lwhitlow wrote:
I have a Canon 5D Mark III camera that I have had no problems in the past connecting to my Dell computer and downloading photos. Then all of a sudden a week ago - the computer quit recognizing the camera was attached. My EOS Utility program that downloads my photos from my camera to my computer no longer recognized my camera was connected and in my computer settings my camera was no longer recognized as being connected. I have uninstalled my EOS Utility several times - hoping this was the problem - but to no avail. I even downloaded the program from the Canon website - but it still doesn't work. Thinking it might be a driver, (I checked my shutter count on my camera with a site someone had suggested on this forum - and had to change a driver), I reinstalled a driver for the EOS Utility program from the Canon website - but that didn't work either. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions to try - please help. (And no comments about it being a Dell and not Apple either, please:-) Thank you for any suggestions. Oh yes, my camera is able to download photos using my laptop with the EOS Utility - so I don't think it is my camera??? I have also changed connecting cords and that doesn't help either.
I have a Canon 5D Mark III camera that I have had ... (
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Stop connecting your camera to download. Start using a card reader instead.
Your problem helps illustrate why it's a better idea to remove the memory card from the camera and use a card reader, instead of connecting the camera to the computer to download images.
Connecting the camera may work fine. But the connecting cables or the mini USB socket of the camera are vulnerable. Things can also get screwed up with a download applet on the computer if that becomes corrupted or there's an update that makes it incompatible. And if a download fails mid-stream, there's some risk to the images on the card, too. Those can become corrupted. (No matter how you download, always use "Copy" images instead of "Move" images. That leaves the original images on the mem card until certain the downloads are successful and safely backed up, only then format the card in the camera to "erase" the images).
The USB socket on many cameras is part of the main board. If that socket gets damaged or worn out from use, there's good chance the entire board will need to be replaced. Both the part and the labor to do that will be pricey. The memory card socket, on the other hand, is designed for frequent removal of the cards... And in many cameras it's a separate sub-assembly, cheaper and easier to replace if that's ever necessary.
Yes, I connect my cameras to my computer using the USB cable.... but not to download images. Only to synchronize their clocks prior to events where I'll be shooting with multiple cameras, which is much less often. On a few rare occasions I've also used the cable for tethered shooting. Either way, it's far less use of the cable and USB socket than using it to download images would require.
A bonus, downloading with a card reader is often faster than using the USB cable. Sometimes a whole lot faster! It depends upon the connectivity of the card reader and the camera. A5DIII will use USB2... and the built-in card readers of both my laptop and desktop computers transfer data 2X or 3X faster than that. An external card reader USB3 or other fast connection (if your computer has them) would handle the downloads a lot faster than that USB2 cable.
20+ years shooting digital I've always done downloads removing cards from the camera and using a card reader. I've never had a camera get damaged or worn out doing that. Out of many hundreds of such downloads... maybe even a thousand or more... I've had problems on exactly two occasions. One was a failed memory card (brand new). The other was when I had changed the connection of the card reader to the computer, routing it through a USB hub (in order to add something else). That caused some corrupt image files. It was an easy fix and nothing was lost because I always "copy" instead of "move" images. I now use built-in card readers that are even faster.
I also don't use anything more than my computer's operating system to "download" images. For downloading, a program like EOS Utility or Lightroom or whatever is simply unnecessary. When I insert a memory card into the reader, it shows up like another hard drive. I just use the OS and click to open the folder containing the image ("drive" letter > DCIM > 100EOS5D), select any one image, then press "ctrl A" to highlight them all, then drag and drop them all to a folder I've set up in advance on my computer to receive them (a left click dragging automatically uses "copy"... a right click drag opens a menu where that's one of the choices). This takes a lot longer to write or read about it here, than it does to do it (especially since I've set my computer to immediately open a browser window whenever I insert a memory card). This also eliminates a software automatically creating folders, renaming images, etc., which can sometimes cause problems.
I don't know if it's related, but many years ago I was told to "eject" memory cards suing the computer, prior to removing them, after download is complete. I think with old operating systems this was necessary. Maybe it's not now, but I still do it out of habit. It's as easy as a simple right-click on the drive name, a menu pops up and one choice is "eject", then the computer gives a "safe to remove device" notification.