Picture Transfer Protocol



  • Am I missing something or is this the most pointless and annoying waste of space on sale today? Rather than mounting your camera's memory card as a normal flash drive so you can get extra functionality, a standard interface that WORKS (so sick of iPhoto crashing when I have to use a Mac, and how long Windows' PTP implementation takes to fetch filenames) we thought we'd make our own (mostly) read-only protocol that's slow as ASS. My MP3 player supports MSC as well as MTP so if you have devices that support MTP only (God forbid) you can choose. Why does no camera I have ever used do this. I understand it simplifies the task of making printers, etc. capable of pulling images from cameras' memory cards without having to interpret a filesystem. But waiting a full three minutes to list a measly 2500 photographs' names when a proper reader does it in under a second is absurd and irritating.



    ARGH!



    ...discuss.



  •  I'm not sure what you are saying. when I plug my camera in it pops up a menu where one can choose whether it will be a mass storage device or a PTP device (can't remember the exact terminology)- there were a few other options too, including for printing.

    Does your camera have some other method of accessing the photos? I had an old VGA resolution digital camera that used an RS-232 connection and some weird driver that didn't work with Windows XP (only 98) but I could use a dodgey program to obtain the images as BMPs.

     



  •  Can't you just eject the memory card and use it in a card reader (which most machines do, those days)?I find this to be the most efficient way.

     Also, my 6-year-old Sony camera gives the choice between 'mass storage' and PTP. 



  • @nexekho said:

    Why does no camera I have ever used do this.

    Because they're all Canon? That's the only manufacturer I know that doesn't have a normal mass storage connection between the camera and the pc. I use an external card reader, and that makes life a lot easier.


  • Garbage Person

     Yes. It sucks major wang. A cardreader has been on my "buy one the next time you order something" list for several years now - I just never actually remember to add it to the order.



  • @TGV said:

    @nexekho said:

    Why does no camera I have ever used do this.

    Because they're all Canon? That's the only manufacturer I know that doesn't have a normal mass storage connection between the camera and the pc. I use an external card reader, and that makes life a lot easier.

     

    Fuji and Olympus all allow the use of mass storage.



  • I'm using a Fujifilm and an Olympus - neither is a high end model but both lock users to PTP.



  • @nexekho said:

    .... PTP .... ASS .... MP3 ... MSC ... MTP ....

    I got confused with all the TLA's - What's ASS?


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @MeesterTurner said:

    I got confused with all the TLA's - What's ASS?
     

    It's a plugin for SSDS



  • @MeesterTurner said:

    @nexekho said:
    .... PTP .... ASS .... MP3 ... MSC ... MTP ....

    I got confused with all the TLA's - What's ASS?


    That stuff you never get.

    ba dum tsh



  • @MeesterTurner said:

    @nexekho said:
    .... PTP .... ASS .... MP3 ... MSC ... MTP ....

    I got confused with all the TLA's - What's ASS?

    More importantly, what is ARGH?



  • @Spectre said:

    @MeesterTurner said:
    @nexekho said:
    .... PTP .... ASS .... MP3 ... MSC ... MTP ....
    I got confused with all the TLA's - What's ASS?
    More importantly, what is ARGH?

    Pirate talk, like grog, scurvy and matey


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @Spectre said:

    @MeesterTurner said:
    @nexekho said:
    .... PTP .... ASS .... MP3 ... MSC ... MTP ....

    I got confused with all the TLA's - What's ASS?

    More importantly, what is ARGH?

     

    It's a four letter acronym (FLA)



  • I'll bet anything that the option for mass storage is in the firmware, but locked into PTP to "add value" to the higher-end models.



  • @nexekho said:

    I'm using a Fujifilm and an Olympus - neither is a high end model but both lock users to PTP.
     

    Then they did this recently.

    Assholes.



  • Pull out the memory card and stick it in a card reader. I've been doing that for a few years now.


  • Garbage Person

    @MiffTheFox said:

    I'll bet anything that the option for mass storage is in the firmware, but locked into PTP to "add value" to the higher-end models.
    If it's there, the CHDK guys can't find it.



  • @Lorne Kates said:

    @MeesterTurner said:
    I got confused with all the TLA's - What's ASS?
    It's a plugin for SSDS
    Isn't is a subtitle format?



  • @TGV said:

    @nexekho said:

    Why does no camera I have ever used do this.

    Because they're all Canon? That's the only manufacturer I know that doesn't have a normal mass storage connection between the camera and the pc. I use an external card reader, and that makes life a lot easier.

    A data point: I have a Kodak EasyShare C875 and it's happy to be a mass storage device. Even nicer once I told Windows that when I hooked it up, I wanted all the files moved to my photos base directory; now I just plug it in, wait for the move to finish and unplug it. And then rename all the files with my naming system and move them into appropriate subfolders, but that's just me.

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