Need advice from Minolta DiMAGE Z1 owners...

[disneyfan551]

Hi all! I also have a Z1, and was wondering if you download your photos to a laptop? We are leaving in 2 weeks for WDW & I have to figure this out beforehand. However, I am absolutely covered up & will be lucky to get everything else done by then. So, if you download to a laptop, can you give me any advice? Is there a disk that I need to download to the laptop first? Is it easy to do overall? Any information is greatly appreciated!!

 

[Dan Murphy]

I would purchase an inexpensive ($20 or less at Besy Buy or similar) card reader (probably best to get one that will accept various memory media). Then just take the card out, put it in the reader (the reader then becomes another drive, probably E). Copy from your card to hard drive. Best to back up on a CD/DVD also in case of a drive crash on your PC.

 

[Elwood Blues]

I'll add to what Dan said.

I always take my laptop with me to WDW to download pics.

As Dan said, you should get a memory card reader that hooks to your laptop via a USB cable. Once you attach the reader to the laptop, it should be recognized automatically. However, it may not depending on the brand of reader. Some require you to do a one-time driver software installed so the laptop operating system can access the reader. Once this is done, the reader will appear as additional driver letter. All you need to do then is create a new folder on the laptop and copy (drag-n-drop or cut-n-paste) the images from the memory card reader to the new folder.

Here's a tip that'll help you keep things organized.

Make a folder called "Disney 2004" then change to that folder.

In that folder, make a new folder for each day that you will be there such as "Monday 12-25-2004" or the park you were at that day "Magic Kingdom 12-25-2004".

This will make it much easier to organize the pics than dumping them all into one folder and sorting them later because you have to look at each picture to see where you were.

And I do it every night or the next morning then delete the images on the card. But before I delete them from the card, I do a quick check of each image (on the laptop) to see if they transferred correctly. Sometime a picture will get buggered up while transferring. If one is, just download that picture again and overwrite the bad one.

If you are using Windows XP, a viewer is included. Most of the time just double-clicking on the file will bring up the viewer.

If you're using something other than XP, there are plenty of free viewers available. One that I recommend is the one available from www.irfanview.com download and installation is pretty easy.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[Cheap-n-Dale]

Chances are if you still have the cable that came with your camera, you can plug it straight into your laptop. Win XP will immediately recognized and display the file list like a drive. The same as a reader. The disadvantage is that it will drain your camera battery. If you laptop is win 2000 or before, a reader is by far the best way to do.

 

[SplshMtn99]

Am I the only one who no longer uses a card reader?

I simply plug the USB cable from computer into the camera.
On the desktop, click "My Computer".
From the list of installed devices, click on the camera one.
Then open the folder.
All the pictures are right there (you are viewing whats on the camera)

I click "Edit" "Select All" "copy".
Close all those windows.
Open "My Photos" or where ever you store your photos
And "Paste" the photos into folders as someone here previously described above.

Again.....check the images on the computer before deleting from camera.

No card reader......one less thing to pack.

 

[Cheap-n-Dale]

Originally posted by SplshMtn99
Am I the only one who no longer uses a card reader?

I simply plug the USB cable from computer into the camera.
On the desktop, click "My Computer".
From the list of installed devices, click on the camera one.
Then open the folder.
All the pictures are right there (you are viewing whats on the camera)

I click "Edit" "Select All" "copy".
Close all those windows.
Open "My Photos" or where ever you store your photos
And "Paste" the photos into folders as someone here previously described above.

Again.....check the images on the computer before deleting from camera.

No card reader......one less thing to pack.

I agree if you are running XP. Prior to that your only alternative was using the TWAIN interface an "aquiring" the pictures. A royal pain.

 

[Elwood Blues]

One problem with using your camera as the reader is that it wears down the batteries.


Most digital cameras in the last few years don't require a driver (twain or otherwise) to get the images off the camera. They show up as a Mass Storage Device and get assigned a driver letter just a card reader does.

It's just my personal preference to use a card reader. Less wear and tear on the camera.

 

[MICKEY88]

I agree 100% with Elwood, I'd rather use a card reader than put extra wear on my camera..

 

[Dan Murphy]

Actually, looking back here for more ideas from others, I notice I missed that it was a laptop, LOL. I would get a PC card adapter http://www.sandisk.com/retail/pca.asp for the laptop, just slips into a card slot No wires, nothing. It is just in your laptop, work great.

 

[Elwood Blues]

Originally posted by Dan Murphy
Actually, looking back here for more ideas from others, I notice I missed that it was a laptop, LOL. I would get a PC card adapter http://www.sandisk.com/retail/pca.asp for the laptop, just slips into a card slot No wires, nothing. It is just in your laptop, work great.

I've got one of those too. Works great. You can also use it like a super capacity floppy to transfer files from your home PC (if you have a card reader) and your laptop or visa versa.