iMac with Firewire and USB1: how to connect PowerShot

[jeffy.dee-lux]

Hi! My parents just got their first digital camera, but they're running an old 500MHz G3 iMac that has Firewire, but only USB 1. Clearly, transferring photos through USB 1 would be painfully slow, is there any work-around that makes use of the perfectly good Firewire port? The camera is a new PowerShot A590 IS.

Any kind of USB2 to Firewire converter? Or even a Firewire Card reader? Or should they stick to going straight to the pharmacy with the sd card?

Anyway, thanks for your suggestions, happy holidays.

Jeff

 

[BittenApple]

They're pretty much stuck to USB 1 speeds.

 

[sunday]

You could always buy a USB 2.0 PCI card ...
Make sure it supports OSX tho...

 

[plinden]

You can't add a PCI card to an iMac.

I think you're out of luck. Although there are Firewire readers out there, they all seem to be Compact Flash only, which that camera doesn't seem to support.

Edit: on second thoughts, do FW/USB combo hubs provide interconnectivity between FW and USB? Let me check up on this.

Edit 2: actually, no, I don't think they do.

 

[jeffy.dee-lux]

I was thinking of upgrading the HD in my mbp, and then get a firewire external HD enclosure for my old one and give that to them. If you have an external HD that supports both USB2 and Firewire, is there any way you can download pictures from a camera directly to an external hard without a computer attached?

Thanks for the replies by the way!

 

[BittenApple]

I was thinking of upgrading the HD in my mbp, and then get a firewire external HD enclosure for my old one and give that to them. If you have an external HD that supports both USB2 and Firewire, is there any way you can download pictures from a camera directly to an external hard without a computer attached?

Thanks for the replies by the way!

No. The speeds would still trickle down to USB 1.1 speeds.

 

[jeffy.dee-lux]

No. The speeds would still trickle down to USB 1.1 speeds.

Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear, it's a convoluted idea anyways.

-Buy an external hard drive with both USB 2 and Firewire
-Transfer photos directly from camera to hard drive with USB 2, no computer connected (is this possible? that's my question)
-Once photos are on the hard drive, they can be transferred onto the computer through Firewire

I'm asking this, cause I plan on setting them up with a Firewire external HD anyways.

So basically, is there any way of connecting a digital camera directly to an external hard drive, and have the photos automatically get stored onto the hard drive. My guess is no, but I thought I'd throw that out there.

 

[zioxide]

-Transfer photos directly from camera to hard drive with USB 2, no computer connected (is this possible? that's my question).

no

 

[TheReef]

I think I have seen hard drives with built in media slots available for computerless transfers…can't remember any names sorry.