Digital cameras and Windows 95

[Andrew T.]

For various reasons, I've lately been mulling over the premise of purchasing a digital camera. Aside from narrowing down the sheer variety that exists, however, my major concern is the issue of OS compatibility.

I'm aware that most cameras interface with computers through peripheral memory card readers or direct USB connections...although in either case, I'm not sure what device drivers they employ, whether or not they follow a standardized protocol, or if they simply rely on the same premise as flash memory drives that, indeed, work with a (relative) minimum of fuss.

Would it be possible to use a digital camera in conjunction with a PC running Windows 95 OSR2.1?

[BenoitRen]

Most digital cameras do indeed act as a flash drive when interracting with a computer. There should be no problem.

[TruePurple]

I know most of the latest cameras say they are compatable with XP, vista, maybe mac, but not win9x. I was told this meant I couldn't download photos to my PC by some guys at radioshack. I haven't tried myself (I bought the camera for my mom)

[noguru]

I failed to hook up a Nikon Coolpix on a Win98 system with nusb already on it. Nusb didn't see it and the supplied Win98 driver didn't work either. Win95 drivers did not come with it! Google found some tricks that might make the driver work and adding the coolpix to the nusb .inf might work too. But I decided to go for the easy solution: a simple cheap USB cardreader. Works for sure, also on Win95.

[Mijzelf]

My Canon camera doesn't act as a mass-storage device. It needs special (Twain) drivers. A cardreader is the only solution

[Andrew T.]

Thanks. (In any case, if there's anything specifically worth staying away from due to incompatibilities or related inconveniences, I'm all ears.)