Downloading Images From Your Digital Camera

There are many different types and sources of images that you're likely to encounter as you use Fedora Core 4 in the future. Without a doubt, however, digital cameras are the most common source of images in personal computing today. No longer a novelty or a professional-level tool costing thousands, digital cameras have become as popular as film cameras once were.

Unfortunately, there is currently no universally accepted communications standard for digital cameras, so no single application can support all digital cameras in existence. To make matters more complicated, most digital camera vendors don't release drivers for Linux systems like Fedora Core 4. Because of this, it might be more difficult to download images from digital cameras into Fedora Core 4 than it is to download images into Windows.

Downloading from USB Cameras

If your digital camera can be connected to your PC through a USB port, you might be able to use your camera like any other removable storage device in Linux. Simply set your camera to playback mode, plug it in to your computer's USB port, and turn it on to see if it appears on your desktop as a removable storage device, as shown in Figure 14.1.

Figure 14.1. If you have a USB digital camera, you might be able to simply plug it in and access it like any other storage device.

If a USB storage device appears on your desktop after you plug your camera into your computer's USB port, you can access it like a hard drive or any other storage device:

• Double-click on the desktop icon to open the camera's storage area and show the file(s) that it contains.

• You might need to navigate through a number of folders in order to access the actual image files, which will usually be stored in JPEG or TIFF format.

• Don't double-click on or edit the images directly in the folders stored in your camera; instead, use the file manager to create a folder on your hard drive, then copy the images from the folder stored on your camera to a folder stored on your hard drive

Having Trouble Accessing Your Camera?

Many digital cameras can actually communicate over USB in several different languages. If your camera fails to appear as a storage device on your desktop when you plug it in, search your owners manual to see if you can place the camera into "Mass Storage Mode," "Hard Disk Mode," or "Storage Mode." Then try again.

Downloading Images from Non-USB or Incompatible Cameras

If you're unable to download your images directly from the camera, either because it's not a USB camera or because it doesn't appear as an icon on your desktop when you plug it in, you can still download your images in Linux. To do so, you will need to purchase a flash-card or memory-card reading device that can be plugged into your USB port.

Be sure to pay attention to the following when selecting a digital media card reader:

• Make sure that the reader you select uses the same type of digital storage that your camera uses; common types include CompactFlash, SmartMedia, SecureDigital/xD, and Memory Stick.

• If possible, buy a reader that claims to need no additional drivers in order to be usedthis usually indicates that it behaves as a standard USB storage device.

• Be sure that the device is returnable, in case it turns out not to be Linux compatible.

Once you have obtained a compatible digital media reader, using it is easy; simply remove the memory card from your camera (follow the instructions with which it came for details), plug the memory card into the reader device, then plug the reader into your USB port.

If it is Linux-compatible, your camera's memory card will now appear as a stan-dard storage device just as was shown in Figure 14.1, and you can access it in the same way.

Have a Laptop or Notebook Computer?

If you have a laptop or notebook computer, you are not limited to using USB-based card reader devices; nearly all PCMCIA-type card readers are also compatible with Linux.

Note that most parallel port card readers are not compatible with Linux or are difficult to use with Linux. They are also much slower than USB or PCMCIA card readers. For these reasons, most Fedora Core 4 users should steer clear of parallel port digital media readers.