I am contemplating purchasing a Canon S5IS camera and in case someone knows something that I don't (which wouldn't be unusual) I would like to know if I am going to have any problems connecting the camera via the USB port and being able to upload pictures, or any problems for that matter that you might be aware of! Any and all information is very much appreciated.

Thank you.LK

I am fairly certain that all recent Canon digital cameras have 'Pict Bridge' built in, which is supported in Linux. Generically, this is known as PTP, Picture Transfer Protocol.
--- rod.

I just received this from Canon:


Thank you for your inquiry about using the PowerShot S5 IS with Linux.
We value you as a Canon customer and appreciate the opportunity to
assist you.

Canon cameras are not compatible to Linux.

Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance with your
Canon Camera purchase.

Thank you for choosing Canon.

Sincerely,

Robert
Technical Support Representative


Now what?

I emailed back to Canon about the "Pict Bridge".

I have to be sure because if I can't us Linux to upload/work with the camera there is no use in me buying it.

This is the latest from canon:


Thank you for writing, I am sincerely sorry to hear of any difficulties
downloading your images from your PowerShot S5 IS.

All of our current PowerShot cameras have PictBridge which is used to
connect your camera with PictBridge compliant printers.

Regrettably, at this time LINUX is not a currently supported operating
system. However you should be able to download your images using a
card reader. Card readers are relatively inexpensive, most electronic
stores carry them for $25 or less, and these card readers make it much
easier to download to your computer.

I hope this helps, please let me know if we can be of any further
assistance with your Canon S5 IS

Thank you for choosing Canon.

Sincerely,

Deva
Technical Support Representative
----------------------------------------------------------

I have no idea what a card reader is, can someone please explain what they are talking about and how this will affect me, and the camera? Any information would be very much appreciated as I am limping along here.

LK

Okay. They are simply saying that they will not support Linux as an OS compatible with their products. However, that does not mean it will not work. I have used Canon cameras that have PTP/PictBridge built in with Linux applicatios, such as gthumb & other libgphoto-based applications. If it has PictBridge, and I'm sure it does, it will work.
What they say about the use of card readers is also true. Your digital camera stores its images on some form of industry standard memory cards, which are removable. The memory cards can be plugged into a card reader that interfaces with your PC, and the images can then be read from the memory card just as if they were on a drive in the PC. This works in both Linux and Windows. Usually, these card readers interface to the PC via a USB interface. If the camera does not support USB-2.0, this may be the recommended way of downloading the images, as the relatively slow USB-1.1 can make downloads very time consuming. This method is virtually guaranteed to work. Card readers cost about $20. I do this all the time.
Go ahead and buy the camera. It is a very nice unit.
--- rod.

Rod, I'm going to do it on your advise. Will you please advise me on what brand card reader to buy? Running "blind" here, so I have no doubt I'll have to get back to you. I really appreciate your help!

PS. All my USB slots are 2.0.

I can't recall any particular brand. They are very common, and available anywhere that office equipment is sold, or online (OfficeMax online lists 11 models). These things are dead simple, and I doubt that any one brand is especially superior. I suppose it makes some sense to look for one made by a name-brand memory card manufacturer. Many card readers are 'universal' in that they can read all formats of memory cards. You need to make sure whatever you buy will support the format your camera uses.
While most PC host USBs are 2.0 compliant, not all devices (like cameras) are. Probably a modern camera will be. In fact I just looked it up, and the S5IS is USB-2 compliant. It uses SD, SDHC, or MMC compatible memory cards which are all very common, and finding a card reader for it will be trivial.
--- rod.

Rod I appreciate the help so I'll start checking out the card readers witch work with multiple formats.
If not to much trouble could you give me a quick understanding of SDHC and MMC? I know the SD stands for Secure Digital, but I don't know what the other 2 are, what is best?

Sorry, I'm not really any expert on these. I think MMC, MultiMediaCard, is somewhat of an older, larger form factor. SDHC is SD-High-Capacity. I'm not sure it makes any difference which one you choose. I would chose the one with the lowest cost per megabyte. There may be some issue with speed on some older flash memories, but this is only ever a problem when shooting in movie mode. The only other issue might be that some media might be interchangeable with other devices like other cameras, cell phones, PDAs, etc. There is also another format, micro-SD, which is a very small package and is popular in cell phones and MP3 players. Often, these are sold with an adapter that allows you to use them in regular SD devices, such as your camera and many card readers.
Thats everything I think I know about flash memory devices.
---- rod.