Importing directly from camera - bad?

[Tom Montgomery]

During the Ingest segment of Michael and Jeff's LR2 tutorial, they strongly make the point that it is a Bad Idea to connect the camera directly to the computer, unless shooting tethered. But they don't say why this is.

Although I normally use a card reader, sometimes it is convenient to just plug in the USB cable and do the import (Nikons or Canons through a USB hub to a Mac Pro). Is there a danger in doing this? I've never heard of any associated risks before.

Tom.

[Gemmtech]

During the Ingest segment of Michael and Jeff's LR2 tutorial, they strongly make the point that it is a Bad Idea to connect the camera directly to the computer, unless shooting tethered. But they don't say why this is.

Although I normally use a card reader, sometimes it is convenient to just plug in the USB cable and do the import (Nikons or Canons through a USB hub to a Mac Pro). Is there a danger in doing this? I've never heard of any associated risks before.

Tom.

I don't recall watching that part of their tutorial, but I can't imagine any reason why it would be a bad idea since I have done it with every camera and
camcorder that I gave ever owned.  I believe most people (general population) IMHO seem to do it that way.  A card reader may be faster, but that's about it.  
If there's a technical reason why one shouldn't plug their cameras directly into the computer I would think Nikon, Canon, Sony, Panasonic, etc. would advise
against this practice, I don't believe that they do!  Why have the port and then say "Don't use it, it will ruin your camera"?

[Gary Brown]

There was a recent thread on this topic: Using camera USB to DL images - why the hate?

For some reason, it's a controversial topic, but I think the ultimate conclusion was just do it whichever way you prefer and live with the fact that you'll be annoying the folks who do it the other way.

[Tom Montgomery]

There was a recent thread on this topic: Using camera USB to DL images - why the hate?

Gary: thanks for the link. I did search before posting, but I didn't include the word "hate"...  

As you say, it seems to be personal preference more than anything.  I was thinking it might have originated in the Bad Old Days when unruly USB 1 ports and hardware wouldn't always negotiate power supply voltages and sequencing correctly, which might have damaged some cameras.  I recall that this used to fry some aftermarket USB mice, way back when...

T.

[wolfnowl]

Uploading from the camera directly will be slower than using a card reader, and you'd best make sure your camera is plugged in or the battery is fully charged.  If it dies during a file transfer you're likely going to lose some data...

Mike.

[Jonathan Wienke]

Connecting camera to computer is slower than using a card reader. It uses up the camera battery during transfer, unless you have the camera on an AC adapter, so you're more likely to have the transfer interrupted. You're tying up the camera during the process so you can't be shooting while offloading a card. And if you're downloading multiple cards, it's much more convenient to use a reader than the camera.

[fike]

I am not sure whether this is true for all cameras, but on Windows, many cameras don't mount as standard USB removable storage.  Instead, they mount as some sort of special camera component.  Unfortunately, when this happens, some downloader software (Downloader Pro, Bridge, etc...) may not be able to read from the camera and apply your naming conventions.  I know my G9 has this incompatibility.

As for battery failure and data loss....battery failure shouldn't result in data loss, just inconvenience.  During download, the camera is only reading from the card, so they shouldn't corrupt data, even if power fails in the middle of the data.

[Clearair]

During the Ingest segment of Michael and Jeff's LR2 tutorial, they strongly make the point that it is a Bad Idea to connect the camera directly to the computer, unless shooting tethered. But they don't say why this is.

Although I normally use a card reader, sometimes it is convenient to just plug in the USB cable and do the import (Nikons or Canons through a USB hub to a Mac Pro). Is there a danger in doing this? I've never heard of any associated risks before.

Tom.

I do both but if I have not used more than one card, don't need the speed of a firewire reader, then just plugging in the camera makes sense to me.
I have seen camera card slots buggered by hasty card insertion (cards may have had debris covering connection holes).
Why yank it out only to push it back in?

Never had a battery fail during upload to a computer or even heard of it happen to anyone I know.

If your system does not like direct connection to the camera..........................

[Brad Proctor]

This argument is kind of ridiculous.  Just do whichever method is most convenient for you.  I personally use a card reader and the reason is because I have an easier time getting the card out than opening the rubber flap for the usb port on the camera.  It's as simple as that.  Before I owned a card reader I had been plugging the camera in directly for over 4 years and never had a problem.