Camera Problems

My mom was given a new digital camera for Christmas, and we're having difficulties.

What she wanted was a very small camera she could carry around in her purse. Well, the Logitech I30 looked nice, and is nice. It's no professional device, but it's good for those moments at her work where everyone is like "I wish we had a camera to capture this luncheon" or something like that.

Well, the main problem with it, IMO, is that the memory is non-removeable. I wouldn't have a problem with it if it weren't for the problems we're having. See, to get the photos off the camera, it has software that will supposedly automatically see the camera when the cable is plugged in, and download the photos to a new album based on the date of connection. I hate these programs that attempt to make everything easier. They make me nervous because 99% of the time, if it doesn't work, you're screwed.

Well, it doesn't work. We followed the installation procedures perfectly, the installation saw the camera, and for the first day, we were downloading photos from the camera. The next day, the computer refused to operate the camera properly. XP would see a device being attached to the computer, but warned us that the drivers weren't installed properly or something and that our device may not work correctly. It didn't.

Any suggestions? Logitech's site is no help. Does anyone know how to bypass all the BS proprietary software and just make the damn thing show up as another drive in My Computer? Why will no camera manufacturers allow us to do this? I resent the fact that I need to purchase a card reader because my camera requires some piece of crap software like Zoombrowser. Okay, now I'm talking about myself

Anyway, any ideas?

Camera makers are lousy USB driver writers. The rule is, NEVER use the connection cables/software that come with pretty much ANY camera (a few extremely high end units excepted). Removable storage, especially CF, is by far the best way to go, in combination with the card reader/drivers of your choice.

Cheers

I have one of those cameras. I didn't load any drivers. Windows sees it as a generic USB mass storage device. It's good for sticking it in your pocket and carrying around just in case you need to take a pic of something. Here are the pics I have taken with it so far. Obviously, these pictures are so stupid that they would not have been taken had there not been a camera easily accessible at the time.

I've no experience with that camera in particular, but I think I'd delete the device from the device manager and then reboot & follow the install process again. If it's a USB mass storage device, it might not have been 'unplugged' in the OS before it was disconnected. Depending on the device, this might be a problem. Most of the time it isn't, so I'm guessing here.

I agree with other's sentiments - non removable storage on digicams = bad.

-Zeke

We tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but with no luck.

Hey, I definitely know that removeable storage is the way to go, but that would be tough with a camera this small. That's not really the point of it anyway.

I'll try what you did, Rob. I'll see if we can get all the Logitech software off the machine then get XP to see the device. I suspected the problem was that XP was trying to control it it's self anyway, causing a conflict with Logitech's drivers and such. Well, we'll see if this works.

Since it's WinXP, try using system restore to roll the system back to a time the drivers were not installed.

We uninstalled the drivers and all, but the OS seems to still have a problem. Every time we plug it in, we get the message that it was found (you know, the little bubble from the system tray - yuck), then we get another bubble saying there was a problem with the device. I check it out in device manager and the "specific" error message was that the device wouldn't start. I tried installing the driver from the CD via XP, but got the "couldn't start" message again.

What the heck is this?

Return it and buy a casio exilim? I'm quite fond of mine, it lives in my pocket at alll times and has held up for almost a year without any problems. It's got a secure digital slot, and I' would venture to bet it's a lot more camera than the logitech. I suspect this is my favorite picture from mine.

But that's probably not the advice you were looking for. Have you tried the camera on another machine to make sure it's not fried?

Matthew

Hey, I recognize that casino! Two points and my thanks if anyone can ID this one. I've forgotten which it is.

Oh, and to keep it mildly on topic, that was taken with an Olympus Camedia 40D, which I happened to find on the road one day. Fits in a bike jersey pocket, but probably a still a bit bulky for DiGNAN's mom, though.