Looking for an easy digital pic viewer and organizer.

[tclouatre]

Hello,

My first digital camera was a Kodak Easy Share. I had it for about a year and was getting fairly comfortable with the viewer/organizer. The camera quit working and I just pruchased a Fujifilm Finepix Z series. The picture quality is a bit better but the viewing program is a bit too complicated for me and I am looking for an easier one. My first question is do I have to use the viewing software that comes with the camera?

[Skippybox]

I generally see no reason why you have to. There are plenty of image viewers/organizers that will work with digital images. I don't know what your needs are or how simple you need it to be. Wikipedia may help you.

Image Organizers
Image Viewers

Obviously you're looking at IrfanView. It is very popular, quite simple, but also very powerful. You will not be disappointed. However, there isn't always a viewer that does everything. So, you will probably want a couple different ones depending on what you need to do. Are you looking for recommendations?

[matera]

My first question is do I have to use the viewing software that comes with the camera?

My first answer is, NO! In fact, very little of what is on any CD that comes with a camera is necessary, or even useful. But then I view Kodak's Easy Share software as abominable clutter. I have observed its behavior on a number of computers -- invasive, pushy, and...well, I would never put up with it.

The only thing a camera needs is the right drivers. Any file manager (i.e. Windows Explorer, a.k.a. "My Computer") can be used to download pics from a camera and organize them. Any good viewer will do to sort them out and so on. All you need to do is get aquainted with your file system and a viewer that you are comfortable with. Beware of software that creates "albums" in proprietary databases rather than organizing the actual files.

Any software takes some getting used to. But if you choose wisely, the same program can be used with any images, any camera, and you don't have to put up with things that insist on starting with Windows and popping up when they are not wanted.

[tclouatre]

Yes, I am looking for recommendations. What I want to do is to download the pics from my camera without duplicates. I tend not to delete the pics from the memory card but just want to add the new pics to the collection. Then select the pics I want to send in an email and send them.

[Sam_Zen]

Well, these are already quite useful recommendations so far. I even want to go a step further :
Don't trust software that comes along with you hardware device on a CD-rom.
Most of the time these thing are sloppy programmed thing with a lot of hassles. And not necessary.
(That's why I have disabled the autorun function if inserting a CD, to prevent the auto-install of things)
As said, a driver is all there's needed, and since USB, not even that.
Seen your reasoning, I guess you just first need a good file manager to achieve what you have in mind.

download the pics from my camera without duplicates

I don't understand what you mean. How can there be duplicates in a camera's memory ? Every pic gets its own unique number.

[Skippybox]

FastStone Image Viewer will probably fit your needs well. Obviously you've come to the IrfanView forum, so I have to recommend IrfanView for its fast viewing ability and great options. You might also have a look at XnView, but be careful that it doesn't overwhelm you. Actually, despite most viewers trying to be simple, you will most likely find them all to be complicated. It's just the nature of software with so many bells and whistles nowadays. However, you don't have to master a program to find it useful.

[Skippybox]

Don't trust software that comes along with you hardware device on a CD-rom.
Most of the time these thing are sloppy programmed thing with a lot of hassles. And not necessary.
As said, a driver is all there's needed, and since USB, not even that.

That is true. Don't discount commercial software though, which can be quite good and may come on the CD from reputable software companies. It can be a way to get a program you'd normally have to pay much more for. Of course, it is hard to beat the cost and performance of freeware.

I don't understand what you mean. How can there be duplicates in a camera's memory ? Every pic gets its own unique number.

That is true, it would be hard to download the same pic with sequential filenames. The only way it might happen is if you start putting the files in a bunch of folders so you can't keep track. Also, if you rename your files you will run into the same problem.

While you should be in control of your files, you should be more aware of what you download from the memory to the computer. It shouldn't be hard to remember the last filename, for example. FastStone might be able to help you though. Don't forget, you can always compare what is on the card to what is in your folder on your computer using Explorer or a file manager. Some viewers/organizers do have some additional tools to help identify duplicates if they end up on your system.

