Canon G9 Problem

I thought I had digital photography cracked. I shoot Nikon and simply plug my cameras into a Mac and the Icon comes up and I download on to the desktop, converting with CS3. (I have all the updates in place.)

So I bought a compact Canon G9 for my holiday pictures. What a lovely little camera to use!

However, when I plug it into a Mac, nothing happens. No Mac I have recognises the hardware. When I take the SD card out and use a card reader, it's the same story. Nothing!

The only way I can download is by using the Canon software provided with the camera.

So this complete Canon beginner needs help.

Is there a way I can avoid going via the Canon software file. My friends with G9 and PC can download the conventional way as outlined above. Do Macs not see Canon hardware? (Or am I a klutz?)

I thought I had digital photography cracked. I shoot Nikon and simply plug my cameras into a Mac and the Icon comes up and I download on to the desktop, converting with CS3. (I have all the updates in place.)

 

So I bought a compact Canon G9 for my holiday pictures. What a lovely little camera to use!

 

However, when I plug it into a Mac, nothing happens. No Mac I have recognises the hardware. When I take the SD card out and use a card reader, it's the same story. Nothing!

 

The only way I can download is by using the Canon software provided with the camera.

 

So this complete Canon beginner needs help.

 

Is there a way I can avoid going via the Canon software file. My friends with G9 and PC can download the conventional way as outlined above. Do Macs not see Canon hardware? (Or am I a klutz?)

That's weird, John. I have a G9 and several machines (including ones running XP, Mac OSX and Vista).

I'm happy to help you troubleshoot ... I'm not sure if I've tried to download using the Mac, but I can try tonight and see if I see any issues.

I'll try camera direct and with a USB card reader.

In about 7 or 8 hours I can try at home.

That's weird, John. I have a G9 and several machines (including ones running XP, Mac OSX and Vista).

 

I'm happy to help you troubleshoot ... I'm not sure if I've tried to download using the Mac, but I can try tonight and see if I see any issues.

 

I'll try camera direct and with a USB card reader.

 

In about 7 or 8 hours I can try at home.

That will help. I have three Macs here: an eMac, an iMac and a new Macbook Pro.

Thanks

Good choice of camera John.

Does this help? http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=490238

John ... another quick question ... do you use iPhoto ... or something else to manage your library?

I just read on the Apple site that the Canon Powershot G9 RAW format is only supported on OS X 10.5.2 or later. Not sure whether that means it was not supported prior to Leopard ... will know when I try tonight as I don't have Leopard (or an Intel Mac for that matter - mine is a G4 Powerbook).

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1475

Here's my revised list of questions:

** What OS versions are you using on the various machines?

** Are you shooting RAW, JPEG or both?

** What application (if any) are you using to import, manage and or edit these files?

We'll get to the bottom of this for sure.

QUICK EDIT ... more facts ...

From what I have now gathered from a variety of sources, iPhoto 2008 and Aperture 2.x can handle RAW files from the G9 using OS X version 10.4.11 or 10.5.2 (or higher).

HTH! I'll still try and do it at home later.

John ... another quick question ... do you use iPhoto ... or something else to manage your library?

I prefer to keep all my files as RAW folders in various hard drive arrangements and on Fuji Photodiscs. I process normally using CS3, keeping final files as uncompressed tifs. Looking at the thread directed to by BrianM, it looks like I am condemned to putting everything through Image Capture and importing. My wife shoots jpegs and manages her library through iPhoto but I was hoping to use the G9 for shooting in RAW mode for things like my next DEMA report. Seems I found another reason to buy a new D3 or D700!

My OS varies from Tiger to Leopard according to the computer. I have an Intel Mac and previous versions but no luck. Maybe I need to get my nerd (son) to fix it. As far as applications go - I don't get that far as the camera does not mount.

For the few shots I made with it in RAW, I got my wife to download through Image Capture and put them on her desktop so that I could network them over to my processing computer.

Gotcha.

Would you normally (or would you like to) use Bridge to download and put the RAW files into your directories or just pull them off the camera using a Finder window?

I'm on my way out and will be home in about 2 hours .... and I'm on the case ... hopefully we can avoid calling in the (nerd) son ...

