[Mickaisy]

hello everyone,

since this site i have gained more information than i ever could have imagined, so thank you all for that.

As some or many of you may know, i have one lap top which doesn't have much space for even installing the software my d5000 came with, let alone capture or any other PP's.

I shot my first 15 photos as JPEG then switched to just raw and then did raw and jpeg. I uploaded the picturs using microsoft picture viewer (which is how i always did it) and only the JPEG's were downloaded! The ones i shot just RAW were non existent. My plan is to upload photos using microsoft and then quickly copying them onto my external hard drive. The thing is, if the RAW doesn't even show up, how can i get them on my hard drive in RAW? is this even possible or am i going to have to shoot JPEG until i can download a program like capture or even just the regular software to store and save RAW pics?

I might be able to download the software, but storing those large files on my computer will probably crash it and I am too close to finishing my thesis to have something happen to my computer which is why i don't want to install it yet.

any thoughts, advice, suggestions on what to do would be highly appreciated.

thanks in advance!

[Dennis]

I have a card reader. I place my card in the reader and tell windows to open it as a folder. Then I can transfer it to where I want. I copy it to my external drive that I have termed the image database. You could try that. It is a bit manual But It will bypass your PC for temp storage.

[Mickaisy]

thanks for the quick reply Dennis, i will take a look to see if my computer has a card reader. My lap top is getting up there in years:)

[Mickaisy]

laptop is too old, no card reader built in to the computer:( this is getting really frustrating:(

maybe i can try to download the pictures from my camera directly into the hard drive and see if that works. if it doesn't, I am going to have to install the software next week and see what happens. I just know i won't be able to store all those photos on my computer. The software Nikon created would have to be able to store photos on blank cd's and hard drives in RAW format, hopefully.

[Jon H.]

You can pick up a USB memory card reader for under $15 at your local Radio Shack or any office supply store. I wouldn't recommend connecting camera directly to computer for downloading. Too many potential issues.

You might also want to consider an external USB hard drive for image storage. That way, you're not cluttering up your boot drive on the laptop. I've seen the Western Digital MyBook 1TB (1 terrabyte = 1000 gigabytes) desktop drives for just under $100 at Costco and Sams Club.

Jon

[Dave Whiteley]

Which version of Windows are you using Mick? If XP you may need this download:-

http://www.microsoft...&displaylang=en

For others see:-

http://www.nikonimglib.com/nefcodec/

Dave Whiteley

[Mickaisy]

Jon H., on 03 February 2010 - 01:03 PM, said:

You can pick up a USB memory card reader for under $15 at your local Radio Shack or any office supply store. I wouldn't recommend connecting camera directly to computer for downloading. Too many potential issues.

You might also want to consider an external USB hard drive for image storage. That way, you're not cluttering up your boot drive on the laptop. I've seen the Western Digital MyBook 1TB (1 terrabyte = 1000 gigabytes) desktop drives for just under $100 at Costco and Sams Club.

Jon

Thanks for the info Jon. i will look for a USB memory card reader very soon. i have an external drive that has like 400gigs that i have for saving my papers and pictures. I just hope that the external hardrive will store the RAW file and information so that when i can get a PP, I can retrieve the photo with no problems.

I didn't know there can be issues going straight from the camera to the computer, i figured that was the point of the handy dandy connector that comes with the camera:) I will take your advice and purchase a card reader ASAP!

[DigitalDarrell]

Mickaisy,

If you will download the free Nikon Transfer program and install it on your computer, it will get ALL the image files off of your camera plugged into the computer, or from a memory card.

http://support.nikon...tail/a_id/16694

It should also be on a CD with the camera box.

[Dennis]

Yeah... sorry... I bought the card reader, it is a usb reader not part of the laptop, a sandisk, but as Jon said, there are a lot of them around. I also have the mybook and it works great. I copy from the card reader to the mybook. I have several usb externals.

[Mickaisy]

Dave Whiteley, on 03 February 2010 - 01:19 PM, said:

Which version of Windows are you using Mick? If XP you may need this download:-

http://www.microsoft...&displaylang=en

For others see:-

http://www.nikonimglib.com/nefcodec/

Dave Whiteley

thanks Dave! i do have XP so i will look more into it.

[Mickaisy]

DigitalDarrell, on 03 February 2010 - 02:16 PM, said:

Mickaisy,

If you will download the free Nikon Transfer program and install it on your computer, it will get ALL the image files off of your camera plugged into the computer, or from a memory card.

http://support.nikon...tail/a_id/16694

It should also be on a CD with the camera box.

thanks Darrell, the software says i will need like 3gigs of space for it to download and install and i am afraid i do not have the room to install it on my computer. that is why i am looking for other options that will take ALL the files off the camera so i can quickly put them on my external drive so the pics are not on my computer or other software for that matter.

P.S. Your book came today, woohoo!!! Can't wait to dive in, but it will have to be opened next week after my thesis is completed;)

[Jon H.]

Suggested (manual) workflow for getting your images from camera to computer:

1. Create a folder on your hard drive where you want to save your photos (e.g., Photos > 2010 > Disneyland Trip)

2. Plug your card reader into an available USB port, and insert the camera card into the reader.

3. On a Windows computer go to "Computer", locate the camera's memory card (usually listed as "removable media" and click to open the mounted removable drive (your camera's card). It will show you the contents of all that is on the memory card.

