# CR2 previews not available when import from camera ???



## rjalex (Jul 18, 2011)

I usually import my Canon CR2 files with a CF card reader (from my 7D and 5Dmk2). A few days ago my reader stopped working and therefore for the first time I imported connecting the camera bodies to the PC via their USB interface and much to my surprise I do not get the little previews in the import central panel (Preview not availabe for this type of file IIRC). Any explanations ? Thank you
Robert


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## clee01l (Jul 18, 2011)

It is possible that your camera device drivers are not up to date.  LR should be able to read the JPEG thumbnails off of the card the same way whether the device is a Card Reader or a camera.


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## rjalex (Jul 19, 2011)

Thanks Cletus. There's something I do not understand. LR3 sees my camera as the proper model and happily reads the images from it, the "cannot show" it's only in the import dialog and of course while importing the previews are happily generated. Is this consistant with the device driver hypotesis ? I have installed the Canon utility disks when I bought the camera and this is the only "strange" behavior. I should try also on the Mac and see if it is different.


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## clee01l (Jul 19, 2011)

The OS uses drivers to talk to the USB devices.  You said it worked with the CF Card reader before the card reader died.  If you replace the Card reader with another card reader (the Camera) the OS will require different driver to talk to the different device.  So in essence, the only thing that has changed is the device and the driver used to talk to it.  Now that I think about it there is one other thing that Should have changed. The CF card reader was either directly connected to the MB or used a USB cable.  USB cables can go bad.  If your camera and the Card reader were trying to communicate to the computer via the same USB cable, it could be that the cable has gone bad. or is flakey. This might be the cause of the failed CF card reader too.  Try a different USB cable and see if this makes any difference. Also cameras must be powered by the in camera body where as most CF card readers draw power through the USB Cable.  For this reason the camera manufacturer recommends file transfers only take place with a fully charged battery.  Not having a full battery might make a difference too.


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## Hal P Anderson (Jul 19, 2011)

Cletus,

I reckon your first thought is the correct one. If there were a hardware problem preventing the import previews from displaying, the files almost certainly wouldn't import correctly, but the poster says they do. 

I remember the sole time I tried to import from a Canon P&S, the input previews displayed upside down in the import dialogue. I've used a card reader ever since.

Hal


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## Roomservice (Jul 20, 2011)

rjalex said:


> I usually import my Canon CR2 files with a CF card reader (from my 7D and 5Dmk2). A few days ago my reader stopped working and therefore for the first time I imported connecting the camera bodies to the PC via their USB interface and much to my surprise I do not get the little previews in the import central panel (Preview not availabe for this type of file IIRC). Any explanations ? Thank you
> Robert





rjalex said:


> ...I have installed the Canon utility disks when I bought the camera and this is the only "strange" behavior. I should try also on the Mac and see if it is different.



The problem occurs on a windows machine, right? (since you wrote "I should try also on the Mac...")
I ran into this behaviour while investigating another Camera/LR problem:

- When you are running the EOS utility, it stops both LR and Windows explorer from recognizing CR2 files. In windows explorer they have zero bytes length and cannot be copied. So LR cannot see them either.

- So if you stop running EOS utility (uncheck the start EOS automatically...) the cr2 files are accessible again.
But other problems may still occur when handling the canon camera, see this thread (from post #18): 
http://www.lightroomqueen.com/commu...es-during-import&p=90322&viewfull=1#post90322


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## rjalex (Jul 21, 2011)

EOS Utility was up indeed when this misbehavior occurred.

I will therefore try to replicate the behavior with the EOS Utility inactivated. Will also try different USB cables.

One thing that escapes me is that if the driver or USB cable were bad I would expect LR to not recognize my Canon camera as a source (but it does so flawlessly) and/or to not import the CR2 files (which it also does flawlessly) or am I still not understanding something ?

Thanks for the interesting input.


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## Roomservice (Jul 21, 2011)

rjalex said:


> EOS Utility was up indeed when this misbehavior occurred.
> I will therefore try to replicate the behavior with the EOS Utility inactivated. Will also try different USB cables.
> One thing that escapes me is that if the driver or USB cable were bad I would expect LR to not recognize my Canon camera as a source (but it does so flawlessly) and/or to not import the CR2 files (which it also does flawlessly) or am I still not understanding something ?
> Thanks for the interesting input.



Notice: even if you exit EOS Utility there can still be problems in Lightroom when handling the camera directly ("Preview not availabe". Import dialog freezes. CR2 files gets corrupt when importing hundreds of files to LR)

The cause of the problems seems to be:
- some canon driver installed with the EOS Utility package (up to latest version 2.10), which is used by the camera even if EOS Utility is not started. 
- and/or a bug in Lightroom 3.4.1 (win version), because the above problem only occurs when using Lightroom (and not when using other software).

I'm sure it's not the cable. And probably not the usb driver (a microsoft driver), because everything works fine with camera when Lightroom is not involved.


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## rjalex (Jul 21, 2011)

My (maybe limited) understanding of my environment makes me agree with your analysis. Thank you.


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