Fig 1.0 Windows 7 has detected some hardware and is now installing/configuring its Driver files
Fig 1.1 Windows 7 has installed/configured the driver files for the now recognized Canon PowerShot A510 digital camera
| IMPORT PHOTOGRAPHS FROM A DIGITAL CAMERA |
When you buy a Digital Camera it normally comes with an Installation CD, that contains the camera's Driver files and/or some Photo Software (Album
Creator, Photo Editor, Photo Importer and so on). To install the camera's driver files you may have to use the Installation CD if Windows 7 does not
automatically detect and then install your, USB connected, digital camera for you - Automatic detection and installation is known as Plug N Play
technology. Read the previous Hardware sections about Driver Installation and WebCam Installation, as well as the Installing Hardware section, if you
need explanations/examples on installing hardware/driver files.
In this example I will show you how to import (transfer) photographs, from a digital camera, without needing to install the photo software that came
with the digital camera - I will be using Windows 7's import function only. This is ideal if you only want to import photographs for e-mail, printing
and/or safekeeping (backup) purposes. Installing the photo software that comes with a digital camera's Installation CD can bloat Windows 7 and so,
ideally, should only be installed if you like editing photographs and creating photograph albums for example. Remember though. Scanners and WebCams
usually have photo software on their Installation CDs, so check to see if you have good photo software already installed on Windows 7 - It is pointless
having many different kinds of photo software installed if they can all do the same job (i.e. create a photo album and/or re-size a photograph).
To get started I plugged my Canon PowerShot A510 digital camera into a spare USB Port (Socket) and Windows 7 then detected and installed the camera (driver files) for me. This is because my digital camera is Plug N Play. If your digital camera is Plug N Play it will also be detected and installed by Windows 7. Otherwise. To install your digital camera using its driver files only you will either have to use the driver files from your digital camera's Installation CD (if possible/if available) or download the driver files from the internet (if possible/if available). If you cannot do any of these you might be forced to install your digital camera completely (with Photo Software) using its Installation CD, unless you can get someone to install the driver files only for you.
Once Windows 7 finished installing/configuring my digital camera's driver files it then displayed the
AutoPlay window, which gives the option to Import Pictures (Photographs). If AutoPlay has been set
to use a particular action on Pictures/Cameras before, using the option ALWAYS DO THIS FOR THIS DEVICE, you will not see the AutoPlay window appear.
AutoPlay will carry out that particular, set, action instead. For example. If AutoPlay has been set to OPEN DEVICE TO VIEW FILES for your digital camera
it means the digital camera's Photograph folder will automatically open each time you insert your digital camera into a USB Port. From there you can
manipulate the Photographs, because you can see them inside the opened folder of course.
In this example no AutoPlay action had ever been set for my digital camera, and I did not want to set any action for it. Therefore I simply clicked on
the IMPORT PICTURES AND VIDEOS link to continue.
After clicking on the IMPORT PICTURES AND VIDEOS link my digital camera was then scanned for Pictures (Photographs) and Videos. If any video files are found they will be stored inside the same folder as that used for any found picture files. Obviously, if your digital camera cannot record/store video files then no video files will be found.
In Fig 1.4 above the scan has finished and reported that 158 Picture files and 0 Video files were found. However. Do not
believe this. As with most Green Progress Guages, these results/timings/numbers are only AT THE TIME estimates. Meaning. If
you download something from the internet the green progress (download) guage might be at the halfway mark and be stating
"5 minutes remaining". However. Within the next minute the green progress guage might fully finish or its window might just
close to denote the download is complete.....complete within a minute and not in 5 minutes time as stated. And the same
applies here with the scan. I got a result of 158 Picture files found and then the scanning guage disappeared. My final
total though was 267 Picture files imported, which was correct. I did have 267 Photographs on my digital camera. So ignore
the, estimated, scan result....if it is not initially correct.
With the digital camera scanned the next window to appear asks if you would like to TAG your Picture, and Video, files.
