Problems importing photos from camera

Hi guys

I'm having problems importing into iPhoto.

My stuff:
Late 2008 Mac Pro running Snow Leopard 10.6.8
iPhoto 08
Canon 450D digital SLR
Canon S90 point and shoot

I do not have Canon's proprietary software for importing images installed, as I have used it and I do not like it, but I have not previously had any problems importing directly to iPhoto without benefit of Canon's software.

I have opened iPhoto ; made the connections with the appropriate USB/mini USB cord, and then switched the Canon 450D on. The only thing that happens is that the word BUSY appears briefly in the upper left of the LCD, and that's it.

Exactly the same thing happens if I try to upload images from the S90.

Neither Camera shows up in the iPhoto source list, or under hardware in About this Mac.

I have searched the net for a solution without any success.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Before I ever got my first digital camera - read a ton of stuff and found a whole bunch of exactly these reports - attempting to connect a camera direct to a computer - almost without exception, for transferring pics after the fact, most of the pro photographers said just don't do it.

Get a card reader. Hence, I have never directly connected mine to a computer. Don't think I even pulled the cable out of the box to try it out. I just buy el cheapo (<$10, actually, I think most of them were less than $5 from amazon) multi-card readers 2-3 at a time. They do seem to wear out or quit functioning all too often.

Thanks bobtomay

I agree a card reader would solve the problem, but I was able to import perfectly well only yesterday, so I will keep trying for the time being. I want to keep the process as simple as possible.

I only have my laptop with me, as I'm on vacation, but as soon as I get home, I'll try with another computer.

audax2 said:

I agree a card reader would solve the problem, but I was able to import perfectly well only yesterday, so I will keep trying for the time being. I want to keep the process as simple as possible.

I only have my laptop with me, as I'm on vacation, but as soon as I get home, I'll try with another computer.

Click to expand...

Well, cannot solve your immediate issue if you want to cable your camera to your computer but have to agree w/ Bobtomay - I'm on my 4th digital camera (and have migrated from Windows to Apple OS) and 4th or 5th laptop - all have had SD card slots - the simplest option for me has always been to pop in the SD card and transfer the images - nothing can be simpler.

A 'wireless' option which I own is the AirStash - will accept your SD camera cards, setup a personal WiFi network, and w/ an app on your iDevice or an OS computer, images can be easily transferred - just a few suggestions. Dave
.

Yeah, sorry - I know that is an overly simplistic answer (I guess, more like not really an answer at all) and there is bound to be a better one - I just don't know it and haven't seen a good one about why it seems not to work...

If it's been working for awhile and then 1 day it's not, about the only thing I can think of would be to restart the computer &/or the camera.

bobtomay said:

Yeah, sorry - I know that is an overly simplistic answer (I guess, more like not really an answer at all) and there is bound to be a better one - I just don't know it and haven't seen a good one about why it seems not to work...

If it's been working for awhile and then 1 day it's not, about the only thing I can think of would be to restart the computer &/or the camera.

Click to expand...

Thanks bobtomay and Rad Dave.

I'll probably get a card reader when I get home (I'm in a remote area at present).

(I have tried turning off both the computer and the camera, and then switching them back on, with no success.)