Sony DSC-F717 USB slowdown after 10.4.6 update

Haven't used camera since update to 10.4.6 a few weeks ago. Tried to download some pix but it is excruciatingly slow. 256MB take an hour, even when not importing into iPhoto, just copying to various partitions on HDs. Installed the original Tiger that came with the Dual G5 on a spare internal drive and it worked fine; fast import into iPhoto and fast copying from Memorystick to HD partition. Once I updated the newly installed Tiger to the latest OS update, same thing. Any ideas out there? Anyone else experiencing USB slowdowns after the update?