REALLY dumb question...

[Stearmandriver]

Hi folks, just got a new Rebel XT and I've been playing around with it tonight. Love it, of course... it's my first SLR after shooting with an Olympus point and shoot for a while. The Olympus actually took great pictures within its narrow limits, but it's already obvious - there's no going back. :)

Anyway, the question - how do you open pictures directly from the camera into Adobe Bridge CS2? I know I've done this before with the Olympus, but didn't bother very often because it was easier to save the pictures with Olympus's software, then open in Photoshop from there. Now, considering all the RAW tweaking that can be done, I'd rather cut out the middle software and just go directly into Adobe. I've got my camera and computer talking just fine, can dump my images to my computer with the Canon software, but I can't seem to find the camera in Bridge. I don't know if I just don't remember how I did it with the old camera, or if Bridge is actually not seeing the XT and therefore not showing me a menu item for it? I did change the communications mode in the camera from "Direct Print" to "PC"...

So, anyone have any ideas? How 'bout a quick step-by-step of how you do this? I just know I'm going to feel like a complete idiot when someone explains it... in my defense it's REALLY late, maybe I'm just fried for the night...

Thanks,
Joe

[tim]

It's not a good idea to open images directly from your camera. It'll drain battery power, and there are zero advantages over copying the RAW images to your hard drive. You should be keeping all the RAW images, not just the processed versions, unless you have a good reason not to. I'm not sure if you can open images direct from the camera, I suspect since the camera doesn't appear as a drive it's not possible.

The method I use is to take the CF card out of the camera, insert in into a USB card reader, then I run DIM (http://alanlight.com) to copy the images from the card to my hard drive. DIM is configured once then copies files to the configured location, and will rename files if you ask it to. From there I point bridge at the folder, give it some time to generate the previews, rate the images, then tweak and edit as required.

[T.O.]

Hi there,

I only have my 350D for a week now, when I connect it to my PC I can normally "see" it as a drive, then I just pick up the photos and copy them to my hard drive.

Only, jpeg so far, and I only installed the Canon software necessary for the camera to dialog with the PC.

regards,
T.O.

[Danny Boy]

I agree with tim in that it is best to use a CF reader and just copy the images to your harddrive. It is much faster too than hooking up your camera. I think I hooked up my camera once and then only used the CF reader from then on. I use Elements 3.0 and when I put a CF card in the reader, it automatically detects it and askes me where I want to put the photos. Very simple.

Dan

[Stearmandriver]

Wow, you aren't kidding it's faster to use a card reader!

I realized the photo printer I have can double as a card reader... forgot about that. It works great with Bridge, and I'm gonna try out that DIM software too. Still don't know why Bridge won't see the camera itself as a drive... but I guess now I don't care.

Thanks!

Joe