System Upgrade - Canon Digital Rebel Camera Software
January 18, 2007

I had the camera a few years before trying to install the software.

As usual ... there were issues and extremely poor help.


Software Installation

I tried to install all the applications on the CD ... Using the Windows Task Manager (Alt-Ctrl-Del), I aborted the hung installer, sent the error to Microsoft, and the other applications automatically installed with no more issues.

When running ZoomBrowser EX, the software reported that it could not find a camera. The error message was cryptic at best.

or Attempts to find an answer in the help and online failed ... at first. Eventually, the built-in help said BTW, the Lens Cover has no effect on *connecting* to the camera ... but it will stop the camera from taking a picture.


Making it Work

This was the trick - weakly documented only in the Software Manual. On the camera, there are 2 configuration menus. Under the second menu, Communication has 2 settings PTP allows Windows XP to connect to the camera without first installing any software. It is likely that this was not the factory default ... but something I set some time ago ... I just don't know for sure.

Either way, with Communication set to PTP, my Windows XP system was able to copy images from the camera using Windows Explorer before I loaded the extra software. After the software was loaded, and the option was changed to Normal, Windows XP can still be used to copy files.

To help trouble shoot the problem


Remote Capture

This is the main feature I wanted.

Once it was working, I was able to use the computer to take images - most of the time per image was spent downloading the images to the computer.

The files sizes are approximate and very depending on the compression.

Basically, except for the slow download times, this is a great piece of software.

This is also the application used to take time lapsed (repeated) images ... just be sure to allow enough time for one image to download before taking another.

About half the time, when I try to shut down ZoomBrowser EX, it complains that Remote Capture is still running ... even though there is no sign that it is. Turning off the camera seems to remove this error / warning.

There are 2 Time columns in the above table - my laptop has 2 USB 2.0 ports. That's right, the download speed depends on which port I use.


Author: Robert Clemenzi - clemenzi@cpcug.org
URL: http:// cpcug.org / user / clemenzi / technical / Upgrades / CanonDigitalCamera.html