New DSLR owner

I'm sure the regulars here see these posts all the time . . . well, here I am. The proud new owner of a 550D. I got a BNIB kit for $700 on craigslist which is a huge upgrade from my powershot S50. This is my first DSLR camera and I have some books on the way to teach me how to use them.

What is the best way to pull the images from the card/camera? Are people using the Canon software that comes with it? Or are people using a card reader? I'm running a MacBook by the way and I already have Photoshop CS4.

Thanks! More questions to come I'm sure!

Welcome here! I was in the same boat you were a year ago going from a Fujifilm S5200 I had for 4 years to my 50D. Can you say learning curve? lol I love every step of the way and I'm sure you will, too. Books and reading articles on the internet and practicing what I read with my camera are how I'm learning the craft.

I prefer to use the USB cable that comes with the camera and leave the card in the camera. It's a lot faster of a transfer than using a card reader and whatever needed adapters for it.

I am using the software that came with the camera, but soon I will be making the switch to Apple Aperture 3. I'm on a MacBook as well. I'm sure CS4 will be more than powerful enough for you as far as editing is concerned. I have heard wonderful things about it. You might need a simple image browser to keep you organized, assuming CS4 doesn't already have one built in. I am not real familiar with the product, so you probably know more than I do.

Nope, Photoshop does not have a built in image manager, but Mac OSX does. I've heard good things about Aperture though so perhaps I should look into that. Essentially, I need a program to download and organize my photos. Perhaps Aperture is the ticket.

And yeah, I just ordered Understanding Exposure from Amazon per the recommendation of a friend. I like books, etc. so that should be a good place to start.

Welcome to DSLR land! CS4 is great for image editing, and iPhoto is good for organizing if you don't want to invest in too much new software too fast (it can be taxing on the computer and on your brain to have to learn that much at once).

The 550D is a great camera for beginners and was the one I almost ended up buying before finding the deal on my 60D (which dropped in price, like, 3 weeks later). I'm sure you'll really enjoy that camera. Welcome to the boards, too! Can't wait to see some photos!

Welcome!

It's a bit odd seeing an American call it a "550D". Nothing wrong, of course, just odd really

Personally, I use a card reader. I find it's faster than directly hooking my camera up to my PC. I shoot in RAW and run all my pictures through Lightroom before exporting them as JPEGs.

Lightroom should also be available for Mac as well. If you're a college student, you can grab it for $99, which given how powerful a tool it is I say it's an absolute bargain!

Aperture is a wonderful program, and is well worth the $$$.

And... If his Mac is running Snow Leopard, Aperture is only $79 in the new App store!

I may have to give Aperture another look...

Raylon wrote in post #11637051
Aperture is a wonderful program, and is well worth the $$$.

Welcome an Congtaz! I am fan of lightroom, I would recommend it over aperture, but you should try them both yourself, both have free trials.

OO7 wrote in post #11636543
Nope, Photoshop does not have a built in image manager, but Mac OSX does.

CS3 for Mac comes with Adobe Bridge, and I'd assume the later versions do too. Bridge is an image manager which works well with Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw, which is the Photoshop component which converts from raw files.

Adobe post updates to Adobe Camera Raw on their web site, but at some point stop supporting newer versions of it with older versions of Photoshop. If it doesn't support your 550D, you can download Adobe DNG Converter which will, but then you get an extra conversion step to .DNG files.

Inside the Bridge app bundle is another app called Adobe Photo Downloader, which by default Bridge will start if it sees a camera or card get attached to the computer. If you disable that in Bridge's preferences, then Apple's Image Capture will start. If you disable *that*, you can still mount the card in a card reader and drag the files into a folder on your hard drive, and then point Bridge at it.

Anyone who has CS4 feel free to correct me, but that's how it works with CS3 and Leopard.

I do have CS4 and also Adobe Bridge. Ha! I never knew what it did . . . looks like I have some exploring to do!! The less software I have to install, the better!!

Thanks!