4. Usually, your actual image files are buried several folders deep in the hierarchy: e.g., DCIM > XXXXXXX > files.nef. Drill down through the several layers of directories and subdirectories to where you can actually see the .NEF and/or .JPG files, and you're there.

5. Select all (ctrl-A), then click and drag them to target folder you created on your hard drive (the "Disneyland Trip" folder in the example above).

This copies all of the files you selected from the camera's memory card to your hard drive. There are no hidden files on the memory card. If you've selected the raw (.NEF) and/or .JPG files on the card, that's all you need.

Hope that helps!

Best,

Jon

[Sailjunkie]

Lots of good advice on this thread, particularly Jon's.

My thoughts:

1. Like you, my laptop is a few years old, running XP. My hard drive size isn't nearly what new models have.

2. If your laptop has unused USB ports, buy an extra external drive plus a card reader. I don't about US costs, but they must be cheaper than in Canada.

3. If you do acquire PP software, you may want to make space for it on your lap top by moving data to the extra drive.

From this point on, follow Jon's advice. Just my $0.02 worth!

Mark

Jon H., on 03 February 2010 - 01:31 PM, said:

Suggested (manual) workflow for getting your images from camera to computer:

1. Create a folder on your hard drive where you want to save your photos (e.g., Photos > 2010 > Disneyland Trip)

2. Plug your card reader into an available USB port, and insert the camera card into the reader.

3. On a Windows computer go to "Computer", locate the camera's memory card (usually listed as "removable media" and click to open the mounted removable drive (your camera's card). It will show you the contents of all that is on the memory card.

4. Usually, your actual image files are buried several folders deep in the hierarchy: e.g., DCIM > XXXXXXX > files.nef. Drill down through the several layers of directories and subdirectories to where you can actually see the .NEF and/or .JPG files, and you're there.

5. Select all (ctrl-A), then click and drag them to target folder you created on your hard drive (the "Disneyland Trip" folder in the example above).

This copies all of the files you selected from the camera's memory card to your hard drive. There are no hidden files on the memory card. If you've selected the raw (.NEF) and/or .JPG files on the card, that's all you need.

Hope that helps!

Best,

Jon

[Jon H.]

Addendum: This is the workflow I followed before transitioning my workflow to Adobe Lightroom.

I still store ALL of my images on an external drive, but rather than manually dragging and dropping images as described above, I simply use Lightroom's import process which enables me to copy the files from the camera card to the desired location on my external hard drive, convert to DNG, rename with meaningful filenames, add copyright metadata and keywords, all in one step.

I don't know if LR would run on your laptop...you'd have to check the system requirements. And with version 3 just around the corner, I don't know that I'd buy LR2 right now. I'd be inclined to wait until v3 is available for purchase (or download the free public beta of LR v3 and play with it until the retail version is available, and then spring for the full version).

J

[Dave Whiteley]

I agree with all above, if you have USB ports get a card reader to plug in to one since it removes the camera from the equation, therefore you can't accidentally corrupt it downloading images, only the memory card, though that is highly unlikely anyway. Even in the UK card readers are cheap:-

http://www.amazon.co...8&node=10392011

That SD card reader for instance at £1.46 = only $2.31, but you will need a card reader appropriate for the cards you use, or a multi-card reader. When I upgraded my computer the new LCD monitor actually had a card reader in the side, so I let Virgil have my old one I think? Strangely enough the card reader I previously had would not work if left plugged into my old computer when booting up. You had to boot up first then plug it in for the computer to recognise it!

As to the USB cord that comes with the camera, it comes in very handy for upgrading my Garmin SatNav and recharging it from the computer if needed, since Garmin sell their USB cord as an extra in the UK!

Dave Whiteley

[Mickaisy]

Tons of great info here!! thanks so much for the feedback, i would have never thought it could be such a process;)

I will definitely get a card reader to upload images from now on, it is just i looked at radio shack and the card readers had some very nasty reviews about them. after my thesis is done, i will take a chance and download the Nikon software i have and cross my fingers:) As long as i have the software to read the RAW files so i can save them to my external drive for later use, that would be awesome!

Once my thesis is complete, i will take sailjunkies advice and really clean up my computer and clear up space and get rid of stuff i dont use to make room for lightroom or capture or photoshop or all 3!!

[Jon H.]

Mickaisy, on 04 February 2010 - 08:53 AM, said:

As long as i have the software to read the RAW files so i can save them to my external drive for later use, that would be awesome!

Clarification: there's no special software required to copy / save your raw files to a drive. You simply drag and drop from your camera's memory card to the folder on your hard drive where you want to store / backup your images. If you want to do something with them once you've backed them up...THEN you need software (Nikon's, Adobe's or otherwise) to work with the .nef files.

J

[Mickaisy]

Jon H., on 04 February 2010 - 04:18 PM, said:

Clarification: there's no special software required to copy / save your raw files to a drive. You simply drag and drop from your camera's memory card to the folder on your hard drive where you want to store / backup your images. If you want to do something with them once you've backed them up...THEN you need software (Nikon's, Adobe's or otherwise) to work with the .nef files.

J

Just what i wanted to hear, great news for my poor behind! i am looking at Target's GE USB memory card, seems to hve a lot better reviews than the ones Radio shack is selling.