Digital cameras have quickly become everyday necessity in our life. Pictures are taken everywhere, anytime and by anyone. Windows family operating systems have always been good in working with cameras and other imaging devices, but before you try to download pictures, always check the manual of the camera, to understand do you need to install a driver for it to be recognized by Windows. Most cameras are recognized as storage devices the moment you connect them, but there are rare exclusions too.
How to get your pictures
The easiest way is to use the AutoPlay menu integrated in Windows since XP. This is shown automatically the moment you plug your device in. You can select common operations from it, and in the case of photo camera, you would want to select “Import pictures and videos using Windows” to ensure fully automatic process off adding new pictures to picture folder, and importing them into windows database. To tag pictures during import, type the tag you want to be embedded in the optional “Tag these pictures” box.
You can also select “Open folder to view files” to manually download your pictures using Windows Explorer. You can then copy and paste different pictures to different folders, delete some directly from the camera and so on.
Remember to use the tagging option you have – it is useful to tag during import, because later tag will be included in search operations, and will make your life lot easier when you need exact picture found.
Another possible option is slower, but sometimes necessary. If your camera is not recognized – the driver has malfunctioned or the camera is too new to have drivers for your exact version of Windows, you can always use the so called card reader. Go to your local IT store and buy one. These are commonly USB, supporting high download speed. Then take your storage card out of the camera and insert it in the card reader – you will be presented the same AutoPlay menu, as when you plug in the camera itself. Select your options and go on with the import the same way as in the previous paragraph.
Remember to leave pictures on camera until you are sure everything went OK with the transfer, to ensure you have backup in case of a problem.
