didgital cameras, USB and battery drain!

[Gomer]

Quick question. Do digital cameras with USB connections drain the battery while transferring pictures to a computer? The camera in question is a Cannon S100. I am thinking that they don't since USB provides some power. Any thoughts on this anyone?

Just curious because my dad is all worried that using the camera directly will cause drain on the battery and wants to get a flash card reader. Since he knows nothing about computers (along with everyone else in my family) I have to hook it up. I can handle that... but there is so much **** attatched to it right now I am weary of hooking another thing on. Plus it is extra **** for me to answer questions about and have to deal with when it quits working. So please tell me that the battery drain well transferring images via USB is minimal. Thanks

[randy48]

It sure does suck the life out of batteries! I bought a SanDisk Compact Flash Card Reader at PC Connections and you can use it link a floppy disk I've got several 32MB cards and they hold quite a bit

[Gomer]

So the USB doesn't aid in the transfer at all? I know that parallel port transfer sucked the batteries. Any other experience out there? Please someone tell me that USB transfer doesn't drain the batteries. =)

[Graham]

Gomer, my casio manual states you should have the external power connected when d/loading pictures, so I assume it uses camera power.
I too got a sandisk cfII reader, but I bought an IBM microdrive (340M), simple, just plug drive in, auto d/l, done. The microdrive is great, about 250 pictures at native res 2048x1536, just over a meg each. No point in taking low res pics.

G

[DougR]

Gomer.....
Check out one of these SanDisk Readers
I picked a USB Version up at my local OfficeMax for $30. Sure beats buying batteries !!

http://www.sandisk.com/cons/imagemate-USB.htm

[jl123]

Sorry to go off topic a little but I was wondering how fast the firewire smartmedia card readers are. How fast are they? Is it worth the money? I'm tired of waiting for my dumb serial port to download a full 16MB card....even a full 8MB card takes a long time. If firewire is not worth the money then what is a alternative?

Thanks,
~Joel

[randy48]

jl123 my SanDisk reader is USB and does 32MB pretty fast! I don't think FireWire is worth the price, at least not with something that small! Hard drives, I could see it.