George Slusher's dashboard

Read what max Brusco wrote. Be sure that no camera or card is connected. Launch Image Capture. (It should be in your Applications folder.) Choose Image Capture->Preferences. (As in other applications, Preferences is not in the File menu.) Click on "Camera" and then "No application" by "When a camera is connected, open ..." That should do it. I just did it with an SD card reader.

Another suggestion for Amy would be to use the software that came with the camera. I keep Canon's software on my iMac G4 because it allows me to choose which photos to import. Starting with iPhoto 6, iPhoto now imports all or none. (Earlier versions allowed you to choose which to import.) I import the photos to a folder with Canon's Camera Window, then import those into iPhoto. That allows me to keep photos on the camera card without importing (and then deleting) them every time in iPhoto. You can do the same with Image Capture, but Canon's software indicates which have been downloaded before.

I'm not sure about that... my card that I use for my XD card opens by default in iPhoto. I would guess it's something to do with the DCIM folder being present, but can't be sure...

A better approach is to get a card reader. It will be faster and won't run down your camera's battery. You can then access the card just like a flash drive. (In fact, there are "flash drives" that hold an SD or SDHC card.)

Thanks. Another good suggestion. I'll give it a shot.

In your Applications folder (or somewhere) you should find an application named Image Capture. In its Preferences settings (File menu) is an option that lets you choose what happens when a camera is connected, including "Do nothing". This should do what you want, but I have not tried it.

Thanks. I'll try that next time. I usually just use iPhoto but I had this one video clip on my camera that iPhoto just wasn't downloading which is why I wanted to be able to find it manually on the drive.

You should be able to just close iPhoto and then check Finder for your camera's mounted drive. That's how mine works! Although most of the time I just import it to iPhoto anyway. If you never import to iPhoto and want to browse the files in Finder every time, I'm pretty sure you can stop it opening in the iPhoto preferences.