Dwight Watt - Newspaper Article #146 4/18/2012

Whether you are shooting pictures and videos on a digital camera or a digital video camera usually you have two ways to get them off the camera.

One way is to take the camera memory card, also called a SD card, out of the camera and put in the computer. Some computers have built in slots for the memory cards. If not you will need a card reader which is a device you plug in the USB connection that the card plugs in.

The other way is to connect a USB cable between the camera and the computer. The end that goes in the PC is standard but the smaller end will vary by the camera. There is one size several use but regrettably there is not a universal standard for the small end to the camera. Plug the two ends in and make sure the camera is turned on and active (often I push the button to take a picture and it wakes up the camera).

Then go to Computer or My Computer and you will see at least one new drive showing. One of my cameras shows 4 drives and I have to click on each to find the real one, the others give an error. Then open the drive and you will either see all your picture files or may see a folder called DCIM most often. Once the folder is found, open it, if another folder appears choose it, and the pictures will appear. They may be split in multiple folders.

Now that you are in the folder with the pictures you can copy the picture files to your disk drive just as you would other type files. You can use copy and paste or select them and with other drive and folder showing drag and drop them. Once you know they are copied you can delete them from here on the camera but first make sure they are on the PC as it is extremely hard to undelete them.

Now they are on your PC you can edit them or print them or email them as you want.

Thanks Sheba for the question.