Hey linux fans and gurus,

I am planning to buy a digital camera to be used in linux. From your experience, which types of digital cameras works well in linux.

If a digital camera uses flash memory to store its photos, will the kernel treat this type of camera as a USB mass storage device.

Also, which digital cameras should I avoid because it uses proprietary drivers and such.

I appreciate any comments. Thanks in advance....

For me, any digital camera works as long as I can take the memory card out and put it in my Sandisk 12 in 1 card reader. Everything there gets read as a USB drive.

Most digital cameras work under Linux, if

• you are prepared to use a file manager to move files around (rather than wanting some integrated app)
• you are happy to use jpegs, rather than raw files

if you want to use raw files, be aware that raw isn't a format, but a collection of vaguely related file formats and you might have to get a proprietary program to deal with these (...or not, depending...). In that sense, point 'n shoot compacts are probably easier than DSLRs as you probably want to use the RAWs from a DSLR.

In the early days, there were some compacts that would not mount as a storage device, but I think that's over by now (sometimes you have to delve deep into the menus to set them into the right mode, though).

Thanks pljvaldez and salasi for the fast reply.

The info both of you gave me is enough to make my choice on a future digital camera. Thanks again

Well for me my Kodak C612 works great with gphoto on the gnome desktop (i'm using Ubuntu). Other Kodak compacts seem to work the same way.

so far I have been able to hook up any camera with Linux that I had (my own and from visitors), and like salasi said:
.
Using Kubuntu, they all work well with DigiKam as well, as a free alternative to an integrated app.

Ron

Thanks to the new replies. I am getting the Kodak Z915. It's a basic to intermediate level camera.