PM won't read my camera?

[misofoto]

Why won't PM read my camera?  i tried ingesting and my camera won't show up?  i have the camera connected to my mac via usb.

working with PM 5 on a mac book pro operating system 10.8.2

thanks

[Kirk Baker]

Why won't PM read my camera?  i tried ingesting and my camera won't show up?  i have the camera connected to my mac via usb.

working with PM 5 on a mac book pro operating system 10.8.2

Photo Mechanic does not directly access cameras.  You must use a dedicated card reader.  The benefits are better reliability, faster transfer speeds, and no drain on your camera's battery.

-Kirk

[misofoto]

sorry to be such a rookie...when you mean dedicated card reader...do you mean the built in card reader on my mac?  and if so, if my memory card won't fit in the card reader slot...how would i get my images from my mem card to the mac?

thanks

[Kirk Baker]

sorry to be such a rookie...when you mean dedicated card reader...do you mean the built in card reader on my mac?  and if so, if my memory card won't fit in the card reader slot...how would i get my images from my mem card to the mac?

No.  You would purchase a card reader that uses one of the available interfaces offered by your computer.  Usually they're USB2.0 or Firewire 400/800 readers.  They're relatively inexpensive and can be found at camera stores, or department stores like Target, Wal-Mart, etc., or online.

What card type does your camera use?  (Compact Flash, Secure Digital, Memory Stick, etc.)

-Kirk

[misofoto]

working with compact flash

[Kirk Baker]

working with compact flash

Would you like me to make some recommendations?  Do you have a Firewire port (Firewire 400 or Firewire 800) on your Mac?  Otherwise I can recommend USB 2.0 CF Card readers.

-Kirk

[misofoto]

Sure~ 

[Kirk Baker]

Sure~

What interfaces do you have on your computer?  Firewire is faster than USB 2.0 so if you have Firewire ports, then I'd suggest a Firewire-based card reader.

-Kirk

[Hayo Baan]

What interfaces do you have on your computer?  Firewire is faster than USB 2.0 so if you have Firewire ports, then I'd suggest a Firewire-based card reader.

Extending Kirk's advice a bit, here's a list of interfaces in terms of speed. If speed is important, get a cardreader with the fastest interface you have (and still want to afford; faster is usually more expensive). Once you have determined the interface, it comes down to choosing the right card reader; not all are as fast as advertised and to make matters worse, they behave different with different CF cards too. Rob Galbraith has tested a large number of combinations, sadly he is no longer maintaining the list these days.

Anyway the list in order of speed is as follows:

• Thunderbolt (available mostly on newer macs, but some high end windows machines come equipped with it too now)
• USB3 (available on most modern computers, including mac)
• Firewire 800
• Firewire 400 (yes, faster than USB2)
• USB2 (most widely available, cheap, but limited to ±30MB/s, most cards are faster these days)

Happy choosing