This basically means the TAG Name you enter into the TAG Name edit box (below) will be prefixed (tagged) to all your
picture, and video, files as well as to the picture folder storing those files. For example. I entered Europe 2007 as a
TAG Name, which meant all my picture files that were originally numbered by my digital camera (i.e. 0001.jpg, 0002.jpg and
so on) were renamed with the TAG Name prefix (i.e. Europe 2007 0001.jpg, Europe 2007 0002.jpg and so on). The TAG Name,
which is optional, is more for Windows 7's SEARCH benefit.
At this point the scanning of my digital camera has been done (Figures 1.3 and 1.4 above) and a TAG Name has been supplied (Fig 1.6 above). The IMPORT PICTURES program can now carry on by actually importing my picture files. On the importing window (Fig 1.7 below) there is an option to ERASE AFTER IMPORTING. By ticking this option, any time before the importing process has finished, you are telling the IMPORT PICTURES program that you would like to erase the original picture and video files from your digital camera.
Think very carefully before ticking the ERASE AFTER IMPORTING option - You must be absolutely confident with your computer and digital camera that the picture, and video, files will be imported to your computer properly before they are erased. If you feel your computer and/or digital camera freeze/crash too often for example I would suggest leaving the the ERASE AFTER IMPORTING option unticked (clear/unset). You can always erase the picture and video files from the digital camera later, using the digital camera's own DELETE function.
When the importing process has finished, and your picture and video files have been erased (if that was required), the last window you will see is the folder containing the imported media (picture and/or video files). It gets opened automatically, by default, in order that you can preview your media by way of thumbnail icons. From here you could Print them, Copy & Paste to another folder and so on. The folder you are shown at first is called IMPORTED PICTURES AND VIDEOS - This is just a mirror folder of the actual folder created for your imported media (i.e. 2009-11-06 Europe 2007). So look inside the MY PICTURES folder for your actual imported media folder (i.e. 2009-11-06 Europe 2007).
If you want to change the location of the pictures folder used by the IMPORT PICTURES program you can do so by clicking on the IMPORT SETTINGS link on the TAG Name window (Fig 1.5 above and below). From there you click on the BROWSE button (Fig 1.11 below) to navigate to a folder of your choice (not exampled here). This means the TAG Name folder that stores your imported pictures (i.e. Europe 2007) will then be created inside this chosen picture folder, along side the Date if need be. So in my case I have a Europe 2007 sub-folder (TAG Name folder) that is created inside the main (Windows 7) MY PICTURES folder as 2009-11-06 Europe 2007.
As well as changing the Import Pictures folder you can also change the TAG settings. For example. The TAG Named sub-folder is created by default with the Date Imported plus your TAG Name. So in my case my TAG Named sub-folder is actually 2009-11-06 Europe 2007. If I wanted it to be Europe 2007 2009-11-06 I would select TAG + DATE IMPORTED from the Folder Name drop-down menu.
If you do not want the Windows Explorer program to open each time you import picture files from your digital camera simply untick the option OPEN WINDOWS
EXPLORER AFTER IMPORT. Similarly, if you do not want to be prompted to enter a TAG Name, and therefore do not want to use a TAG Name, simply untick the
option PROMPT FOR A TAG ON IMPORT.
Going back to AutoPlay (from the paragraph above Fig 1.2 and onwards, above). If AutoPlay does not appear when you connect your digital camera, or it
does but you do not like using it, you can IMPORT PICTURES by right clicking on your digital camera's icon. This brings up its Options menu whereby you
then need to select (left click on) the IMPORT PICTURES AND VIDEOS menu-item (Fig 1.13 below).
The right click over the digital camera's icon must be over the icon or over its wording (title) - If you just right click inside the light blue rectangle that surrounds the icon, in a clear blue area, you will not see the Options menu with the IMPORT PICTURES AND VIDEOS menu-item on it.
Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation. As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.
