[RESOLVED] Re: Canon Powershot A640 (update #2)

[andy <geek_show@dsl.pipex.com>]

Stefan Monnier wrote:

I don't have a card reader, but it sounds like that may not be such a bad
thing to get, except that it is probably more hassle to eject the SD card
and reload it into a reader and run the risk of damaging it from
frequent handling.
    

Contrary to HS I haven't found the card reader to be noticeably faster, but
it does have the advantage of working even when the camera doesn't
(e.g. when the battery is empty).  Also of course it uses the UMS (Universal
Mass Storage) protocol which is very well supported under GNU/Linux.

  

I think that my immediate concerns are now sorted - I can successfully
retrieve images taken. The less pressing issue, but one that will bug me, is
the difference between the 2 cameras on one hand and the the difference
between the 2 machines on the other hand.
    

Regarding the difference between the two cameras I'd simply look at the
protocol they use: most likely the Sony machine uses UMS whereas your Canon
uses PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) which is more recent and less
well supported.  You may also be able to change your Canon's config to
use UMS.


        Stefan


  

Stefan

Thanks for your ideas. I suspect that you are probably right in your assessment of the protocols the different devices use: the Sony registers as a storage device while the Canon is registered as a camera. While this doesn't answer the issue of why on my partner's Etch machine running KDE the icon pops up on her desktop ready to be transferred from but not on my Lenny machine, the matter is now more than workable with the help of the good folk here and the digikam application. For the rest of it, I'll have to file that under that ever-expanding title of WTF? ;-)


Cheers

Andy

-- 

"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"