How to download pictures without Canon's software?

August 25, 2005 7:31 PM

Please help me transfer pictures from my Canon camera to my iBook without using Canon's software.

I have a Canon S45 camera with lots of pictures on it. I also have an iBook, running OSX v. 10.3.9. Unfortunately, I don't have the software CD that came with the camera with me at the moment, and I don't know how to transfer the pictures from the camera to the computer without it.

I've tried just connecting the camera to the computer with the USB cable, and the camera turns on, but it doesn't seem like the iBook is even recognizing that the camera is connected to it. I also tried the Canon website to see if I could download the software directly from them, but all they had was an updater, which wouldn't do anything unless the older version of the software was already installed.

Can somebody tell me how to get these pictures to my computer?

posted by number9dream to technology (14 comments total)

Have you tried iPhoto?
posted by ijoshua at 7:35 PM on August 25, 2005

I've got a canon camera (s500) and an iBook. All I have to do is plug mine in to the iBook, and it comes up in iPhoto, with a prompt to download the photos. That doesn't work for you?
posted by geeky at 7:54 PM on August 25, 2005

If you don't want to use iPhoto, you can use the program Image Capture that came with OS X. It lets you see everything that's on the camera/card and select the pics you want to copy onto the computer.

If your camera isn't supported by iPhoto/Image Capture, you could try picking up a cheap USB card reader from a computer store. Just check what kind of card your camera uses. You can find 'em for around $15 or so. An extra benefit to this is that you don't have to run down your camera's battery when copying photos.
posted by bcwinters at 8:00 PM on August 25, 2005

Open Image Capture. There you can set the preference for what application to launch when the camera is connected. Image Capture can also pull images from the camera itself. OS X has built-in support for your camera, so you don't need any extra software.
posted by O9scar at 8:05 PM on August 25, 2005

The camera, when you plug it in and turn it on, should launch iPhoto. If it doesn't, look on your desktop and see if you have an extra drive on there [it will be big and white/grey and have some dumb name like CANON]. If you do, you can click on it to open it, and dig down a few directories to the one that has all your pictures in it. Then you can just click and drag the photos to an empty folder on your ibook -- make one yourself called PIX or something -- and then you can go to iPhoto and choose "add to library" from the File menu and add them all that way.
posted by jessamyn at 8:08 PM on August 25, 2005

for my canon powershot, when i connect it to my powerbook via USB cable, i have to make sure my camera is both on AND set to review mode. sometimes i have to turn the camera on and off and on again to get my powerbook to recognize it; try that, or flipping back and forth between review and shooting modes. also try all possible USB ports in case you've got a flaky one.
posted by kathryn at 8:54 PM on August 25, 2005

i would think that youd be able to just put the card in a usb card reader and it would show up on your desktop
posted by chuckforthought.com at 8:55 PM on August 25, 2005

I'd suggest the same thing chuck did, get an adapter (pcmcia is what I prefer, not sure if ibooks have that, usb otherwise) for your type of camera memory, and plug the card straight into the computer. This takes the camera out of the equation, lets you save your batteries, and treats the card just like a regular removable disk full of files.
posted by odinsdream at 9:10 PM on August 25, 2005

Card reader is the way to go.
posted by rhapsodie at 9:29 PM on August 25, 2005

How is purchasing hardware the way to go when, as had been said, connecting the camera to the Mac via usb will launch iPhoto? Assuming you have the USB cable, just connect it and you're away.

You don't need the Canon software when you connect the camera to a PC with Windows, XP, either.
posted by nthdegx at 5:27 AM on August 26, 2005

I found this under Canon's Consumer Products page for the Powershot S45. It mentions a PTP mode which needs to be set in the Set-Up Menu of your camera.

Since your camera uses a compact flash card you should be able to use a USB 2 or a Firewire Card Reader to transfer images to your iBook without using the camera.
posted by plokent at 6:14 AM on August 26, 2005

Yur problem is that your camera has two USB modes. One for use with the canon software (that also allows your camera to be used as a web cam) and the other which makes the camera just act as a card reader.

Setting the camera to PTP mode as in plokent's instructions above will turn your camera into a card reader which shouldn't require any kind of driver install on your part. The camera in PTP mode will appear as a drive. Note: PTP mode is not the default.
posted by Mitheral at 6:40 AM on August 26, 2005

In addition, the Canon website has all software for the PowerShot S45 for download.
posted by mmascolino at 8:15 AM on August 26, 2005

Have you tried Picasa? Yes it's another tentacle of Google, but it works way better than the Canon software that came with my camera.
posted by sneebler at 7:02 PM on August 26, 2005