Gotcha.

 

Would you normally (or would you like to) use Bridge to download and put the RAW files into your directories or just pull them off the camera using a Finder window?

 

I'm on my way out and will be home in about 2 hours .... and I'm on the case ... hopefully we can avoid calling in the (nerd) son ...

 

Yes, I normally view with Bridge before pulling into Photoshop proper.

Here's what I found on my machine - a G4 Powerbook running OS 10.4.11 and iPhoto 6 and Image Capture 3.0.3.

With the card in the camera, iPhoto recognized it as a camera and would download JPEGs but not RAW files. Finder could not see it as a mass storage device.

With the card in the camera, the only way I could get at the RAW files was to use Image Capture to download them to a specified directory. Do you not have Image Capture on your machine? In the preferences for Image Capture you can set it to automatically open instead of iPhoto when you attach a camera. That way, when you attach the G9 the Capture app would open automatically and you could download to whatever directory you chose for processing by Photoshop and browsing by Bridge. Doesn't seem like a bad option.

Also ... with the card in my card reader (eFilm USB 2.0 multi-card reader), I had no problem seeing the card in the Finder window and could see and move the files off the card to the machine no problem - they even showed up with preview icons.

Here's what I found on my machine - a G4 Powerbook running OS 10.4.11 and iPhoto 6 and Image Capture 3.0.3.

 

With the card in the camera, iPhoto recognized it as a camera and would download JPEGs but not RAW files. Finder could not see it as a mass storage device.

 

With the card in the camera, the only way I could get at the RAW files was to use Image Capture to download them to a specified directory. Do you not have Image Capture on your machine? In the preferences for Image Capture you can set it to automatically open instead of iPhoto when you attach a camera. That way, when you attach the G9 the Capture app would open automatically and you could download to whatever directory you chose for processing by Photoshop and browsing by Bridge. Doesn't seem like a bad option.

 

Also ... with the card in my card reader (eFilm USB 2.0 multi-card reader), I had no problem seeing the card in the Finder window and could see and move the files off the card to the machine no problem - they even showed up with preview icons.

Thanks for your efforts Jeremy.

I have now swapped to a different smaller SD card and it works as I expected with the card reader. The Finder mounts it.The problem appears to be from a combination of Canon, SanDiskUltra II 4gb card, and Mac. We got the pictures off the 4 gb card using Image Capture and iPhoto.

Thanks for your efforts Jeremy.

I have now swapped to a different smaller SD card and it works as I expected with the card reader. The Finder mounts it.The problem appears to be from a combination of Canon, SanDiskUltra II 4gb card, and Mac. We got the pictures off the 4 gb card using Image Capture and iPhoto.

One more theory ... are you sure your card reader supports SDHC? A 4gb card (or larger) is not a regular SD card but is SDHC (high capacity). Not all card readers (or cameras for that matter) can read/use SDHC cards ... I made that mistake recently and had to get a new reader because the one I bought didn't do SDHC cards. A 2GB card is a regular SD card.

One more theory ... are you sure your card reader supports SDHC? A 4gb card (or larger) is not a regular SD card but is SDHC (high capacity). Not all card readers (or cameras for that matter) can read/use SDHC cards ... I made that mistake recently and had to get a new reader because the one I bought didn't do SDHC cards. A 2GB card is a regular SD card.

Aahhh! You may have cracked it!

Aahhh! You may have cracked it!

Terrific ... glad we figured that out!

So what I have learned thanks to the good auspices of Wetpixel:

Canon camera will not be directly recognised as a device by Mac desktop.

You can download directly from the camera using iPhoto or the Canon software provided. (iPhoto is a lot quicker.)

SDHC cards need a different card reader to any that I have got. (New one ordered.)

If I take the G9 to DEMA (It's a lot more convenient to carry than a DSLR and lenses) I will need to take the new card reader too.

Thanks everyone inc Jeremy.

This one caught me out recently, too. I managed to go on the Wetpixel JASA trip without any SD cards! So went to buy one from Best Buy, but didn't have a card reader that could read it - luckily several on board did. Lots of the better SDHC cards now come with a free card reader.

Alex