OT: Digital Camera to Win95?

In article <[email hidden]>, Martyn Tindall
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Sorry for the OT, but can any of you digital camera experts offer some
pointers? My ladyfriend has just bought a nice new Powershot, but
she's stuck with an ancient computer. The OS is the original Windows
95 (I doubt it would upgrade). Is there any hope of transferring
photos from the camera? Assuming we could plug the USB cable into a
serial port, is there software that would talk to the camera, or is
that a lost cause?

Assuming it is, has anyone come across an SD card reader that would
work with '95 and a serial port?

We're both complete newbies in the digital photography world. Is
there a good source of info on the Web or a newsgroup you'd recommend
(I've just found rec.photo.digital and uk.rec.photo.misc)?

Win 95 had no native USB support. It was sort of added in updated
releases but even then many USB devices would not work with it.

The following page will guide you through the best way to try and get it
working.

http://www.usbman.com/Win95%20USB%20Guide.htm

Your friend may be better off buying a second hand computer or finding a
friend / relative who has a not so old one going spare!

--

Dominic Sexton

In message <[email hidden]>, Martyn Tindall
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Sorry for the OT, but can any of you digital camera experts offer some
pointers? My ladyfriend has just bought a nice new Powershot, but
she's stuck with an ancient computer. The OS is the original Windows
95 (I doubt it would upgrade). Is there any hope of transferring
photos from the camera? Assuming we could plug the USB cable into a
serial port, is there software that would talk to the camera, or is
that a lost cause?

Assuming it is, has anyone come across an SD card reader that would
work with '95 and a serial port?

We're both complete newbies in the digital photography world. Is
there a good source of info on the Web or a newsgroup you'd recommend
(I've just found rec.photo.digital and uk.rec.photo.misc)?

TIA,

Sorry, Win 95? I think I remember it! You might be better off asking on:

rec.photo.digital

There are some very helpful people there.

Regards,
--
Neil Pugh

Bitstring <[email hidden]>, from the wonderful
person Dominic Sexton <[email hidden]> said

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Martyn Tindall
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Sorry for the OT, but can any of you digital camera experts offer some
pointers? My ladyfriend has just bought a nice new Powershot, but
she's stuck with an ancient computer. The OS is the original Windows
95 (I doubt it would upgrade). Is there any hope of transferring
photos from the camera? Assuming we could plug the USB cable into a
serial port, is there software that would talk to the camera, or is
that a lost cause?

Assuming it is, has anyone come across an SD card reader that would
work with '95 and a serial port?

We're both complete newbies in the digital photography world. Is
there a good source of info on the Web or a newsgroup you'd recommend
(I've just found rec.photo.digital and uk.rec.photo.misc)?

Win 95 had no native USB support. It was sort of added in updated
releases but even then many USB devices would not work with it.

The following page will guide you through the best way to try and get
it working.

http://www.usbman.com/Win95%20USB%20Guide.htm

Your friend may be better off buying a second hand computer or finding
a friend / relative who has a not so old one going spare!

I'd second that .. USB in Win95 was trez flaky, and even if it works at
all it will be USB 1.0 and unbelievably slow for large photos. I've
thrown away PCs since my Win95b one (which went to Africa, iirc, with
some missionaries).

Win98SE will run on (almost) anything that would run Win95, and handles
USB a bit better, but for 'proper' USB (and USB 2.0) you need latest
version of Win2k or WinXP. You can get PCs that'll run those for less
than the cost of the Powershot, if you shop around - like I said, some
even find their way to freecycle, or the local dump. Try over on
uk.adverts.computer (NOT ebay!).

If you do get the photos onto the PC, anything that ancient is going to
really struggle to do much with a modern x-megapixel photo, but you'll
get plenty of hourglass and 'out of memory' or disk space .. a typical
Win95 disk was about 5-10GB iirc, which is now a large flash memory
card.

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
8,963 Km walked. 1,746Km PROWs surveyed. 31.7% complete.

GSV Three Minds in a Can said:

Quoted message said:

Your friend may be better off buying a second hand computer or
finding a friend / relative who has a not so old one going spare!

I'd second that ..

And I'll third it. I think if you want to take digital photos you need at
least a half decent computer. Even if you don't want to do any processing,
you'll want a reasonable transfer rate and plenty of storage capacity.

Take a look at budget computers. Even the cheapest computers you can buy
nowadays are far superior to older gear, for example:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pcrange.html?ICO

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/

On Jun 15, 8:35 pm, [email hidden] (Martyn

Tindall) said:

Sorry for the OT, but can any of you digital camera experts offer some
pointers? My ladyfriend has just bought a nice new Powershot, but
she's stuck with an ancient computer. The OS is the original Windows
95 (I doubt it would upgrade). Is there any hope of transferring
photos from the camera? Assuming we could plug the USB cable into a
serial port, is there software that would talk to the camera, or is
that a lost cause?

Assuming it is, has anyone come across an SD card reader that would
work with '95 and a serial port?

