than usb.

The only time it makes even remotely sense for me to use the card reader is, if
I want to do lengthy operations on the card: multipe copies, renaming as I go,
rotation....(as discussed, to avoid draining the batteries in the camera with
possible problems arising).
As a day to day operation, rather than finding my reading glasses, and fumbling
the card into the reader, then waiting 3 minutes for the reader to initialize
all the pics on the card, I rather plug the usb cable into the camera, into the
hub on my monitor and I am away in seconds, without messing with that tiny
chip.

I have used some of the larger card formats from other people's cameras in the
reader and at least the fumbling part does not apply. Just as slow, though.

-P.

A better card reader will obviate your problems.

--
Bill Funk
replace "g" with "a"

"Jim F B" wrote in message ...
A friend has alerted me to the potential danger in copying your digital
pictures directly from your camera to your computer. Apparently, if the
camera battery goes flat while the transfer is taking place, it is possible
to lose all your pictures. Worse still, there is the possibility of
permanent damage to your memory stick.

Of course, the way to overcome this risk, is to use a card reader to
transfer your pics on to your computer. I was rather surprised to learn
about this possibility because I have always transferred my pics to my
computer directly from the camera.

Can anyone advise me why memory sticks and SD cards are subject to failure
in this manner? I would have thought that the manufacturers would have
been able to build in safeguards so that this sort of thing could not
happen! Has anyone experienced loss of pictures or damage to SD cards as a
result of a flat camera battery during the transfer process? Do you think
it is a wise safeguard to invest in a dedicated card reader?

Thanks for your advice.

Jim

Of course you'll also notice that once you (not anyone else) remove your
camera batteries everything on the memory card in the camera is deleted ---
you'll believe anything.
Downloading does not effect what's on the card at all.

Pulling a memory card in and out the camera all the time is going to be real
good on the wear tear of all contacts. If the low warning is showing for
rechargeable batteries only a fool would **** round trying to download many
pictures from a camera to a PC.

E. Scrooge

"E. Scrooge" (*sling) wrote in message
news:1138839924.639725@ftpsrv1...

Of course you'll also notice that once you (not anyone else) remove your
camera batteries everything on the memory card in the camera is
deleted --- you'll believe anything.
Downloading does not effect what's on the card at all.

But if downloading stops half way through the process because of a flat
battery, some people warn that data may be lost. Otherwise, I would agree,
that the downloading process does not alter what's on the card at all, it
stays there until your format the card or erase the pictures (formatting
being the preferred way to delete your pictures from a card to avoid build
up of any remnants).

Pulling a memory card in and out the camera all the time is going to be
real good on the wear tear of all contacts. If the low warning is showing
for rechargeable batteries only a fool would **** round trying to download
many pictures from a camera to a PC.

A good point about pulling memory cards in and out of the camera, but I
guess they are fairly robust and that it would take a long time to wear down
the contacts to any serious degree? After being warned, I will now at least
check for flat batteries before doing a download, but I like the idea of
leaving the card in the camera as much as possible.

Regards, Jim

Per (PeteCresswell):
I got a little USB2 plug-in reader for my CF cards at CompUSA.

Nametag on mine says "Thunderbolt CF Card Reader".
It's from www.ziocorp.com
--
PeteCresswell

"(PeteCresswell)" wrote in message
...
Per Jim F B:
Do you think it is a wise
safeguard to invest in a dedicated card reader?

Yes.

Also because of:

- The convenience/portability factor. Keep it in your bag and you can
upload to somebody else's PC without installing anything.

- No worries about installing dicey camera mfr software on your PC.

I got a little USB2 plug-in reader for my CF cards at CompUSA. It's also
extremely fast..
--
PeteCresswell

do they export to nz?

or, were you in the states?

"Jim F B" writes:

"Måns Rullgård" wrote in message
...
CeeBee writes:

"Jim F B" wrote in rec.photo.digital:

Do you think it is a wise
safeguard to invest in a dedicated card reader?

For 10 to 15 bucks getting rid of all the hassle of connecting your
camera
to the PC you mean? You bet.

