New to Canon and Having Software Problems.

Greetings and Happy New Year!

I just purchased my first Canon, it is a T3i; I have previously used Nikon's. The T3i seems like a fantastic camera; however, I am unable to download anything without getting a "Camera Not Connected" error message. I have downloaded the software to twi different Macintosh computers (Macbook Pro and an iMac) and have the same results.

Any thoughts?

It seems the camera driver is not properly installed on the Macs or someting. Try this, turn off your Mac, unplug your camera from the USB cable (u can leave the other end of the cable plugged into your Mac). Once your Mac is freshly boot, switch on your camera first, then plug in the usb cable to the camera end. See if this helps.

Are you saying that you installed the Canon software and that it is not working? The three Canon apps -- EOS Utilities, Digital Photo Professional, and ZoomBrowser should work well whith your camera!

What software do you have?

Are you using Lion? EOS utility does not work with Lion. Rumor has it that Spring 2012 there will be an update.

To download the images, remove the sd card and use a card reader.

Thank you for your input. I have, however, done a re-boot and still the same response. When I open EOS Utility, I receive the message: "Alert Cannot be used with their version of the operating system". I am running Mac OS X Version 10.7.2.

Does this sound like a software issue? I am not sure what else to try and I really do not want to return the camera.

I can't think of a more obvious hint than this statement ""Alert Cannot be used with their version of the operating system""

Also, someone asked what operating system you're using; it would help if you provide the information that was asked for.

I did provide it, but will list it again...it is: Mac OS X Version 10.7.2

I cannot understand why a brand new Canon camera will not work with a Mac OS that was released six months ago.

cduke123 wrote in post #13628901
I did provide it, but will list it again...it is: Mac OS X Version 10.7.2

I cannot understand why a brand new Canon camera will not work with a Mac OS that was released six months ago.

Because the camera, while new to you, was released 9 months ago, and Canon's been trying to find out what Apple changed that broke previously-functional applications.

I'm not a Mac user so your answer didn't really give the information requested; I had to look up the OS version number to see if it was Lion. It is.

Diputs helpfully gave you the answers to your question more than six hours ago but it appears that you ignored it.

cduke123 wrote in post #13628901
I did provide it, but will list it again...it is: Mac OS X Version 10.7.2

I cannot understand why a brand new Canon camera will not work with a Mac OS that was released six months ago.

cduke123 wrote in post #13628901
I did provide it, but will list it again...it is: Mac OS X Version 10.7.2

I cannot understand why a brand new Canon camera will not work with a Mac OS that was released six months ago.

I know nothing about Macs, I am a PC user, but a quick google showed me that OS X v 10.7.2 is Lion. A few posts above your post, it was pointed out that EOS utility does NOT work with Lion.

This isn't down to Canon, it is down to changes made by Apple. Canon is working on an update to solve the problem and it should be out (according to the poster above) around spring.

In the meantime, simply download via a card reader (which most people prefer to do anyway).

Thanks Jon and DIPUTS cdcRebel and tonylong for your help. It appears that I may need to return it and go with a Nikon. Manually downloading the images is not very convenient for me. I hope that this can be resolved soon b/c I like the Canon.

I will try the card reader fix and see how that works. I assume that is relatively easy, but I was trying to minimize the amount of 'stuff' that I carry with me. The camera seems worth keeping and I appreciate the support and information about Lion and the coming 'update'.

cduke123 wrote in post #13629047
I will try the card reader fix and see how that works. I assume that is relatively easy, but I was trying to minimize the amount of 'stuff' that I carry with me.

Yes, very easy. Card readers can be very small and take up almost no space if you want to carry it (I assume to download to a laptop in the field). Just plug the reader in via USB, just as you would the camera, pop the card out of the camera and into the reader and it works like an extra drive, just drag and drop the files over to where you want them on your main drive. It only adds a moment or two to your download workflow and the cards usually download faster.

cduke123 wrote in post #13629047
I will try the card reader fix and see how that works. I assume that is relatively easy, but I was trying to minimize the amount of 'stuff' that I carry with me. The camera seems worth keeping and I appreciate the support and information about Lion and the coming 'update'.

A card reader is a better way to download, anyway. It's faster and generally has fewer issues... and doesn't drain the camera's battery while downloading.

If you are using a portable computer, there are various small and very portable card readers. I don't use a Mac, so this may not apply. But I use a PC with an ExpressCard that's only a little larger than a credit card, a little fiddly to insert cards, but it's the fastest thing I've used for downloads... about 54MB/sec max. A Firewire 800 or USB 3 reader might be even faster.

I am not 100% sure, but on a lot of mac's there is a built in sd card slot. My 27" iMac has one. Check to see if your mac has one or not.

Also, as previously mentioned, it is standard practice to download via a card reader and not through the camera. In 99.9% of all cases, it will be a lot faster to download from a card reader than from the camera.

Basically, what you are viewing as an inconvenience is actually standard practice.