Might be a silly question but..

Zascar

It's been bugging me for ages... How do you guy get your photos on to your computer? Sometimes when I want to take photos off my camera it can be a pain in the ass. Usually I just connect up the cable to my computer (xp), and wait for the box to pop up - which can take several minutes - sometimes I forget, it goes to sleep and I have to do it again. I use the Microsoft Camera and Scanner Wizard. If I just want the last few pix that have been taken on the camera, if there are loads of others on there it takes ages for the thumbnails to load so i can see the last few. Does it always take this long for everyone? I don't even shoot in raw... I tried getting an SD card reader but that took even longer, maybe it was a cheap but but it took forever.

Is this just the way it is, or am I missing something? How do you guys usually manage your photos from when you want to get them off your camera, to going through them and getting rid of the rubbish etc?

Dodgykeeper

Zascar wrote: »

It's been bugging me for ages... How do you guy get your photos on to your computer? Sometimes when I want to take photos off my camera it can be a pain in the ass. Usually I just connect up the cable to my computer (xp), and wait for the box to pop up - which can take several minutes - sometimes I forget, it goes to sleep and I have to do it again. I use the Microsoft Camera and Scanner Wizard. If I just want the last few pix that have been taken on the camera, if there are loads of others on there it takes ages for the thumbnails to load so i can see the last few. Does it always take this long for everyone? I don't even shoot in raw... I tried getting an SD card reader but that took even longer, maybe it was a cheap but but it took forever.

Is this just the way it is, or am I missing something? How do you guys usually manage your photos from when you want to get them off your camera, to going through them and getting rid of the rubbish etc?

I use a card reader as I would imagine most of the snappers here would, i transfer images from each shoot/match into a unique folder, I would then process them from there using photoshop or Photo Mechanic.

Most times i would only delete images at the computer stage rather than from the camera!

Kenny Logins

Usually just drag and drop from the folder on the memory card (internal card reader on this PC) to a folder on the HD, takes seconds, and I only use RAW on a 32gb card.

I use Lightroom now; just stick the card in and hit 'import'.

Is it an old PC?

mehfesto

Lightroom is a phenomenal way to catalogue, let alone import, your work. I'd highly recommend it, if it's within your budget!

PCPhoto

card reader ....drag and drop into a daily folder.

BorneTobyWilde

Not all pcs have card reader though

Kenny Logins

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Not all pcs have card reader though

You can get them in memory stick form, my last one was £2 IIRC.

Zascar

Perhaps the one I got is really really rubbish, but I just tried it again there and even just to load the thumbnails it takes ages and ages. What type of SD Car readers do you guys have?

Kenny Logins

This is what I use, the 32gb Class 10 card and reader -

http://www.mymemory.co.uk/Memory-Card-Readers/MyMemory/MyMemory-Single-Slot-SD-_-SDHC-Card-Reader

It does sound like you have something interfering with the process, maybe a virus scan or something?

TPM

If your computer is old and/or slow and you have large/high quality photos this would result in it taking ages to view of upload photos

hbr

Zascar wrote: »

Is this just the way it is, or am I missing something?

Have you got the correct drivers for the USB controller on your PC mainboard?
If not, it will probably fall back to USB 1.1 by default. This will result in very
slow transfer rates of around 1MB/s.

What transfer rates are you seeing now? Have you got any fast
USB-2 devices like an external hard drive? If so, are they giving
reasonably fast transfer rates or are they slow too?

I use a cheap USB-2 card reader for SDHC and Compact Flash. It
downloads files at around 16-20MB/s. This means I can download
several JPEG or about one RAW file per second. A full 8GB card
would take several minutes to download to the PC.

Rainbowsend

Card reader also, if you download Picasa free from google and tick the box it will download your files skipping any that have already been downloaded, saves on
duplicates and time. Not the most sophisticated of programmes but very good
for organising your photo's, minimal editing etc.

CabanSail

A fast Card Reader. Mine cost about AU$80 on special.

Genreally do the download via PS Bridge. It defaults to a folder with the Year and then places the files into folders depending on the date taken.

Zascar

hbr wrote: »

Have you got the correct drivers for the USB controller on your PC mainboard?
If not, it will probably fall back to USB 1.1 by default. This will result in very
slow transfer rates of around 1MB/s.

What transfer rates are you seeing now? Have you got any fast
USB-2 devices like an external hard drive? If so, are they giving
reasonably fast transfer rates or are they slow too?

I use a cheap USB-2 card reader for SDHC and Compact Flash. It
downloads files at around 16-20MB/s. This means I can download
several JPEG or about one RAW file per second. A full 8GB card
would take several minutes to download to the PC.

Thanks this sounds like a likely reason - how exactly do I go about finding the right drivers to try to update?

hbr

Zascar wrote: »

Thanks this sounds like a likely reason - how exactly do I go about finding the right drivers to try to update?

Don't try to fix it unless you are sure it is broken. Copy a few large files to
a USB device to see what kind of transfer rates you are getting.

Have you got an external USB drive or a reasonably fast memory stick?