How do I transfer pics from my Kodak digital camera without using the EasyShare software?

March 12, 2007 1:44 PM

How can I transfer pictures from my Kodak digital camera to my Windows XP machine without using the Kodak EasyShare software?

The camera has a sort of dock that it plugs into, which then plugs into the USB port of my computer. When I try to use the typical windows dialog, it tells me that it can't access the camera for whatever reason and doesn't let me in. I really hate having to install this bloatware on my computer just to transfer pics. I know Kodak just forces the software to try and get people to buy prints from them, but I'm really not thrilled by this behavior. Any help?

posted by adi to technology (8 comments total)

Has it got a memory card? Yank the memory card and drop it in a card reader. Works for me.
posted by Leon at 1:50 PM on March 12, 2007

I also have an Easy Share camera, and hate the software too!

The camera should show up as a drive in My Computer, which means you could copy images off by hand, but I've been using Picasa 2 to handle organizing my picture. It has quite a few different import options, and pulls pictures off of my camera very easily.
posted by niles at 1:50 PM on March 12, 2007

Buy yourself a cheapo card reader ( I have this one) and drag and drop. I've never met a camera who had good transfer ability and my life changed dramatically once I went the card reader route.
posted by Wolfie at 1:50 PM on March 12, 2007

When I got the whole "can't access the camera" thing, the solution was turning the camera on.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 1:50 PM on March 12, 2007

Many cameras have a menu setting that allows you to switch between "Oh so special camera" device and USB drive. The latter appears as a drive letter under explorer just like flashdrives.

You don't say which camera you have but Kodak has all sorts of web resources including FAQ's for cameras. Here for example is a possible solution to your problem if you had the C703
posted by Mitheral at 2:04 PM on March 12, 2007

When I used a PC, I used Picasa pretty exclusively for everything and it made life infinitely easier.

I had a Kodak EasyShare for years and never bothered installing the software, Picasa worked just fine.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 2:20 PM on March 12, 2007

Windows' built-in Scanner & Camera Wizard may start working after you uninstall the Kodak software. I've had a couple of Kodak cameras in the past, and this worked for me.
posted by onshi at 2:22 PM on March 12, 2007

Many people don't seem to know about the Scanner and Camera Wizard, and will install all kinds of crap to try to make things work that will in fact Just Work if you leave XP to its own devices.

To find out whether it's going to work for you:

1. Uninstall any software that came with your imaging device (scanner or camera).

2. Restart Windows.

3. Connect your camera or scanner to the computer, turn it on, and listen for the "USB device connected" chime.

4. Open My Computer. If you're using the usual categories view, your device should show up under a "Scanners and Cameras" heading, and the Wizard should open when you double-click on it.

Some cameras show up as removable storage devices, rather than imaging devices, and the Scanner and Camera Wizard won't run when you open these. Instead, you'll usually see a folder called DCIM, and inside that will be another folder with a device-specific name that contains your pictures.

The fastest way to see what you have in this case is usually to copy that entire folder into My Pictures, then rename it to something like 2007-03-13 before opening it. Opening the folder directly on the actual camera certainly works, and lets you grab pictures one at a time if you want, but if you're using Thumbnails or Filmstrip view, it will generally make Windows take what feels like forever to generate the thumbnails.

Windows is treating the camera as a simple storage device in this case, so it has no way to ask the camera to hand it a thumbnail view, and the only way it can make one is to read the entire picture file it wants a thumbnail of. So if Windows is going to read the entire contents of your camera anyway, it's probably best if it does so in order to copy it to your HD rather than just to make a bunch of thumbnails.

If you do want to go poking around directly inside your camera, use the List, Details or Icons view to do this, not the Thumbnails or Filmstrip views.

As far as I know, none of the Kodak cameras show up as removable storage devices, but I believe they should all show up as cameras, and be usable with the Scanner and Camera Wizard, without needing anything extra installed into Windows XP.

If your particular Easyshare camera doesn't do this, you might try installing the Easyshare software, then removing all the Easyshare-related shortcuts from Start->All Programs->Startup, then restarting Windows. That should mean that only the actual camera driver is active, and the camera should then show up under My Computer.

If you do end up needing to use the Easyshare application software (for which you have my condolences), at the very least you should remove the Kodak Software Updater shortcut from Start->All Programs->Startup. I have seen that particular updater slow Windows XP machines to a crawl if it can't find an active Internet connection. It's a pain in the arse, and will cause you far more trouble than it saves.
posted by flabdablet at 3:01 PM on March 12, 2007 [1 favorite]