Filed under: Tips and tricks, Mac 101
Mac 101: Camera-specific application launching
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| Courtesy molenlavapit.com |
Creig Sherburne has discovered that in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, however, camera/application management woes are tackled via an Apple utility that comes with the system. The latest iteration of Image Capture (version 6.0 at least) includes a preference setting for specifying which application to launch when connecting a camera. There's an even option for having no application launch, which is a nice feature if your Mac is running on scarce resources and some rogue program is taking up memory when trying to open.
Lest you think that by not upgrading to Snow Leopard you're in the lurch (though if you can, you should, it's only 30 bucks) fear not. There is a third-party solution for this issue; Cameras prefpane from Flexibits, which we noted back in July, beautifully (and freely!) solves this problem for Tiger and Leopard users.
Got any other handy, camera-related tips? Let us know in the comments!
[Via Daring Fireball]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Scott said 4:28PM on 9-15-2009
What is the advantage of connecting your camera to your computer? I've been using a card reader for years and they are still faster than the camera transfer speeds.
Reply
YodaMac said 4:41PM on 9-15-2009
uh, the "advantage" is not buying a card reader in addition to a camera.
Scott said 5:00PM on 9-15-2009
A little snippy there YodaMac, having a bad day?
netstidios said 4:33PM on 9-15-2009
Tiger and Leopard users don't need 3rd party software to solve this problem.
Same thing can be achieved by launching ImageCapture --> preferences --> "when camera is plugged in:" set to no application.
: )
Reply
YodaMac said 4:39PM on 9-15-2009
That only "solves" it in that NOTHING happens when you plug in ANY camera.
The idea is that you probably WANT iPhoto to open when you plug in your Olympus or whatever, but you DONT want it to automatically open when you plug in your iPhone just for a quick sync.
The SL feature is really nice. :)
xplocvo said 4:40PM on 9-15-2009
Yeah, but that was a global setting so you couldn't specify on a per-camera basis. When I plug my Sony camera in, I want iPhoto to launch. When I plug my iPhone in, I want nothing to happen. Does Snow Leopard allow you to do this now? I didn't even look, I just installed the Cameras prefpane and am using that, works fine on Snow Leopard.
VM said 7:54PM on 11-03-2009
when I open image capture there is no preferences selection in the menu.
My iphone doesn't appear in the devices at all.
and when I open iphoto my iphone does not appear there either.
any suggestions??
thanks
BTW
everything was working great and all of a sudden just stopped recognizing my iphone in iphoto. My itunes syncs fine with my iphone
it just is the iphoto that has stopped working.
Matthew Smith said 4:44PM on 9-15-2009
I have Snow Leopard, but still use "Cameras" b/c i like the ability to choose what application is opened EACH time i connect the camera. I don't have to choose one application to open every time.
Reply
Ben Treston said 4:54PM on 9-15-2009
If previously you had Automator handling your automated Image Capture duties, it is all kind of different now. I have a very stable 10.6.1 install, but trying to do an action that Imports Images, puts them into a folder and then renames the files can cause a Kernel Panic.
I have tried using the 'Other' setting to launch an Automator app, but that does not work - neither does an Image Capture Plugin...
In the end, I used AutoImporter, and then set a Folder action on that folder...
This needs some looking at from Apple engineers - at least to avoid the Kernel Panics...
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Darick said 1:22PM on 11-19-2009
I recently realized that AutoImporter has some preferences that you can set. You can access the preferences as you would in any other application: while AutoImporter is running, go to the AutoImporter menu and select preferences. I don't know if this helps you any, but it helped solve some of my problems.