How to download images quickly from Lexar memory card?

[shafiq]

Sometime ago I downloaded the evaluation version of BreezeSystems Downloader Pro. Whenever I wanted to empty my 1GIG Lexar card it took just a few moments. Then my 30days expired. Now I am relying on copying directly from the windows explorer.

Can someone please suggest a faster way to download and delete images from the memory card. I am shooting in RAW. I am trying to avoid buying Downloader Pro but will if I have to :-(

Are there any other products out there!

Thanks

[rsnadel]

Are you using a card reader, or going directly from the camera into your computer? If you're not using a card reader (either firewire or USB 2.0), it would be worth the $20-30 investment (tops) to obtain one. Obviously, if your computer does not support firewire (ieee1394) or USB 2.0, then you're left with a USB 1.1 card reader, which will be substantially slower.

[ssim]

If you don't want to spend the money on the downloader Pro why don't you just use the Canon software. I know that it is mediocre at best for editing but it is acceptable for downloading your cards.

I never download directly from the camera. I'm with Sahfiq on this one, get yourself a card reader.

[ilya]

I use Win XP Pro, it takes just three keystrokes- Ctrl-A to select all from the flashcard directory, Ctrl-C, and Ctrl-V into a fresh directory on the hard drive. That's for raw files. For Jpegs, Win Explorer automatically senses their presence as media files once the flashcard is inserted, and offers their downloader, with which you can select directory, and the first part of the filename (I use pic taken date), and that's all.

Never thought there was any benefit whatsoever to "dowloading" software.

[CyberDyneSystems]

I agree,. I've allways just "copy" and "Paste" into a folder I create with the days date as a name.

I don't erase the cards,. I just format in camera.

[ilya]

Right, I used to Cut and Paste (i.e. move) - but then got a scare when the computer freaked in mid-stream, and I thought I'd lost part of the files (I didn't). But now I always copy, then format in camera.

[defordphoto]

Never thought there was any benefit whatsoever to "dowloading" software.

I guess it automates and 'wizards' some of the process. Creating folders, renaming files, copying files and clearing the card.

I'm with you. I (also) use your Crtl-A; Ctrl-C; Ctrl-V method and then format card in camera.

[evilenglishman]

I just drag the folder off my xdrive onto the desktop.

[JZaun]

Since I am going to convert to Tiff anyway, I use Canon fileviewer to transfer and convert the files from the mem card to the hard disk. One operation does it all. Then I am using PSE2 to enhance. I am not saving RAW only Tiff. I am very new to this so is this a problem I am not aware of?

JZaun

[ilya]

You don't keep the CRW's ??? Holy cow Jerry, you're defeating the whole purpose of Raw ... You want CRWs because you can control WB, exposure, etc individually ... are you applying one batch setting to all? You also want to have the ability to go back and redo as many times as you want. I suggest a good workflow post, I think there are some in the links stickied, and pls search the forum. You should keep the CRWs.

Cheers

[scottbergerphoto]

I have to agree. I copy all the raw files to my computer, use BreezeBrowser to review and delete the losers. I always keep the Raw files of the keepers. There are different conversion algorithms which produce different results (BB: Normal, Linear, Combined; C1, PS CS). Sometimes I try 2-3 in BB to see which works best.
Scott

[cgratti]

I have to agree. I copy all the raw files to my computer, use BreezeBrowser to review and delete the losers. I always keep the Raw files of the keepers. There are different conversion algorithms which produce different results (BB: Normal, Linear, Combined; C1, PS CS). Sometimes I try 2-3 in BB to see which works best.
Scott

Not to get off the subject or anything, but how much of a difference are RAW to JPEG [largest]. Is there a HUGE difference in quality? I know the file sizes are much larger.. so it has to be better quality, are they that much better?

-- G

[ilya]

Jerry, I got your PM, did you get my reply - it seems to be hung up in my outbox for some reason.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Not to get off the subject or anything, but how much of a difference are RAW to JPEG [largest]. Is there a HUGE difference in quality? I know the file sizes are much larger.. so it has to be better quality, are they that much better?

-- G


The "difference" is not about what you think it is,. it's an entirely different subject..

Read two of these; ...and call me in the morning :)

http://www.cps.canon-europe.com/articles/article.jsp?article.articleId=1240

http://www.rogercavanagh.com/helpinfo/35_rawor.htm

[cgratti]

Not to get off the subject or anything, but how much of a difference are RAW to JPEG [largest]. Is there a HUGE difference in quality? I know the file sizes are much larger.. so it has to be better quality, are they that much better?

