topic Re: Very Slow Photo Transfer to Computer, S410 in Point & Shoot Digital Cameras

Very Slow Photo Transfer to Computer, S410

Powershot410 — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 02:09:05 GMT

Hi! I just revived my Powershot S410 (from around 2003) because I wanted to use it as an underwater camera (I bought an underwater case for cheap). It's uses a 512 MB SD card. I attached the camera to my Mac Air computer and the computer didn't recognize the camera, even tho it was on - I even changed the mode from taking pictures to viewing pictures, but to no avail.

Thus, I searched online for drivers and downloaded the Canon Utilities Camera Window software associated with my model camera. Using it, the transfer from camera to computer is crazy slow. There are 40 pictures and it's taking about 30 minutes.

What are some possible solutions? I thought of:

Get a faster SD card?
Find a way for the comptuer to recognize the camera without using the Canon Utility - how do I do that??

Any other ideas or solutions?

Thanks!

Re: Very Slow Photo Transfer to Computer, S410

Richard — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 03:40:15 GMT

Hi Powershot410,

Thanks for posting.

Because your computer's operating system provides the required drivers, they're not required or available from our website.

To allow us to better assist you, please reply with the following:

Which version of Mac do you use on your Mac Air?
Did you install the software that was included on CD with your camera or from our website?

Re: Very Slow Photo Transfer to Computer, S410

Powershot410 — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 06:03:08 GMT

I have Sierra. 10.12.5

Yup, I downloaded from your website. This:

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/cameras/support-point-and-shoot/powershot-s-series/powershot-s410?tab=drivers_downloads

Re: Very Slow Photo Transfer to Computer, S410

Waddizzle — Sat, 24 Jun 2017 15:32:58 GMT

@Powershot410 wrote:
Hi! I just revived my Powershot S410 (from around 2003) because I wanted to use it as an underwater camera (I bought an underwater case for cheap). It's uses a 512 MB SD card. I attached the camera to my Mac Air computer and the computer didn't recognize the camera, even tho it was on - I even changed the mode from taking pictures to viewing pictures, but to no avail.

Thus, I searched online for drivers and downloaded the Canon Utilities Camera Window software associated with my model camera. Using it, the transfer from camera to computer is crazy slow. There are 40 pictures and it's taking about 30 minutes.

What are some possible solutions? I thought of:
Get a faster SD card?
Find a way for the comptuer to recognize the camera without using the Canon Utility - how do I do that??
Any other ideas or solutions?

Thanks!

A little research reveals that the camera uses USB 1.1 protocol. It was originally sold with just a 32MB Compact Flash card, not an SD card.

PowerShot S410

The USB protocol is not very fast, so do not expect too much from it. However, a 512MB card may overwhelm the firmware in the camera. Having so much memory space to access, could slow it down. The Block Allocation Map on the storage media would be 16 times bigger than what the camera is designed to access.

I doubt if you can find a new card of that size, but you may find something close to it on one of those sites that sell used stuff.

Re: Very Slow Photo Transfer to Computer, S410

Powershot410 — Sat, 24 Jun 2017 16:31:30 GMT

Thanks. I realized later I meant compact flash instead of sd card but forgot go back to edit my message.

When I originally bought the camera I bought a 512 mb card as well. I think it worked fine at the time. Maybe I can use a newer USB transfer cord... I'll see