Downloading pics from Sony Handycam

I have a Sony Handycam DCR-DVD305 (Carl Zeiss model) that I'm trying to download pics from onto my computer. I have had not luck in doing so. After attached the camera to computer with USB cord and opening the proper drive, I get a message that tells me the disc may be corrupt or not compatible with Windows. Also, I downloaded Sony's Picture Package, that came with the camera; however, I can't (or don't know how) get the pictures let alone save the pictures from there onto the computer either. I had brought the pics up once before (for my previous employment) on this Picture Package program, but still could not download them to the computer

Any help?

I once had a Largan digital camera that was so simple. I connected the camera to the computer with the USB cord and the program opened and the pics were there for downloading. Why is this Sony Handycam (with digital photo of course) any different?

Thanks

Sounds like a driver issue. I have a Handi Cam and two sony camera's. All of them recognize the devices.

Firstly digital video cameras are not very good for taking images. Even the cheapest still camera will take better pictures. I have a $2K video camera and its even true of that cam. So if you want to take still pictures go invest in a $150 still camera, the ones from a video camera are fine for places like this but you don't want to be shooting family photos with them. Just a bit of advice.

Does the cam have a flash memory card for storing images or is the disc the only storage method?

That cam was the required camera for my past P.I. employment...not much into cameras right now...

It does have the memory stick option, although I do not have a memory stick. How much do they cost?

The cost depends on what type it is how much memory it has. If you have a memory stick you can usually just plug it into USB port and browse the files via My Computer. I'm really not familiar with the DVD cams except to know that everyone has problems with them. The primary problem is they write to DVD.

What type of DVD does it utilize? R or RAM?

DVD-R

Maybe I'll look to borrow a cam or find my old Largan to download the pics I want to post...

You might have to finalize the disc but try browsing the disc via "My Computer".

Edit: A compliant DVD has only a few folders, the main two folders are video_ts and audio_ts. Look in any others that may be present.

Richard! I think you're right with the finalizing the disk. I cannot believe I did not remember that! I'll have to give it a whirl after work tonite/before work tomorrow!

Thanks

Well, actually finalizing the disk didn't work. I was able to see the photos on my computer in a slide show, but can't download them....

oh well

it's probably a video, you can get them out of the video into single images but they will be pretty small and not that good.

If you can see them on your PC in a slide show, pause the slide show on the picture you want to save. Then hit the print screen key on you keyboard. Then open Paint and paste the image there. Now you can save it in a .jpg or.bmp format on your hard drive.

That won't work on most systems because the video is rendered as a overlay, you'll just get screenshot of the video player and black box where the video should be. You first have to turn off hardware acceleration under Control Panel> Display > Settings > Advanced > Troubleshhoot and it still may not work.


Most video player software has an option for taking images and just about every editor. Micosoft's Movie Maker has this option too. For advanced options you can use Virtualdub for example if you wanted images of every frame or every Xth frame.