Card Reader Problem

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 12 Sep 2010 11:57 am

I just now bought a card reader for my digital camera. The camera uses the compact flash card. The card reader is a Targus brand. It has the word "power" on the upper left corner and there is a small hole next to it. I think this is probably an LED light that should come on when it is powered up by the USB, but I don't know for sure, it has never come on. The package says it is compatible with Max OSX or higher. I have OS X 10.4.11, so I should be good there.

The icon of the reader does show up on my desktop and the flash card with the photos on it is another icon when I open up the card reader. But, when I click on the icon, all I get is a message that says the movie cannot be opened and that it is not a movie file. I know it is not a movie, but my computer thinks I am telling it that it is a movie. It is only photographs. When I opened it for the first time, it said I had not selected something and gave me some choices. They were a few choices, such as apple script, but nothing that had to do with anything concerning photos. Quicktime was a choice, so I selected it. Now I am stuck with quicktime and can't get rid of it.

Do I have to buy something additonal for my computer? Something like photo shop or photo deluxe, which I had on my old computer, for photo's to open? And how do I get rid of this darn quicktime thing?

Thanks.

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 13 Sep 2010 5:54 am

The plot thickens: My camera is very old, so the software installation disc that came with it does not work on my newer Mac OS-X system. So, I borrowed my girlfriends camera which does work on OS-X. I installed the software from the disc that came with her camera without any problem. It is Picture Project 1.1. BUT....now the card reader doesn't work at all. It just does not show up as an icon on the desktop at all. I have no idea how to solve this problem. Anybody got any ideas?

I guess I am stuck with doing things the way I have in the past. Take my old camera's compact flash care to Walgreen's and burn a CD with the photo's in jpeg, then load it onto my old computer. This is an aggravation and expense everytime I want to take some photos, but right now, this seems like my only option.

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 13 Sep 2010 8:16 am

In my experience some CF cards show up and some don't. So it's probably the card, not the reader. When I get a card that doesn't show up in the Finder I put it back in the camera and hook the camera directly to a USB port on the computer; it always show up then, and I can drag the pictures to a folder on the computer in the Finder.

There's a program on your Mac called Image Capture that will do all this, if you open it and configure it to get photos from a card or a camera.

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 15 Sep 2010 8:19 am

Cal, thanks for trying to help. You may be right, it may be the CF card. I haven't used the camera or card in a very long time and I remember that Walgreen's machine could not read the card the last time I was there.

I am OK for the moment, though. My girlfriend's camera is working with my computer just fine now. The card reader will not read her SD card, but by hooking the camera to the computer, it works fine. I installed Picture Project that came with her camera.

I really like my old Nikon camera, but it is so old, it was before USB came along. I don't have a cable for the camera at all, plus, the software disc that came with it is so old, I am sure it will not work with Mac OS-X. So, I guess I need to talk to Nikon and see if there is a disc or a download that I can get to make the old camera work with my newer computer. It worked fine with my old Imac vs. 8.5, but when I updated to vs. 9.1, it quit working. I was using a card reader since I don't have a cable that will work. So, possibly new software and cable will get my old camera working on the OS-X system. I am assuming that the old camera will not work using Picture Project, which I assume is a much newer program I can't try it because I don't have a cable. Nikon has the answers, I am sure.

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 15 Sep 2010 8:25 am

Another thing you can try is to format - not just erase - the CF card in the camera. Might make it readable.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 15 Sep 2010 9:54 am

With Windows machines, some older digital camera card formats were not compatible with Windows. In those models you have to hook the camera up to the PC and transfer throught the Camera. From reading this thread it may be the same way in a MAC.

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