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Software question, SLR and P&S

post #1 of 6
9/19/04 at 5:27pm
Thread Starter 
The wife has just surprised me with the Canon Rebel 300D. We've had the A80 for the past year.
I'm chargeing the battery for the Rebel, but haven't installed the software as yet. I see it comes again with Zoom Browser EX as did the A80. Guess my question is, can I use both Camera's on same computer. It has a driver to be intalled, as well as software for downloading RAW.

Anyone use 2 differnet cameras on same computer, any troubles ?.
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post #2 of 6
9/20/04 at 12:26am
I don't use Canon's software and don't have a D-Rebel, so can't be sure. But haven't had any problems w/ my Nikon D70 and Canon G3 talking to the same PC via USB -- and I do use Nikon software for D70 file transfer on that PC while using the generic Windows transfer for G3 (and for D70 JPEGs also).

I'd think you should have no problems since both cameras are Canon.

Personally, I prefer to use a card reader and do the transfers directly just like normal. That's what I do on another PC that has a card reader.

BTW, since this will probably be the first time you use RAW, you might want to check out BreezeBrowser for a decent RAW solution. Canon software is a dog -- unless you get the 1D Mk2 from what I hear. For my G3, I used BreezeBrowser for the occasional RAW conversions -- it's a popular one that doesn't break the bank. If you have Photoshop CS, you can probably also use their RAW converter instead.

_Man_
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post #3 of 6
9/20/04 at 2:08pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the info.
My main worry was, I have ZoomBrowser download to "C:\Camera\" and the A80 creates a folder(s) for the dates the pictures were taken. Along with numbered name of each pic. Hoping I can tell it different directory for Rebel.
Also, I was worried the USB driver for the Rebel might somehow mess up the A80 from working (or vise versa).

I've never used RAW before, so don't know what to expect. Do you mean the software is bad or slow.

Also, can you mix up photos, some jpeg, some RAW on same card ?.
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post #4 of 6
9/20/04 at 10:29pm
The Canon software is both slow *and* feature lacking unless you have the 1D Mk2. Most people just use 3rd party RAW conversion software instead. BreezeBrowser has some nice features specifically for RAW conversion and seems to be optimized mostly for Canon cameras.

Yes, you can have both JPEG and RAW files on the same card.

Again, if I were you, I'd just use a card reader instead. Then you can do your file transfers explicitly and just treat the card like any old removeable media. I suggest getting a USB2 reader to make the transfers much faster than your A80 and D-Rebel can do.

_Man_
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post #5 of 6
9/21/04 at 10:55am
Yep... use a card reader. When you're transferring 1GB worth of 5MB RAW files, you'll be thankful to not have to do it via the camera. It'll take forever, and drain the camera batteries, too.

You shouldn't have any trouble running two cameras on the same software. If a filename/folder combo already exists, the filename will be appended with "(1)", "(2)", etc. In fact, you can have duplicate folder, file names from the SAME camera if you roll the thing, or reset the counter - so Canon has provided a method that ensures you won't over-write files.

I run the Canon 10D and a Canon A60 on the same computer (though I usually do manual transfers via a card reader, for speed).

The Canon Raw software does leave a lot to be desired. You can at least find a free update (the EOS Viewer Utility) which is a marginal improvement over what is on the CD. The software is available at Canon's support pages online. Still, I suggest almost anything else for RAW conversion. Photoshop CS has a good RAW converter built in.

-Scott
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post #6 of 6
9/21/04 at 2:01pm
Thread Starter 
thanks all.

Card Reader, yes I really see why now. Took 19 images with Rebel (at Large, not RAW). Seemed to take the same amount of time of say about 35-45 images with A80.

Yes I was concerned with one camera overwriting the others files on the PC. Thanks for clearing that up. I looked all over the software menus to try and tell it to download to different dir for each camera. You can't.

Still in dark ages when it comes to USB 2.0 and Firewire, I don't have either.
I'm gonna pick up a card reader that is USB2. They still work with old usb just not at the speed of 2.0, correct ?.

Both cameras are working, my fear was, one driver would overwrite the old. But it's fine.

thanks
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