Disk access on Canon SD400

November 19, 2006 6:02 PM

Canon SD400: When connected to my Win2k PC, the camera doesn't show up as a drive. Should it?

I'm able to connect to the camera via TWAIN, and so can download my images, but can't access the camera memory card as a drive. TWAIN is less than ideal, as it doesn't retain the original timestamps of the images, nor does it let me access any video I've recorded with the camera. How do I enable disk access to the camera?

posted by skwm to Technology (5 answers total)

This tells me that you're SOL unless you use Canon's software (or someone else's).

For about $10 you can get an SD reader which, if it's USB 2.0, is typically faster than the camera interface and doesn't suffer from the problem of forgetting to turn off the camera when you're done and killing the battery.

(FWIW - the camera doesn't show up as a drive on Mac OS either, although iPhoto picks it up)
posted by plinth at 6:20 PM on November 19, 2006

I'm not sure if this helps, but your camera probably has two modes of connecting to the PC. One is the proprietary one (probably default), and the other is PTP (picture transfer protocol). You can try setting the camera to PTP mode (via a menu on the camera?) and then connecting it up to see if you can access it via WIA. Unfortunately, my searching is telling me that PTP is also for still images only, so it might not be a big help...

I second the card reader suggestion. Simplest way is to get the camera out of the loop completely.
posted by knave at 7:46 PM on November 19, 2006

Hm... now, my Canon SD400 mounts on my Windows XP SP2 box... and also my Mac's desktop. (OS X Tiger).

But now Plinth is making me think I've installed some magic to do this, and then promptly forgotten about it.

I also have a card reader though, for all the various other media card types, and truly they're bettert than futzing around with cables anyway.
posted by rokusan at 4:02 AM on November 20, 2006

I have a SD300 and I'm pretty sure most Canons don't mount as drives. Although rokusan's experience seems to suggest otherwise. Get a SD card reader.
posted by reformedjerk at 11:46 AM on November 20, 2006

"TWAIN is less than ideal, as it doesn't retain the original timestamps of the images"

The timestamps are in the EXIF data, no?

Anyway, I have an Ixus S410 and it.. oh, throws an error when I plug it in to my XP SP2 box. Same with my S2 IS. So, yeah, get a card reader. And remember to punch anyone in the face if they try to sell you one that's less than USB 2.0 Hi-Speed.
posted by Freaky at 11:48 AM on November 20, 2006