We're both complete newbies in the digital photography world. Is
there a good source of info on the Web or a newsgroup you'd recommend
(I've just found rec.photo.digital and uk.rec.photo.misc)?

TIA,

--
Martyn Tindall
Leeds, England, United Kingdom

If the PC has a CD drive from which the PC can boot and you have
broadband to download a c. 700MB file, you could try a Knoppix
bootable CD (i.e. Linux) from http://www.knoppix.org/

This will boot your PC into Linux, a Windows type interface using this
you should be able to get the USB ports to work and be able to
download from the camera.

Don't worry, using this CD will not do any damage to the PC,
alterantively buy a second hand PC or you may know someone throwing
one away. That is how I get most of my PC kit!

ted said:

On Jun 15, 8:35 pm, [email hidden] (Martyn

Tindall) said:

Sorry for the OT, but can any of you digital camera experts offer
some pointers? My ladyfriend has just bought a nice new Powershot,
but she's stuck with an ancient computer. The OS is the original
Windows 95 (I doubt it would upgrade). Is there any hope of
transferring photos from the camera? Assuming we could plug the USB
cable into a serial port, is there software that would talk to the
camera, or is that a lost cause?

Assuming it is, has anyone come across an SD card reader that would
work with '95 and a serial port?

This will boot your PC into Linux, a Windows type interface using this
you should be able to get the USB ports to work and be able to
download from the camera.

Reading the original post there are no USB ports on the PC, only a serial
port.

--

Regards
Nick

Nick Mason said:

Quoted message said:

This will boot your PC into Linux, a Windows type interface using this
you should be able to get the USB ports to work and be able to
download from the camera.

Reading the original post there are no USB ports on the PC, only a
serial port.

That's right. USB to serial converters can be had, but is it worth
spending around £20 on a obsolete machine?

The only way I can see around this if the OP absolutely _must_ use the
machine with Win95 on, and transfer the images themselves is:

1) Buy the cheapest USB to serial gizmo available. I say 'cheapest'
because if in the end it doesn't work, you've wasted the least amount of
dosh. If a W95 driver is available, install and transfer the images -
but drivers are unlikely to be available for W95, so ..

2) Boot a Linux 'live' distro. Knoppix has been mentioned and is fine.
The USB to serial converter will need to be in place whilst booting, and
_ought_ to be recognised. Assuming it is recognised, when you plug a USB
removable memory storage device into it (camera, USB stick etc.) an icon
should appear on the desktop that can be opened and transfers made to
the HD. Now it could get a bit messy here - the HD may not be
automatically mounted, and need to be done 'manually'. No real problem,
but if you're not familiar with Linux, you probably won't want to get
this involved and will give up at this point! If you _do_ want to
progress further, you need to open a console and give a command like:
'mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt' and the HD (your 'C' drive) will be
available at /mnt.

IMO the above is not really worth doing. You're better off spending the
£20 on a more modern machine with USB ports at a car boot sale, or get a
friend to dump the image files onto a CD.

Jim Ford

Nick Mason' noemail@nospam said:

ted said:

On Jun 15, 8:35 pm, [email hidden] (Martyn

Tindall) said:

Sorry for the OT, but can any of you digital camera experts offer
some pointers? My ladyfriend has just bought a nice new Powershot,
but she's stuck with an ancient computer. The OS is the original
Windows 95 (I doubt it would upgrade). Is there any hope of
transferring photos from the camera? Assuming we could plug the USB
cable into a serial port, is there software that would talk to the
camera, or is that a lost cause?

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Assuming it is, has anyone come across an SD card reader that would
work with '95 and a serial port?

Quoted message said:

This will boot your PC into Linux, a Windows type interface using this
you should be able to get the USB ports to work and be able to
download from the camera.

Reading the original post there are no USB ports on the PC, only a serial
port.

--

Regards
Nick

Yoiur right I missed that.

A USB 2 card costs c. £6.00 but the hardware/BIOS may not cope with
it, but a cheap PC can be bought for under £50 possibly with XP
installed

Ted.

ted said:

it, but a cheap PC can be bought for under £50 possibly with XP
installed

Freecycle will get you a p3 500MHz and 17" crt monitor, by an 80Gig
hdd for 25 quid and put Kubuntu on it.

AJH

On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 19:35:49 GMT,

(Martyn Tindall) said:

Sorry for the OT, but can any of you digital camera experts offer some
pointers? My ladyfriend has just bought a nice new Powershot, but
she's stuck with an ancient computer. The OS is the original Windows
95 (I doubt it would upgrade). Is there any hope of transferring
photos from the camera? Assuming we could plug the USB cable into a
serial port, is there software that would talk to the camera, or is
that a lost cause?

Thanks for all the helpful replies, from which it seems clear that a
newer machine is the most sensible way forward. That said, I know
digital cameras used to come with serial connectors, which is why I
thought it worth asking (I might still see what they say on
rec.photo.digital); but, as GSV says, file size would still be a
problem with such old kit. We're both pensioners, hence the
"make-do-and-mend" mentality!

--
Martyn Tindall
Leeds, England, United Kingdom