In article <ObU%e.6201$ et>,
breyfogle <> wrote:
> I know absolutely nothing about digital cameras but I've been
> considering buying a low-end digital camera that has to work with my
> Panther 15"PB. Most, is not all, product discriptions for lowend
> cameras specify Windows as the only supported OS. Question is, just
> what does "supported OS" mean? Will Mac OS X 10.x support any USB
> digital camera at least WRT downloading images for later storage, image
> editting and printing ? Presumably, any bundled software would be
> WIndows only and therefore useless on a Mac but am I correct that iPhoto
> does most if not all that kind of stuff anyway ?
>
> Curious....
Mac OS X (and Windows XP) support the USB Mass Storage Device protocols.
You can find an article outlining that idea on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_mas...e_device_class
So if your digital camera also supports Mass Storage (many if not most
now do) you can just connect it, and the camera will be recognised just
as if it were a disk drive. It will show up in Finder, just like
another disk drive.
Most of the storage card readers do exactly the same thing. However
while many cameras use USB 1.1, some card readers use USB 2, and thus
provide a higher speed.
iPhoto pops up and offers to import the stuff from the camera (or card
reader) because it is the default for iPhoto to handle photos. iPhoto
actually works in conjunction with Image Capture - in your Applications
folder. Image Capture does the hard work of importing the photos. If
you want to change whether iPhoto pops up to import photos, open up
Image Capture, and open its Preferences. You can change the default
application here.
Bundled software with a camera is mostly Windows only, but sometimes the
CD includes a Mac version of some product, so it is worth checking the
manual and CD, in case it included something like Photoshop Elements.
You will not need to use whatever product is supplied with the camera.
Good luck with your camera.
--
http://www.ericlindsay.com
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