UTEP65 Loc: Lake Royale, NC

I am pretty new at photography. I have a Nikon D7200. How do I transfer my photos to my PC?

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

Read your owners manual! You can either take the SD card out of your camera and insert it into the slot for it on the PC, or connect the camera to the PC with the cable that came with your camera.

dave.m

There are a huge number of ways to achieve this and a lot of photo processing software will do it for you. Assuming a Windows 10 PC, probably the simplest to start with, is remove the memory card from the camera, insert into your PC if you have a card reader slot, and 'open' the memory card as a disc in File manager or 'This PC'. [* If you do not have a card reader on your PC then buy a compatible USB card reader. I suggest a USB 3 reader as the upload will be faster.]

I don't know Nikon file structure but there will be a number of folders which you can view to find where the images have been stored.

Also, assuming the images are JPEG you can view a thumbnail of the images on the card in the file manager (if not visible just right click in a blank space of the folder, then select View>Large icons.)

This makes the files on the memory card visible and available.

To copy to the PC you need to select a location to copy them to. Simplest is the local folder Pictures (click Start icon, then a location 'Pictures' should be one of the icons. Click that. You then have 2 locations open, the memory card and the Pictures folder.

Now just copy from one to the other. You can drag and drop single or multiple files.

This will get you started, but if you get 'hooked' on photography you will very soon need some organisation method to manage the high number of images you want to copy and keep. Simply creating a folder structure in Pictures with location and/or date will do for a while. But before long you will want to consider an image import/ managing application and a suitable structure for long term storage and access which caters for location, date, people, etc (the classic filing dilemma - do I save this under 'beach' or 'family' or 'Joe' or 'Jane' or 'Holiday' or .... ? The more elegant solutions (and typically more costly) allow you to tag and subsequently search for whatever you have defined.

Variations:
* depending on which version of Windows, 'This Computer' could be a different name

* typically when you insert a memory card for the first time, Windows will prompt for you to select the default action. I suggest 'open in a folder for viewing' (or similar.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

This is good advice. I will suggest one more thing, if you're up to it.

Subscribing to Lightroom can be a great help in organizing your images (as well as in adjusting color, sharpness, tone curves, and much more). It's ten bucks a month, and it gives you the opportunity to automatically attach keywords when you import the images, so you get the advantage of adding Joe, Jane, Memorial Day, Beach, and all those other tags that will help you find an image among the thousands you will soon have on your hard drive. You can choose to go back in and tag them later, but it is so much easier if you start right out with it.

So my suggestion is to take a good long look at Lightroom and see if it's something that might work well for you. If so, it's something that will help you figure out how to organize your photos in a way that will work for a long time, and will make importing an easy routine - you just put the card in or connect the camera and open Lightroom. It prompts you through the process. Ten bucks a month for a subscription is the cost of a couple of lattes, and you don't lose access to the photos and edits if you decide to unsubscribe in the future. I just wish someone had told me that before I had five or six thousand images already stored.

The simple organization suggested above will do for a while, but as you accumulate images, you might be well-advised to pick a photo organizing software and use it consistently. I recommend Lightroom because it's a standard and I've found it highly capable, but there are some other alternatives, including free ones. The sooner you get into a routine and get used to following it, the easier your digital life will be. I'd suggest checking out some of the many YouTube videos and other training materials online before you commit.

Andy

dave.m

Hi Andy,

I too use Lightroom because of its RAW processing and organisation capability - ie exactly for the reasons you mention.

Its downside you also mention being the £/$10 p/m which for a beginner may be a big investement when not sure. Also because it is so comprehensive it has a bit of a learning curve before you really get to grips with it? I know I had a couple of false starts and re-starts before I got my final library organisation the way that suited me. To explore this option I would suggest the free download 'Lightroom Classic Quickstart' by The lightoom Queen (https://www.lightroomqueen.com/free-downloads/) - she really knows her stuff and presents it in a concise and well organised orde. I found it a first class intro that helped me with organisation choices and workflow.

Another application gaining a lot of traction is a worthy competitor to LR and is Luminar. IMHO the interface and editing are in the same league as LR although the library management is not as comprehensive. It is plenty good enough for those who don't have a huge need. A BIG advantage is it is a one of payment and considerable less than just one year of the Adobe Photo package.

There are of course others equally excellent in various ways such as ON1.

Perhaps for someone just starting out, keep it simple at first (as I guess we all did) then evaluate with the free download and trial period the main players such as Adobe, Luminar, ON1 and so on. As you identified the ability to organise and recall images from a pool of thousands over a few years, is a powerful advantage

UTEP65 Loc: Lake Royale, NC

Thanks. I have a new computer (Lenovo All-In-One). It does not have SD. I have ordered an external one.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

Also, use a card reader.

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

I always use a card reader. Many inexpensive ones on Amazon.

UTEP65 Loc: Lake Royale, NC

Thanks, I just ordered one.

photoman43

You can use the free program from Nikon, Nikon Transfer that is in Nikon View NX-i. It works very well. It may have come with your camera.

I use a program called Downloader Pro from Breeze Systems. It costs $ but I started using it before Nikon Transfer came into existence. Try it out for free.

I use a card reader to download my images.

https://nikonimglib.com/nvnxi/onlinehelp/en/tr017000.html

https://www.breezesys.com/solutions/breeze-downloader/

cahale Loc: San Angelo, TX

Read the manual. And when that doesn't work, read it again. That's why they give you one.

Camera buyer Loc: Las Vegas

Simple buy a card reader. Older Mac Pro Laptops have a slot for reading SSD cards.

UTEP65 Loc: Lake Royale, NC

Thanks!

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

I have a card reader and prefer NOT to use it. I'm afraid of bending pins in the camera and causing problems. I use a USB cable plugged into the camera and PC. At this point there are options.

1) Use the software that came with your camera. Canon gives "EOS Utility" with its EOS cameras. If you don't have it, you can download from their website. You will need a Canon body serial number. I doubt this works with any other brand. Nikon must offer something similar.
2) Use the computer's file handling software, for a PC it is Windows Explorer. You can "copy" from the camera and then "paste" to your PC. This is the same procedure used for card readers instead of camera.

dave.m

I'm guessing you have CF not SD card - one of the great advantages quoted originally for SD is that there are no pins to bend either with the card or within the camera.

From 1st hand experienceusing CF with a Canon EOS 5D1 I can go along with your concerns! The downsides for me are: I change card each day when on a trip after backing up to a computer or pad I keep the used card in an RF guarded case as local backup until I get home; using the same card almost indefinitely has reliability implications as there is a limit on the number of write/ reads a card can sustain (admittedly a high number for everyday users); finally from my own testing the USB transfer rate of large RAW files is grindingly slow over USB.

The latter point has not improved a great deal since switching to EOS R. Even though it has a USB-C interface; I'm using a top end high speed USB-C cable; and plugging into a USB-C port on a Dell XPS, the upload performance is way slower than using a quality UHS-II USB-C card reader.