using a card reader is my preferred choice.

for me it places no demand on camera battery, my camera is always
available with a card in it (multiple cards), and there is no fiddling
with cables. I just cut and paste into my photo folders rather than
having one of the programs play with them. Just faster.

I doubt the cable connector is the issue with the new camera as I have
tethered a couple cameras with the small usb b connector to my laptop
because they used cards I had no reader for.

I prefer to use the camera and cable so I don't put any more wear and tear
on the card slot mechanism in the camera than I need to.

well you have disagreed with me so we must have a long and pointless
flame war. Is the K-7 HD video something you would use?

It looks like a pretty nice camera. If I didn't already have 2 K10Ds and a Sony
HiDef hard drive video camera I'd certainly consider it. I think the HiDef
recording with the Pentax DA* lenses would be a nifty combination.

I tried the cable this morning via XP and it seemed fine. So must be a
case of not being recognised by ubuntu somehow. It's not a problem
using the SD card as i have a reader but i did think that a lot of
removing to upload pix was more likely to damage the contacts than a
cable.

The camera battery is used to do the transfer by cable so your battery
runs down. The card reader uses computer power. There is very little
wear in taking a card in and out of a camera.

My habit is to switch cards often and I have a stock of them available in
different sizes from 1 Gb to 16 Gbs. My habit is to shoot lots so they fill
up quickly. I have a 40 GB external drive that copies the cards without a
computer. It has its own card slots. So removing the card is just second
nature. I never think about connecting the camera directly and fiddling with
cables. I don't even carry one with me.

However, my wife learned that it is better to connect the camera the hard
way. She left her 4 GB card in a store re[rint machine and when she
remembered, someone had walked off with it and her holiday pictures. She
will use the camera next time.

Both methods work. It depends on your habits. Each has its advantages and
disadvantages. I don't think that wear and tear on the camera is a big
issue. You are more likely to break the camera in other ways than sliding
the card in and out as there is no mechanism to wear out, unless you count
opening the compartment itself and in my case the usb port is inside the
same compartment.

Card reader every time if you do not want to run the battery down.

I have three batteries, two bodies, and a 120v receptacle in my car. I also
recharge my battery every day when I get back from a big shoot.

Don't forget that batteries have a life and wear out though.

Not a huge worry for me. By the time I manage to wear out my batteries
it'll be time for a new generation of camera.

I guarantee that the shape of the physical connector between the cable and the
camera is completely irrelevant to the computer and Ubuntu.

If one is a little fumble-fingered, it is possible to "blow" a memory card while
inserting it into a card reader which has the power on. You lose all your
pictures, of course. My preference is to connect the camera to the computer.

Mind you, I have three batteries for my camera. I've taken as many as 500
pictures in a single day, so I need to be able to swap batteries. (Battery Barn
in Chicago, and online, offers much better prices than your local camera
store....)

I'm actually a little disappointed with the loss of function from Windows to
Ubuntu, as far as my camera goes. In Windows, I can actually change the
settings in my Canon camera, and take pictures.

Where do you get that idea, I have used a card reader for years every
since they appeared and at 75 I am, not the best with fumbling and have
never once had what you say happens.

My first digital camera (2000-2002) was a Toshiba that used Smart Media
cards. I always took them out to transfer pictures with an adapter. Every
once in a while the camera wouldn't recognize the card when re-inserted. I
learned to take it out, polish the contacts and replace - whereupon it
always worked. Never had one burn out, but it was an awkward process. I've
used a USB cable on every succeeding camera, and I'm on my 4th camera now.
It works better for me...

As i mentioned before i tried the cable on windoze and all worked fine
thus eliminating problems there. So for some reason it would seem that
ubuntu doesn't like that particular cable design. I'll try it on 9.04
shortly when i install it. Is it a common thing that not all cables
work? For me it means that i can put pix on my other computer if i'm
away from my main PC.

Anyone seen this type before: left is the new one and on the right is
the one that seemed to on the three cameras i've tried.

i93.photobucket.com/.../22may09-71a.jpg

Anyone use Krenamer for changing pix names to some notation that
prevents overwriting precious pix. I tried gnome's pyrenamer and
thought it was poor by comparison.

I tried the cable on 9.04 this morning and it worked perfectly. So
somehow on 8.04 it doesn't like the cable... strange as the camera has
been on the market for about 18 months.

Under Ubuntu I can open the camera in two ways: either by using f-spot Photo
Manager or Picasa (installed from the Internet). F-spot is faster and more
efficient for copying photos from my camera.
Under Kubuntu there is Digikam which I find better than F-Spot for this
purpose. I simply plug the camera to a USB cable and click on the camera icon
that appears, then make a folder into which to copy the pictures, open the
folder, go back and select all the photos in the camera folder then drag and
drop into the folder to which I want to copy them and I usually choose "transfer
here", not "copy here" and it copies the pics from the camera and deletes them
from the camera. Very elegant.
I rarely take out my card from the camera. I have a mobile phone that can be
connected to the computer and used as a card reader. I use it to boot Damn Small
Linux from the SD card.

You can install Digikam in Gnome also..........