The more i read the less i kow about downloading from a d-camera to my computer. which is best and where do I buy the software or cards for the best, aka fastest, and what kind of problems do i face upon installation? What else do i need? Cables etc? Thanks, John Thomas 909-676-2337

-- John S. Thomas (jthomas@minibrew.com), October 24, 1999

Answers

Well, each camera has its own "standard" way of downloading pictures. Some are only serial ( Mac or PC serial ) , and some are serial and USB. There are a couple of high end SCSI cameras but nothing in the consumer market. Anyway, the cameras are going towards USB of coure but they still include serial options for the PC users without USB and for Windows NT users which doesn't support USB, well it supports USB but nobody seems to acknowledge that from a software standpoint. Honestly your best solution is to go with a flashcard or smartmedia reader and forget all the lame cables that come with the digicams. They have parallel, USB and SCSI readers but I would go with the USB if you can, there is no benefit to going with SCSI as the media can only transfer data so fast, the reader is not the bottleneck. In short, it really doesn't matter too much what the camera supports (as far as interfaces) as the aftermarket card readers are infinitely more convenient.

-- Cris Daniels (danfla@gte.net), October 24, 1999.