[tclouatre]

Well, these are already quite useful recommendations so far. I even want to go a step further :
Don't trust software that comes along with you hardware device on a CD-rom.
Most of the time these thing are sloppy programmed thing with a lot of hassles. And not necessary.
(That's why I have disabled the autorun function if inserting a CD, to prevent the auto-install of things)
As said, a driver is all there's needed, and since USB, not even that.
Seen your reasoning, I guess you just first need a good file manager to achieve what you have in mind.

I don't understand what you mean. How can there be duplicates in a camera's memory ? Every pic gets its own unique number.

The duplicates are not in the camera's memory. Say I have 20 pics on my memory card in my camera. I have put them on my computer but have not deleted them from the camera. I take 10 more pics and download to the computer. The Kodak Easy Share would acknowledge " duplicate pics found were not downloaded" and would only add the new pics. The software for the Fugi downloads the 20 pics again plus the 10 new ones. So then I have 2 of the first twenty pics when all I wanted to do was add the 10 new pics.

[Sam_Zen]

Well, I don't understand a bit of this procedure. I proves the sloppy confusion caused by apps like that.

[Mij]

No, Sam_Zen. The Kodak software was working quite sensibly in this case. This is essentially a backup task and I imagine one could use a backup program to do it.
Tclouatre needs to backup the contents of the camera memory card onto the computer, transferring just the new files that are not already there on the computer, and archiving any found on the computer that are no longer on the camera. Quite a normal thing to do if you were collecting data records on a hand-held device.

As to using software that came with the camera. You may have to use some of it to transfer the data from the camera, unless you are prepared to take out the camera memory card/stick each time and use a card reader. You might be able to use the Acquire feature in IrfanView to download from your camera, but increasingly I find camera makers no longer offer the Twain drivers that IrfanView needs.

Having got it from the camera though and put it where you want it, you can then use any image viewer or editor you like to work on it.

[Sam_Zen]

I see. It's a matter of personal procedure I guess. I prefer to have an empty mem-card after each photo-session.
My simple Pentax is scanned as a drive when connected to USB, and I move the files with TC to a proper directory on the HD.
Should some duplicate already be there, which is unlikely, then I would get a warning.

[Skippybox]

Yes, it is a matter of preference. The problem becomes even trickier when you use multiple cards as I do. Then you have files with all the same names! Additionally, if your software renames your files during the transfer you can easily download duplicates because there are no name conflicts!

I like to simply copy the files from card to computer and place them in another 'theme' folder renamed. However, this results in no files to compare against for a successive copy. In the end, I try to erase the card after the photos have been sufficiently backed up, to make things easier. Starting with a clean slate is much better. Sometimes though it is best to just make a comparison with your two windows. Have the camera's files in one and the previously downloaded files in the other. It shouldn't be too hard to locate the last file downloaded to see where to start.

Using backup software sounds like a very good solution if you want to keep the images on the card. FastStone has a duplicate-prevention option during its download process.

Keeping files on the card is useful if you want to use them for something else like photo developing, printing, viewing, etc. It is also good in case your files get lost on the computer somehow. In fact, I recently had a problem just transferring the photos from camera to computer. For some reason the copy process malfunctioned and the files on the card were damaged as a result. I was forced to use recovery software just to get them off the card. Luckily, I was successful.

[MItaly]

I wrote a little program to download only the new photos from the camera and to put them in different folders (one per day of creation). You can download it here (it requires the .NET Framework 1.1 to work); note that it works only if the camera is seen as a mass storage device.
Please note that it's a tool that I wrote only for myself, so it's not extensively tested on many machines.

[Sam_Zen]

2 Skippybox
Hm, I recognize the problem if you're using more memory cards.
If you want to compare two windows, also the content of files, renamed or not, TC has a sophisticated tool for this.

[Skippybox]

If you want to compare two windows, also the content of files, renamed or not, TC has a sophisticated tool for this.

Thanks, I'm sure FC can do it too. If necessary, I just make a quick visual inspection of the thumbnails, which seems easy enough.

Thanks MItaly for the tool as well.