Camera cord question

H

hulagirl

Member
Is it bad to transfer images to the computer by using the camera cord instead of getting them off the card?

I was just watching a Magic Lantern video and he said he doesn't recommend it and almost always pulls his images off the card.

I've just been leaving the cord, most of the time, plugged into the back of the Mac and connecting it to the camera when I upload to Aperture. ;

I had no idea it wasn't good to do that. ; Why?
 
Not really sure. ; I just remove the card and transfer them with a card reader. ; Maybe it's to save wear/tear on the camera and batteries? ; Roger?
 
I personally don't agree with that statement that it's bad. ; In fact, my theory was quite the opposite - that it's bad to draw them off the card rather than from camera, as the constant removing and reinstalling of the card can cause wear-and-tear, or damage to the contact pins.

I've transferred all of my photos from the camera via USB connection since 2003, across 12 different digital cameras from 3 manufacturers. ; Haven't had a glitch yet! ; I do the same as you - just plug the cable into the camera and turn it on, let the computer's own software trigger to load the photos (Windows for me, rather than Mac...but works the same). ; When done, turn off the camera and unplug the cable...voila.

I am not a fan of removing memory cards from cameras, and rarely ever do so. ; I luckily have two card slots on my current DSLR, so I can load a couple of cards - one for main shots, and one for backup if I need more room, without having to swap cards. ; I tend to shoot with two 8GB cards loaded in the camera, which is plenty for 1,000+ shots a day when I go wildlife and bird shooting.
 
i am at the complete opposite end from justin, i constantly remove the cards and use a reader, but it's for speed as much as any reason, usb card readers seem to download faster than camera hookups. also i'm sure everyone on here is familiar with my almost pathological fear of having trip photos in only one place, risking all on a drive failure, thus my usually using a fresh card each day, on a landscape trip such as last year in yellowstone, i usually did not fill an 8gb card daily, but close enough, and i have enough cards, that i just put in a freshly formatted card each day, after getting home, and ONLY after downloading and burning the dng keepers to dvd do i reuse the cards
 
I think either way is fine and it's a matter of personal preference- after all- the cameras are designed by the manufacturers to have cords and cards installed and removed on a regular basis. ; I have done it both ways but usually tend to remove the card- probably because I'm lazy and my current computer has a built-in CF card reader right in the front (and no avalable USB port unless I unplug something.)
 
I agree with you Gary on the photos-in-one-place thing - my solution is to download my photos to my netbook each evening so I have a second copy (keeping the copy on the card). ; On a long trip, I'd bring my portable backup harddrive too, and copy the photos to both the netbook and the harddrive, then delete from the card...I always like to have at least 2 copies of all my photos - either card & netbook, or netbook & portable drive.
 
actually i should have added the new step in my sop, but i haven't actually used my new netbook on a trip yet, i'm pretty impressed with it, it's an hp mini, but i optioned it up to 3gb ram, 320 harddrive and windows 7 home premium, so i can download cards through lightroom, converting to dng while downloading, go through and review and dump the obvious junk, then via usb when home, just suck the dng files right into the mac;s external storage drives, giving me some on the road processing ability, plus file redundancy
 
I'm in the remove the card, insert into card reader and import via Lightroom camp. ; There are some "experts" on line that even say to copy your files from the card to another folder on your PC (and then import them to Lightroom or Aperture) rather than rely on the application to import your files.

As Gary pointed out, it may be slower from the camera and does use up some of the battery in the camera.
 
"Jeff Fillmore" said:
I think either way is fine and it's a matter of personal preference- after all- the cameras are designed by the manufacturers to have cords and cards installed and removed on a regular basis. ; I have done it both ways but usually tend to remove the card- probably because I'm lazy and my current computer has a built-in CF card reader right in the front (and no avalable USB port unless I unplug something.)
Click to expand...

exactly the same thinking for me, only I'm too lazy to get the cord out of the drawer!
 
Okay, if there is one thing I am learning here...it's that everyone has their own way, and it's cool.

I'll carry on then, since this is workin' for me for now. ; Thanks for the great responses.
 
I normally remove the card from the camera and use a card reader. ; After a trip to WDW I'll usually have a bunch of CF cards to transfer, so that's by far the easiest way.

However, one time I had a card that seemed unreadable, either in the card reader or in the camera. ; The only way I was able to salvage it was to install Nikon Transfer and use it to pull the shots off the camera. ; The lesson learned here is that it pays to have options.
 
"ddindy" said:
one time I had a card that seemed unreadable, either in the card reader or in the camera. ; The only way I was able to salvage it was to install Nikon Transfer and use it to pull the shots off the camera. ; The lesson learned here is that it pays to have options.
Click to expand...

Good point- I think I remember a similar situation where files did not show up one way but worked the other. ; Good to remember to try everything before giving up on a card.
 
I also don't think either way is better than the other. ;

I always pull the images off the cards. ; Lately I've been using a set of 4 Lexar UDMA Firewire 800 card readers. ; Using them I can pull 4 cards at the same time. ; While they're downloading, I clean my gear or get something to eat. ;
 
I have never, EVER, offloaded from my camera with a cord.

Because honestly I find it so much easier to just plug the card into a card reader. ; Right now my camera is plugged in to my 400mm F5.6 lens. ; It's huge. ; It's sitting on a table looking like either a futuristic ray gun or.. well.. I don't know what. ; I have no place where I could set it next to my computer. ; So I pull the card out and take it to my computer instead.

When I'm away from home on a trip.. be it a convention or a Disney trip or whatever.. when I'm back in the room at night I'm charging the camera's battery at the same time that I'm offloading the pictures through the reader. ; So there too I couldn't be doing both at the same time if I was connecting to the camera.

But again this is a case of it being my way, not something I do for a specific reason. ; Perhaps there was a bit of an idea of not wanting to use up the camera's battery for just downloading pictures, but mostly it's just the way I got into it. ; I guess it seemed "the way" to do it, it seemed to make sense that a "serious" photographer should get a card reader and offload that way. ; So that's what I did.
 
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