Please help - unloading photos from camera

[Rod_T]

I would very much appreciate it if anyone can explain to me what's going wrong when I transfer photos from the camera to the computer.

The camera is a Canon XS, about 6 months old. About two months ago (but NOT when the camera was new!), I started finding most images to be distorted, with some sections horizontally displaced and mis-colored. After sending the camera in for repair, I still had the same problem. An example is located at http://canonusa.turnham.us/images/IMG_1345.JPG.

Now here's the really wierd part, and the reason I'm raising the question. That photo, and all preceeding it, had been transferred to the computer by removing the SD card, and inserting it into my computer's SD card slot. The card would appear to the computer as a new disk drive, and I would copy the files from it to the Pictures directory.

I unloaded the SAME images (I hadn't erased the SD card) again by connecting the camera to the computer with the USB cable. The problem seems to have gone away! This link is the same photo as the previous link, but transferred to the computer using the USB cable: http://canonusa.turnham.us/images/008.JPG.

It appears that the solution to my problem is to always unload the photos using the USB cable, but I'd still really like to know WHY it makes a difference. Canon's user manual, btw, suggests removing the SD card from the camera as I had been doing, to save the battery.

Ideas???

[Austin_HXC]

I've never dealt with anything like this before, but I would suspect it is your computer's SD Card Slot.
I'm not sure though. Good luck with it.

[LoveDSLR]

It could be a loose fit between your SD & card reader. Try different (e.g., Lexar or SanDisk USB 2 SDHC) reader and/or SD card.

[Downy]

That's really strange. I got a video for learning to use my camera (Nikon D200), and the man in the video said not to use the USB cable, but using a card reader. Wasn't clear why...something about it's not the best way to do it or best use of the camera or something.

I've had problems with my card reader (got a cheap one), but most times it works. (The computer doesn't always 'see' it, so I plug it in and take it out again until it does 'see' it.) You might try a different USB card reader. Mine was like under $20 at Walmart. Then, if it works, you'll know it's the reader on the computer. Just an idea.