Lost Digital Camera Software

March 21, 2005 7:45 AM

I lost the software for my Canon Powershot A75. Try as I might, I can't get the camera to work with just the Windows 2000 TWAIN drivers.

I've downloaded the TWAIN drivers, and Windows 2000 "scanners and camera control panel" says my camera is detected and working properly. When I try to use the "acquire" function in ACDSee 6, Photoshop 7, and Windows Imaging I get a weird "Visual C++ Runtime Error." The software that originally came with the camera, ZoomBrowser EX" worked fine on my computer, but now I can't find it anywhere. Any suggestions? Thanks a lot.

posted by TurkishGolds to technology (15 comments total)

Canon A75 Drivers - this any good to you?
posted by benzo8 at 8:14 AM on March 21, 2005

I found some resources for you on the Canadian Canon site: Manuals and drivers
posted by seawallrunner at 8:26 AM on March 21, 2005

Benzo8 & seawallrunner: I've already found both of these sites, and installed the drivers. Windows tells me that they are working correctly, but then when above mentioned software tries to access said drivers, crash.
posted by TurkishGolds at 8:40 AM on March 21, 2005

I download images from my camera into my computer by using one of two methods (and neither is Acquire): USB cable into the computer, or plunk the CF card right into a CF opening in the front of the computer.

Then, I use Open to open files in ACDSee and Photoshop CS. I've never used Acquire in either of these sw packages.

Maybe your problem is with ACDSee and Photoshop, not the camera? Can you display the images using any other software?

re Zoombrowser, simply reinstall using the CD that came with your camera. Otherwise, a quick search on the Canon sites (US and Canada) will reveal a downloadable version as well
posted by seawallrunner at 9:00 AM on March 21, 2005

I'll play with ACDSee, Photoshop and Windows Imaging, BUT they are all returning the EXACT SAME error message which is actually a "Visual C++ Runtime Error."

Also, you CAN'T download ZoomBrowser from Canon -- just the ZoomBroswer Update which is not a full install.
posted by TurkishGolds at 9:24 AM on March 21, 2005

re Zoombrowser - I did suggest reinstalling from the CD.

Now, back to the original problem: why do you use Acquire and not Open?

I just found the Acquire wizard on my copy of ACDSee 6.0 . I could not find it (after searching briefly) on my copy of PhotoshopCS.

Why not simply download your images into a folder, then use Open in ACDSee instead? You might have that runtime error because of some other program - I don't think it's Canon's fault here.
posted by seawallrunner at 9:48 AM on March 21, 2005

I think you'll need to find someone else who has a Canon camera. They package Zoombrowser with every camera they sell. I have a Powershot S1, both my parents and my in-laws have A75s. All three cameras came with the program on a disk.

I don't think it matters what version camera you have, so long as you have access to a Canon disk you can update to the newest version once the old one has been installed.

A workaround, I humbly suggest, would be to do as mentioned above and copy images onto the hard drive and then open them? The A75 saves everything as jpg files anyway, so no need for any fancy acquisition. The higher-end cameras can save as RAW, but the A75 can't, so I see little advantage to opening the images from disk rather than from camera. (Your personal preference for opening images will of course vary from mine.)
posted by caution live frogs at 10:19 AM on March 21, 2005

copy images onto the hard drive? This is what I can't do? How do I do this without the software?
posted by TurkishGolds at 10:21 AM on March 21, 2005

copy images onto the hard drive? This is what I can't do? How do I do this without the software?
posted by TurkishGolds at 10:21 AM PST on March 21 [!]

Use a CF card reader. They're practically free these days. No need to use the goddawful Canon software.
posted by sid at 10:36 AM on March 21, 2005

Did you get a USB cable with your camera? This is what I was referring to when I wrote:

>I download images from my camera into my computer by using one of two methods: USB cable into the computer, or plunk the CF card right into a CF opening in the front of the computer.

A CF card reader will work well if you don't have a CF card built-into your computer.
posted by seawallrunner at 11:35 AM on March 21, 2005

Googles' Picasa2 works for me. I have the same camera model. Use the import button after you have hooked up the camera and turned it on and placed the camera in viewing mode.
posted by JohnR at 12:35 PM on March 21, 2005

I have a powershot A60 and I just use the USB method mentioned above. Plug in the camera via the USB port, then open up My Computer and click on the camera icon that is now there.
posted by tozturk at 12:43 PM on March 21, 2005

I have a Canon PowerShot A75, and I think I still have the software. Maybe I can help.
posted by abbyladybug at 1:47 PM on March 21, 2005

As others have mentioned, use card readers to offload data and image editing software like Picasa or iPhoto for edit photos. But the proprietary software is still needed to do certain obscure things -- for example, customizing the author field in the EXIF headers with most Canon cameras must be done via ZoomBrowser (or another program that came with the disc, I forget). Don't ask me why they do it this way.

Aside from little things like that though, I'm not sure why else you'll actually need ZoomBrowser.
posted by DaShiv at 3:03 PM on March 21, 2005

Zoombrowser is pretty cool if you just want to adjust your pictures for brightness, contrast and colour. It's light, loads fast, does a good job.
posted by seawallrunner at 6:52 PM on March 21, 2005