Is Canon bundled ZoomBrowser any good?

I'm the weak and lazy digicam user. My camera's purpose is to let me take many, many pictures with as little effort as possible. Point and shoot only with almost no monkeying around with camera settings.

Having said that, I do like Zoom Browser. It's a fairly simple all-in-one tool. I use the download, browse, print, edit, and export features. It's well supported and continues to be upgraded - I've had mine since 2002 and I've installed three updates over the years with noticeable improvements.

The bad? It's a little slow because I've got 5000 pics in thirty or forty subdirectories. I don't like the fact that the prints are very large file sizes. I wish it had a smoother redeye correction feature, but then again I'm running 4.6 and obviously it's time for an update.

tblount70

Know the feeling. Our Image Library is a little over 13 GB, and 13000 jpgs. The versions that came later... such as my wife's S2 and my S3 use a Non-DataBase type of ZB. A little hard to describe, but essentially, our G-1 ZB [and likely yours, from the year you talk about] was a program INTO WHICH

Hmmm... I see that 'post' didn't complete. Makes little sense, eh? The guts of the matter is that the S series ZB is a program that browses the whole computer... It has no data base. We *do* use a folder called Main Library, just for convenience, but could just as easily browse and apply 'ZoomBrowser' stuff to JPGs in... My Documents. So, there is no 'lag time' when opening the program. When I use my G-1... [and I do]... I use the card reader on the front of my computer to unload the memory...into the Main Library. {The G-1 has a nifty little 'remote' that permits me to set the camera on a tripod..say around the Christmas Tree area, and using the remote, I can take as many pictures as I like, from 'sitting there'. Unfortunately the "S" doesn't do that. The "S" will allow me to have up to 30 seconds to 'get in the picture'... and will then shoot up to 10 JPGs. Not a bad feature, but NOT as good as the G-1}

For the record, Canon doesn't make different versions of ZB for the different cameras. All Canon cameras are upward compatible (assuming the correct drivers) with any version of Zoom Browser later than the one that shipped with them, and all Canon cameras introduced at approximately the same time will include the same version of software. Remote Capture with the current version of Zoom Browser allows you to set an interval of up to 60 min. This can be used to simulate a longer delay than the 30 sec. max for Timer mode.

Well... far be it for me to sound like an authority, BUT...Our G-1's came with 'a' version of Z/B...with the Beloved PINTHEA database. A newer version was 'downloadable'...and we tried it; not for us. My daughter has a A80 with yet a different version. Then my wife has her S2 whose version number and operation is different from my S3.

Now... if that isn't different versions of Z/B.............????

They're differnt versions, but they're not specific to 'a' camera. The A70, A75 and A80, and any S or SD models released at that time, all had the same version of ZB. The S2 and S3 also released at different times, so had dfferent versions bundled with them. But none were exclusively for one camera. You can use any of your cameras with the version bundled with the newest camera, the S3, or you can go to Canon's support site and download version 5.7, which ships with the A630, A640, A710, G7,SD90, . . .

Likely so...once the files are in the computer. The Camera/Computer cord is very different ... the G model and the S models. I sure do like this S3 version, though. Between that and PE2... I can't imagine what a guy could NOT do.... [PE2 comes as free-ware with a lot of things.... a Canon scanner and an Epson scanner in this house]

The cord's practically irrelevant. ZB will behave the same with a card reader or a camera. My D60 uses a Canon-proprietary USB cable, but they've since come to their senses and now use standard mini-5 USB connectors across the board (with additional standard FireWire for the 1D series). The D60 works just as well with the current version of ZB as any of my other Canons. The only thing I actually lost with the newer versions is support for older JPEG formats (and I do mean "old").

Irrelevant? We find the cords to be very handy. Both computers have the camera cords semi-permanently installed. For my wife, the cord and associated UI permit her to automatically download, just by plugging in. With my S3 it is the same, plus emptying the memory when done. AND much less wear and tear on those tiny SD socket pins inside the hole.

Again, I wouldn't argue with anyone's satisfactory routine......

Irrelevant to the version of Zoom Browser. The same cord will work with any version of ZB. It's strictly a hardware issue; they're all USB but some use one connector and others use another at the camera end. But wear and tear on card contacts isn't a significant issue; if you have very big files, or if you fill a large card, downloading from a card reader will be significantly faster, as well as reducing the risk of snagging the cable and sending the camera flying, or risking the batteries running flat while you're connected to the computer, which has been known to corrupt the card.

I guess it's a matter of Different Strokes, etc... I had a career in Electronics and when I see the tiny little contacts on memory 'cards'... and think of shoving in and out the many-tiny-pin connectors... I get nervous! I *have* dressed our cables in such a manner that snaggable loops are not an issue. 'Was there life before cable ties?'

Having been sliding PC Cards and CF cards out of computers, cameras, and whatnot for the past (mumble) years as a computer person without damage, I'm a little more confident than you are about the quality of design of your typical removable media and corresponding slots. My concerns about SD cards are more that they're too small to handle comfortably, especially if conditions require gloves.

Good shot, Jon... I like a man with solder flux under his fingernails! 'Tune for maximum smoke'... AND... thanks for putting up with me!