-- G


The "difference" is not about what you think it is,. it's an entirely different subject..

Read two of these; ...and call me in the morning :)

http://www.cps.canon-europe.com/articles/article.jsp?article.articleId=1240

http://www.rogercavanagh.com/helpinfo/35_rawor.htm


Ughhh... more homework from the teacher, dont you know its the weekend???


LMAO

[Scottes]

Copy RAW to CD?

You mean I don't have to keep buying CF cards?

[Belmondo]

Copy RAW to CD?

You mean I don't have to keep buying CF cards?

You beat me to that one, Scottes. I was just getting ready to complain about the high price per photo of CF cards vs. film. :wink:

[KennyG]

Never thought there was any benefit whatsoever to "dowloading" software.

Downloader Pro is part of my workflow management. The ability to name/date what you are downloading into event sorted directories when you have four or five 1GB cards and up to ten 512MB cards from two cameras with different types of RAW, is worth every cent it cost.

I suppose it depends on volume and if you use a managed workflow.

[JZaun]

I just read the links CDS put out.

Now I see what I have been missing. I Was only using fileviewer to review / delete and convert to tiff. I am going back and learn how to enhance at that step before conversion. I have reviewed many work flows but to a newbe many were greek! :? Now I know a little more about the terminology I can see the reason for some steps I just didn't understand before.


Thanks for helping ME!!!! :D

JZaun

[defordphoto]

You need to keep your RAW files! Those are your digital negatives.

[shafiq]

Never thought there was any benefit whatsoever to "dowloading" software.

Downloader Pro is part of my workflow management. The ability to name/date what you are downloading into event sorted directories when you have four or five 1GB cards and up to ten 512MB cards from two cameras with different types of RAW, is worth every cent it cost.

I suppose it depends on volume and if you use a managed workflow.

I think I may have missed to mention that one of the primary advantages besides what Kenny mentioned above is the speed with which Downloader Pro copies and deletes the files from the card. Doing WinXP Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V etc are so slow when copying a fair size of RAWS.

[defordphoto]

Never thought there was any benefit whatsoever to "dowloading" software.

Downloader Pro is part of my workflow management. The ability to name/date what you are downloading into event sorted directories when you have four or five 1GB cards and up to ten 512MB cards from two cameras with different types of RAW, is worth every cent it cost.

I suppose it depends on volume and if you use a managed workflow.

I think I may have missed to mention that one of the primary advantages besides what Kenny mentioned above is the speed with which Downloader Pro copies and deletes the files from the card. Doing WinXP Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V etc are so slow when copying a fair size of RAWS.

Downloader Pro does not copy/move files any faster. It just automates the process.

[shafiq]

Never thought there was any benefit whatsoever to "dowloading" software.

Downloader Pro is part of my workflow management. The ability to name/date what you are downloading into event sorted directories when you have four or five 1GB cards and up to ten 512MB cards from two cameras with different types of RAW, is worth every cent it cost.

I suppose it depends on volume and if you use a managed workflow.

I think I may have missed to mention that one of the primary advantages besides what Kenny mentioned above is the speed with which Downloader Pro copies and deletes the files from the card. Doing WinXP Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V etc are so slow when copying a fair size of RAWS.

Downloader Pro does not copy/move files any faster. It just automates the process.

Really! :roll: :roll: :roll:

for some strange reason I thought it copied then faster...

[ilya]

Why would it be faster? It just adds another layer to the OS. I'm no expert, but I would think the closer to the bone you are, the quicker it goes.

I do agree with Kenny, if your organizational needs are on several dimensions (event, date, etc), and this works for you, then by all means. My needs are purely based on date, speed, and ease of use/convenience.

[defordphoto]

Never thought there was any benefit whatsoever to "dowloading" software.

Downloader Pro is part of my workflow management. The ability to name/date what you are downloading into event sorted directories when you have four or five 1GB cards and up to ten 512MB cards from two cameras with different types of RAW, is worth every cent it cost.

I suppose it depends on volume and if you use a managed workflow.

I think I may have missed to mention that one of the primary advantages besides what Kenny mentioned above is the speed with which Downloader Pro copies and deletes the files from the card. Doing WinXP Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V etc are so slow when copying a fair size of RAWS.

Downloader Pro does not copy/move files any faster. It just automates the process.