The hassle need not be very great. One of my cameras (Sony DSC-V1)
acts as a USB mass storage device (aka card reader) so no software
needs to be installed. The other (Canon 350D) acts as God knows what.

Yes, you can use the memory card in most cameras as you would a hard drive,
that is, you can record your word processing, spreadsheet, and any other
files on it, but its capacity is rather limited (hard to get cards here
greater than 4GB). A 60GB Ipod is a better supplementary drive to back up
all your computer files on.

How is what you just said relevant to copying photos from the flash
card to the computer?

--
Måns Rullgård

"Jim F B" writes:

"E. Scrooge" (*sling) wrote in message
news:1138839924.639725@ftpsrv1...

Of course you'll also notice that once you (not anyone else) remove your
camera batteries everything on the memory card in the camera is
deleted --- you'll believe anything.
Downloading does not effect what's on the card at all.

But if downloading stops half way through the process because of a flat
battery, some people warn that data may be lost. Otherwise, I would agree,
that the downloading process does not alter what's on the card at all, it
stays there until your format the card or erase the pictures (formatting
being the preferred way to delete your pictures from a card to avoid build
up of any remnants).

If the OS updates access timestamps on the files as it reads them, it
will be writing to directory entries in the card filesystem. Each
flash page holds many directory entries, so if something goes wrong
while updating a single entry, the entire page may be lost, and all
the files with it. Recovery software may be able to retrieve the
image data, but I wouldn't want to depend on it.

--
Måns Rullgård

the memory cards function just like a hard drive in your computer. So if the
power dies then there's a big chance of screwing up the data.


"Jim F B" wrote in message ...
A friend has alerted me to the potential danger in copying your digital
pictures directly from your camera to your computer. Apparently, if the
camera battery goes flat while the transfer is taking place, it is possible
to lose all your pictures. Worse still, there is the possibility of
permanent damage to your memory stick.

Of course, the way to overcome this risk, is to use a card reader to
transfer your pics on to your computer. I was rather surprised to learn
about this possibility because I have always transferred my pics to my
computer directly from the camera.

Can anyone advise me why memory sticks and SD cards are subject to failure
in this manner? I would have thought that the manufacturers would have
been able to build in safeguards so that this sort of thing could not
happen! Has anyone experienced loss of pictures or damage to SD cards as a
result of a flat camera battery during the transfer process? Do you think
it is a wise safeguard to invest in a dedicated card reader?

Thanks for your advice.

Jim

"Lost In Space/Woodchuck" wrote in message
...
the memory cards function just like a hard drive in your computer. So if
the power dies then there's a big chance of screwing up the data.

So is it possible for data to be screwed up if the power goes off while a
transfer of data is being made from a memory card that is in a USB card
reader? Or are card readers protected against power failures so that the
memory cards and their data are not harmed?

In article ,
Krazy Bob wrote:

"Jim F B" wrote in message ...
A friend has alerted me to the potential danger in copying your digital
pictures directly from your camera to your computer. Apparently, if the
camera battery goes flat while the transfer is taking place, it is possible
to lose all your pictures. Worse still, there is the possibility of
permanent damage to your memory stick.

Of course, the way to overcome this risk, is to use a card reader to
transfer your pics on to your computer. I was rather surprised to learn
about this possibility because I have always transferred my pics to my
computer directly from the camera.

Can anyone advise me why memory sticks and SD cards are subject to failure
in this manner? I would have thought that the manufacturers would have
been able to build in safeguards so that this sort of thing could not
happen! Has anyone experienced loss of pictures or damage to SD cards as a
result of a flat camera battery during the transfer process? Do you think
it is a wise safeguard to invest in a dedicated card reader?

Thanks for your advice.

Jim

Why would you even try transfering pics when your camera batt is flat :-s




Even starting with a full charge it may be impossible for me to
transfer a GB of pics from my CF card to my computer.

A USB dongle or a PCMCIA-CF card adapter for my laptop is
the answer. About $15.


--
a d y k e s @ p a n i x . c o m

Don't blame me. I voted for Gore.