[Maine-Man]

Hi all, I just got a sweet Pentax Kr that was owned by just one person before me and it was treated very well, the camera seems to work just fine, everything checks out ok, I took some test shots with it today and they look great in-camera but when I tried to download then to my PC the photos just will not download no matter how or by what means I tried, be it a card reader (I tried the one that came with the camera, a Transcend 3.0) , I tried my own card (Targas) multi reader that I've used with my Cannon, Olympus, Sony and my wife's camera's, all of which have downloaded flawlessly. When I could not download the photos via any card reader I tried using just the USB cable hooked up direct to the camera and computer, this also failed to download the photos.

I've never had an issue downloading photos from any camera to my computer before this, this Pentax Kr really has me scratching my head and I'm at my whits end trying to figure out what the problem is, so that's what brought me to this forum, I figure that there has to be someone here who has run into this problem in the past and knows how to remedy it.

Thanks up front for any and all help with this photo download issue I'm having.

Lou.

[marcusBMG]

Fault find: pc and camera

Can you review the pics on the camera? if so that suggests the camera side is ok.
What format are you taking the pics in? If RAW these will not be recognised by eg windows pic viewer, you need the silkypix supplied with the camera, image viewer like faststone, Lightroom etc
Are you getting error messages?
Does the pc recognise the card?

[Adam]

So, when you plug the card in to your reader, what do you see?

[jatrax]

Check what format you are shooting in. If it is RAW your computer may not see the files. Try shooting some in jpg and see if that works.

Otherwise, make sure your computer can see the card reader. Some older computers can not read newer SD cards without a firmware or driver update. Note that is on the computer side, not the camera.

[rawr]

First, I am presuming that you do not expect the images to be automatically gathered off the card as soon as you insert them into your reader? Some computers will often do that, but if it doesn't happen, nothing is broken. It's just a configuration issue with the software that drives your PC and how it deals by default with images.

Try and copy the files off the card reader manually, from the folder on the SD card they were created in.

Or follow these steps:

- Get a SD card that you know works out of one of your other cameras. (Hopefully not a Yogi bear brand card or some fake from eBay).
- Put it in the K-r.
- Format it in the K-r.
- Go into the camera Info display on the rear screen (or go into the camera menu system via the Menu button) and set the image format to be recorded as JPEG only.

(While you are in the camera menu system, go to the 'Setup' menu item that says 'USB Connection' and make sure it is set to 'MSC', not 'PTP'. MSC will ensure your computer recognises the camera as just another disk drive if you need to directly connect the camera to the computer via a USB cable).

- Shoot a few shots.
- Review them on the camera screen.
- If they saved there OK, shut the camera down, remove the card, put it in your usual card reader connected to your PC, and try and copy them to your computer as normal.
- If that doesn't work, plug a USB cable into the camera, plug the cable into your PC, and if the computer recognises the camera, try and copy the files off the camera directly from the camera. The camera should show up as a normal looking drive on your PC. Open the drive, find the image folder, grab your JPEGs' copy them to your PC hard disk.

[Maine-Man]

Firstly, thanks everyone for the feedback and help.

I uninstalled and reinstalled the Pentax Digital Camera Utility 4 software and had another go at downloading the photos, after some fiddling around with the Utility I was able to download the photos that I had taken earlier today, still found it quite a process from the normal way I download photos from cameras, which straight forward and much easier that this convoluted method.

The good news is that I found a way to download the photos via either the USB cable direct or SD card reader, I still don't know why I can not download the photos as I normally would, just doesn't make sense at all.

Well, I guess I'll just have to hike up the learning curve and deal with it, I'm not exactly a novice when it comes to DSLR'S, this Pentax Kr makes # 7 for me but it is my first Pentax and obviously, I have a great deal to learn about how they function.

Again, thanks for the help, I appreciate your time.

Lou.

[rawr]

You don't need the Pentax software at all, by the way.

The way i normally work is this:

- shoot images
- take card out of camera
- put card into card reader connected to PC
- PC recognises card as a disk (usually drive K)
- open drive K: directly in Windows Explorer, copy latest folder full of images to PC hard drive
- remove SD card from card reader after copying is complete
- open Lightroom, tell it to import images from location on hard drive, start working on the images.

It's a common mistake (in my opinion) to let your camera software take over what happens when the computer sees that a SD card has been inserted into your card reader.

Software that I have loaded for my Sony cameras tried to do that, software for my Canon and Nikon cameras did the same. Lightroom, Picasa and other photo software have also tried to take over the operation at some stage.

I prefer to do the procedure manually, treating the SD card as just another floppy disc with data (which essentially it is). More control, less room for mistakes.

[bschriver11]

I use windows live photo but there are other software programs that do the same thing,when i insert the card reader into the usb port it recognizes the card and photos and opens the download menu,it gives the option to name the folder and select which photos to download or simply select download all.Chances are if your using windows you already have the software you just need to open it and set it up to perform this action whenever you insert the card.I plug mine into the computer name the folder and hit import all and i'm done,simple as that.

[stevebrot]

I prefer to do the procedure manually

Same here. I am configured to always have the OS ask me what to do. Alternatively, I would suggest it default to opening in Windows Explorer (for Windows). I then copy the file folder to the computer to avoid the possibility of the files NOT being moved and being accidentally deleted the next time the card is formatted.


Steve