Transfer photos from camera to iMAC without using iPhoto or Aperture

Question

Transfer photos from camera to iMAC without using iPhoto or Aperture

Hi

I have been having all sorts of problems with iPhoto which seems to have collapsed on account of me having too many photos (250GB). I have been recommended to download Aperture which holds a higher capacity of photos, which I have done. I transferred my iPhoto photos to Aperture and Aperture promptly collapsed...! So, I am now sorting out my photos on an external hard drive and will then re-import them into new Aperture libraries for each year I think so that they do not get jammed up.

I am stuck however, as I am now trying to download photos from my camera onto the iMac without using either iPhoto or Aperture and I cant seem to find a way to do it. I have connected the camera and looked in Finder and Preview but cant see the device there to retrieve the photos from it.

Anyone got any tips?

Also if you have tips on what to do if you have too many photos that would be greatly appreciated too.

Thanks

iMac (27-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Sep 19, 2013 2:13 AM

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Answer 1

LowLuster

Level 6

12,105 points

Sep 19, 2013 2:29 AM in response to Gettingconfusedwithtechnology

Take the SD or CF card out of the camera, place that memory card in a card reader, or if it is a SD card in the built in SD card reader on your Mac, and copy the files over to your drive, into a folder of your choosing, using a Finder window.

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Answer 2

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,414 points

Sep 19, 2013 4:48 AM in response to Gettingconfusedwithtechnology

Image Capture, in your Applications folder, will move material directly from a Phone/ camera to your mac.

The mount of gigabytes in an iPhoto Library is of no matter. That's just disk space. What matters is the number of items. Current versions of iPhoto and Aperture can use the same library so they have the same capacity - 1 million items. As they use the same library there is no 'transferring" of photos from iPhoto to Aperture.

So, whatever caused this "collapse" isn't the space the Library is using.

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Answer 3

Sep 19, 2013 6:30 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks Terence,

Image Capture worked and I am transferring the data now. Thank you.

Interesting about what you say re iPhoto/Aperture. I have approx 45,000 items so I am well short of the 1m items. I have a call with one of the Pro Apps guys so will bring it up and see what they say. You dont have any other ideas do you on what it could be?

Thanks

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Answer 4

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,414 points

Sep 19, 2013 6:46 AM in response to Gettingconfusedwithtechnology

IN about 99% of cases you have a corrupted library in some way. But I'd need more info: what version of iPhoto? the OS? Where is the Library stored? Anything unusual about your set up? Any crash logs - assuming that's what you mean by 'collapse'.

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Answer 5

Sep 19, 2013 9:10 AM in response to Yer_Man

Well, when I migrated my photos from my MacBook Pro to my IMac in January 2011 some of the last set of photos I had taken did corrupt and I only realised a few months later when I went to make a photo book and got a black picture with an exclamation mark as the originals could not be found.

In my current reorganisation, I have copied the masters file from my macbook pro onto the external hard drive and the masters file from January 2011 onwards from my iMac onto the external drive also and filed all photos. I intend to reimport them from there, thus avoiding the corrupted ones.

The iphoto version is 9.4.3 and the aperture is 3.4.5

I now cannot open either iPhoto or the first library I transferred iPhoto photos to on Aperture. I just get the rainbow ball and it says 'not responding' so I have to force quit the applications. I send crash reports each time to Apple. I have iMac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5

Hoping the new library I have built will work. Do you think I can import the whole lot into a new Aperture library rather than break them down into years?

Thanks for your help Terrence

Catherine

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Answer 6

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,414 points

Sep 20, 2013 12:58 AM in response to Gettingconfusedwithtechnology

Try this test:

Hold down the option (or alt) key\'a0and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library'

Import a few pics into this new, blank library. Is the Problem repeated there?

Post back with the result.

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