A friend of mine recently bought a SONY DSC F828 digital camera. To his chagrin his (elderly) Apple PowerBook G4 (400MHz) would not connect to his SONY camera.

So he called over a friend with a newer iBook, featuring USB 2.0 (or Hi-Speed USB). The iBook had no trouble at all in recognizing the camera.

So, back to the shop he went. As you can guess, in the shop all (even elderly) Wintel PCs had no problem connecting to the device, both utilizing plain USB, as well as USB 2.0

Calling SONY helpdesk in Amsterdam, did not offer any solace. This was the first time they had heard of the connectivety problem, and they promised to call back after consulting SONY Europe.

Then he came over to my place, and I simpely inserted the camera's USB connector in to an old USB-hub, plugged the USB-hub into the PowerBook, and presto, the device started the iPhoto program, and downloading, though slow, could commence.

If I had to speculate, as to why this solution works, I would suggest that the fault is on the PowerBook's side, and inserting the (old fashioned) USB-hub, forced the SONY camera out of the USB 2.0 mode, into something the Apple could understand.

I would much prefere a direct solution. If you have, or in the future find, a better solution, I would love to hear it. Just send me an e-mail (jms@cs.vu.nl) and I will update this page for the benefit of all.

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