Is there a way to use the EOS Utility with a Card Reader? I ask because it can add the nifty touch of sorting your clips by date, which is really helpful after a long shoot. The irony, of course, is that you'd be crazy to use your camera as the downloading mechanism instead of a much faster $10 card reader. But with a card reader, the EOS Utility doesn't work... or am I wrong? Is there a workaround?

Hi David,

Are you referring to the EOS Plugin for Final Cut Pro? If so at present to get it to work with the T2i/550D you need to make an adjustment to a preference file with a text editor to add the new cameras to the list:

Adding 550D Support to the New Canon EOS Final Cut Plugin|Final Cut User (http://www.finalcutuser.com/?p=1829)

No, I'm referring to the EOS Utility software that comes with the camera. It has all sorts of nifty functions, like being able to control the camera via the computer and capturing images straight to your mac/pc. It's also the only way to get images off your card via the camera. You can set the default to organize the photos in different ways, one way being that it creates folders by date, so that every day's pics/movies go in a separate folder, very handy for archiving.

Of course, with a card reader, you're just dragging files and putting them wherever you want. I was wondering if there was a way to use the sw's functionality via a card reader, but perhaps no one uses this thing? Are we all just manually dragging/dropping?

I'm not using Canon's software for transfer. I drag and drop the contents of my card to my permanent archive drive where I store and backup all my footage. Then I use the Final Cut plugin to log and transfer the clips into their correct project.

It's a bit of a hassle, but I like having the originals backed up.

Got it. I haven't loaded Canon's software. I'm using Apple's Aperture for importing and versioning still shots.

No, I'm referring to the EOS Utility software that comes with the camera.