How do you transfer your pictures to the computer?

tcole1983

Curious how others do it. I almost always just hook up the USB cable and do it that way, but I find my pictures sitting on my camera because I am too lazy to do this sometimes. Does anyone use the eyefi cards or a wifi type setup?

Photobug

Nope...I always remove the memory card and use a memory card reader hooked up to my desktop or laptop.

Golf007sd

I have both an XQD and SD Express Card Reader that fit inside of my MBP 17" Express card slot. Depending on which memory card I'm using I put the memory card right in the Express card reader and being the transfer process. The transfer process involves me first creating a folder on my HD based upon the event that has taken place during that day's shoot, event or outing. Once all images have been copies to the HD in their respected folders, it is then and only then that I import them into Lightroom.

tganiats

That's what I always do, too. Card to computer via reader or slot. Computer to Aperture or Lightroom.

Ironheart

It seems to me that plugging the memory card into the computer is way faster than connecting the camera to the computer. Perhaps USB3 will change this...

Parke1953

I plug D800 into computer USB3. Seems to only take a few minutes. Tomorrow or the next day I will time it. I guess it would be different depending on the computer you have. I am running Win8 2TB 7200rpm 16G RAM + 4 external drives. Also 14bit uncompressed files are big like 70+meg. I should change that to lossless compressed (maybe).

Beso

I remove the CF card (RAW) from the camera (D800) and plug it into the appropriate slot on my desktop. Once the files have been transferred, and I verify the transfer, I return the card to the camera and reformat.

spraynpray

I vary it depending on the number of shots: If <20 I plug in the camera, if >20 I remove the card and plug it direct into the card reader bay in my desktop tower. LR copies to 2TB back-up drive as well as main hard drive and then to the cloud. I reformat just before the next use after I am sure they are all away to the cloud safely.

I put my wi-fi card in my wife's camera as it is p a i n f u l l y slow to load raw files.

sevencrossing

I remove the SD card and use a card reader via a USB 2 port; is very quick

tcole1983

Hmm...I have a memory card reader. Maybe I will do this if I have more files.

warprints

I hook the cameras to the computer via usb. Then I play Battlefield 3 for a while. Yes, removing the cards and using my reader would be faster, but I prefer not to remove cards from my cameras if I don't have to.

PB_PM

External card reader 99% of the time. The last time I used the USB directly from the camera was a few years ago, and that was only because my card reader died. Why waste the cameras battery uploading images to the computer?

Nikonhotep

External card reader (when I was shooting on CF cards with my D300) or, these days when I'm using the D7100, the built-in SD slot on my MacBook Pro. The only time I ever downloaded directly from the camera was when I'd misplaced my card reader.

clskelton

I thought about using an eyefi card, but couldn't justify it since I would rarely use the wireless transfer feature, so this is what I do:

I take pictures onto a SanDisk Ultra MicroSDHC Class 10 card in an SD card adapter
95% of the time I pop the whole thing out and put it in my laptop (built-in SD card reader) to transfer images over.
If I don't have my laptop available and I want to upload one or two pictures, then I pop out just the MicroSDHC card from my camera and put it in my Android smartphone (Galaxy S3) which has a MicroSD card slot that I don't use (since I stream music).
I open up my phone's file browser app, browse to the jpg (I shoot RAW+JPEG), and export it to my messaging app to send a text, or whatever other app I want.

Sometimes I'll use the WU-1a Wi-Fi adapter with DSLRDashboard to transfer an image or two to my phone, but I prefer to pop the card in to my phone.

NSXTypeR

I use a Sandisk card reader, all in one. Works pretty fast for me.

ZSChow

Built in card reader in my laptop. Much faster than transferring over USB.

@warprints: whats your battlelog user name?

JJ_SO

I've three different card-readers, which look nicer than three different USB-cables laying around on my desk. What I also never do again is getting a long USB cable for tethered shooting because Nikon likes to change the connectors quite often - on the other side, there are not much left which they haven't used so far

For D800 they had to create a plastic piece to give the plug a bit more stability. In my eyes that's a plain ridiculous, second best solution. When used on a tripod, the plug should face down - and not sidewards. Therefore I prefer card-readers, the connectors are in general neither clever placed nor designed.

bland

ViewNX2

PB_PM

For D800 they had to create a plastic piece to give the plug a bit more stability. In my eyes that's a plain ridiculous, second best solution. When used on a tripod, the plug should face down - and not sidewards. Therefore I prefer card-readers, the connectors are in general neither clever placed nor designed.

Nikon uses ports based on the USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 standard, it's not really up to them how the ports are designed. That decision is made by the group that designs the USB standard (Companies like, DEC, Intel, Microsoft, NEC and Nortel). The D800 uses a standard USB3 micro-B port, not a some port Nikon came up with.

JJ_SO

I'm not talking about the ports only, @PB_PM, I was talking about the plugs. I know some examples of manufacturers not using straight but rectangular plugs. In most cases that would let the cable coming out downwards and reduce the risk of eventually break or tear out the socket.


Instead of thinking what would serve best, they sell ultra-cheap standard cables at Nikon-prices. And they use two different types of mini USB-Mini-B-plugs, the one with 5 and the one with 4 contacts. Why? But I admit I didn't know of the existance of rectangular USB-plugs type until I got my new Wacom tablet. They developed a very thoughtful plug including strain relief which lets me go away with the cable to the right or left side.

So, for a heavy 7.5m cable for tethered shooting I came up with this solution:

I just don't want the tiny socket to hold the cable's full weight and when eventually tripping over the cable to be ripped out of the body. That's for D7000. Only. For D5100 and D7100 I'd need another cable which is quite expensive. So, either a good WiFi inbuilt or one (!) single standard USB-2.0 plug for each of them. Can't say, Canon can, I just don't know.

macsavageg4

Pull the card(s) put them in a reader and pull the images.

Parke1953

Just timed how long it takes do download 343 NEF+JPG 85-97meg each (nef+jpg combined). 11 min. Is that a long time I dont know. Will try using card reader tomorrow.

JJ_SO

Pretty interesting: Today I was in a shop and wanted to play a bit with EOS 70D. They didn't stock it, so I took the chance to have a look at the USB ports. Out of 8 different Canons, point and shoot until DSLR there wasn't a single one with another than Mini-B 5 contacts. Also I had a look at Nikon's prices of a 2 m long USB cable. It's plain robbery to ask for +30 US$!

bland

Just timed how long it takes do download 343 NEF+JPG 85-97meg each (nef+jpg combined). 11 min. Is that a long time I dont know. Will try using card reader tomorrow.

That's more than 2 times faster then my computer can do it.

dissent

I just plug in the camera via the USB cable. Both cams are 16 mp so it doesn't take all that long. I make tea while I'm waiting if there are a lot of files and then review them in ViewNX2 to see what to throw out immediately.

Parke1953

This is strange but I just downloaded 174 photos using the built in CF card reader and it took 12 min to the same external hard drive. That was only half of what I did a few days ago. So I downloaded 163 pics from the camera (just to check) to the same hard drive in 6min 30sec. I would have thought the CF and SD slots in computer would have been faster. Camera is USB 3.0 don't know what the built in slots are, yet. Any ideas?