Really! :roll: :roll: :roll:

for some strange reason I thought it copied then faster...

yeah and those three keypresses are "so slow." :lol:

[shafiq]

Never thought there was any benefit whatsoever to "dowloading" software.

Downloader Pro is part of my workflow management. The ability to name/date what you are downloading into event sorted directories when you have four or five 1GB cards and up to ten 512MB cards from two cameras with different types of RAW, is worth every cent it cost.

I suppose it depends on volume and if you use a managed workflow.

I think I may have missed to mention that one of the primary advantages besides what Kenny mentioned above is the speed with which Downloader Pro copies and deletes the files from the card. Doing WinXP Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V etc are so slow when copying a fair size of RAWS.

Downloader Pro does not copy/move files any faster. It just automates the process.

Really! :roll: :roll: :roll:

for some strange reason I thought it copied then faster...

yeah and those three keypresses are "so slow." :lol:


Has anyone done a comparision test...I can bet $1 that the Downloader Pro copies the files faster then normal windows copy function. Anyone back me on this?

:lol:

[ilya]

Shafi, I'll bet you $10 that the process is slower in addition to tsfr speed. (Open DPro, hit some buttons, set some things, etc. vs 3 key strokes. No contest.

[defordphoto]

However, the nice thing about using Downloader Pro is that you can perform most of the tasks hands-off and that is important to some people's workflow. We just don't want people to get the wrong impression that DP has some magic alogrithm that allows it to write the actual files faster than just using the OS functions that everyone has on their computers for free.

As simple as all this seems to us, it could be a bit daunting to a dSLR newcomer and someone not up on their computer skills as highly as some of us.

[ilya]

However, the nice thing about using Downloader Pro is that you can perform most of the tasks hands-off and that is important to some people workflow. We just don't want people to get the wrong impression that DP has some magic alogrithm that allows it to write the actual files faster than just using the OS functions that everone has on the computers for free.

As simple as all this seems to us, it could be a bit daunting to a dSLR newcomer and someone not up on their computer skills as highly as some of us.

Agree.

[LiquidMantis]

Shafi, I'll bet you $10 that the process is slower in addition to tsfr speed. (Open DPro, hit some buttons, set some things, etc. vs 3 key strokes. No contest.

I'd take that bet, but then I'd just take your money... When set up, DPro is almost completely automated. I insert my CF, then launch DPro. It notices the card and says "Shall I copy this then launch your app?" (paraphrased) then proceeds to do just that.

Steps:
Insert card.
Two mouse clicks.

[Edit] I guess this was kinda covered in the next post... :roll:

[Molly55]

mostly all use the same mechanism to copy files. A programmer can either call upon the same built-in routines in the OS as the Windows Explorer uses, or he can manually write code to trasfer the files byte-by-byte himself. However, manually writing file transfer code in Windows is rather futile since the manual code would still call yet just another even lower level of routines provided by Windows, again the same ones that are called by the code in Windows Explorer and any other program. Plus, do you think that the thousands of OS programmers at Microsoft who have been perfecting OS performace for two decades, for some reason did not make Windows Explorer file copies as fast a possible for their platform? Cmon.

[Ikinaa]

Never thought there was any benefit whatsoever to "dowloading" software.

Downloader Pro is part of my workflow management. The ability to name/date what you are downloading into event sorted directories when you have four or five 1GB cards and up to ten 512MB cards from two cameras with different types of RAW, is worth every cent it cost.

I suppose it depends on volume and if you use a managed workflow.

I think I may have missed to mention that one of the primary advantages besides what Kenny mentioned above is the speed with which Downloader Pro copies and deletes the files from the card. Doing WinXP Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V etc are so slow when copying a fair size of RAWS.

Downloader Pro does not copy/move files any faster. It just automates the process.

Really! :roll: :roll: :roll:

for some strange reason I thought it copied then faster...

It's possible that it's faster than the normal windows copy.
A software that calls itself professional should be better in these tasks that the standard windows tool.
Software should call basic API-functions for copying. So it should work faster.
Try this : copy a large directory in windows (5000 files, 100 directories) with the standard windows drag and drop. First Windows counts all the files and size so it knows what to do and be a bit accurate with this funky timebar (ya know, these sheet flying from one folder to another)
Then do the same in a cmd with the basic xcopy. That's a lot faster.
In windows, a lot of time is lost with all those showing what it does, etc...
Also, when you have general software, it makes more checks, etc which takes more time that the specialized soft that leaves some of the unnecessary out...