How to move pictures or videos from a camera to the computer

Updated: 12/31/2020 by Computer Hope
USB cable and port

A digital camera lor digital camcorder is treated like an external drive when connected to your Windows computer. Like an external drive, when your camera connects to the computer, it shows the device as a new drive letter. Follow the steps below to view, copy, or transfer the pictures or videos from the digital camera to your computer.

Connecting camera with USB cable

  1. Open My Computer
  2. Connect the camera to the USB cable. You should notice a new drive letter added to the listing of available drives. The new drive letter is the last drive. For example, if your disc drive is drive letter E: it's likely your camera is letter F:
  3. Once the drive is opened, you should see a DCIM (digital camera images) folder. Open this folder to see each of the pictures or videos that were taken and saved to the camera.
  4. Finally, open these pictures or videos like you would any other picture stored on the computer, by double-clicking it, then copy or move them. To copy or move all the files, highlight them by pressing Ctrl+A. Then, right-click a highlighted file, choose either copy or move, and paste the files where you'd like them to go.

Inserting camera memory stick into computer

  1. Open My Computer
  2. Once open you should see several drives. Most card readers support multiple card types, so you'll need to open each of these drives to find which drive letter contains the folder named DCIM.
  3. Once found, open this folder to see each of the pictures or videos saved to the camera.
  4. Finally, open these pictures or videos like you would any other picture stored on the computer, by double-clicking it, then copy or move them. To copy or move all the files, first highlight them by pressing Ctrl+A. Then, right-click a highlighted file, choose either copy or move, and paste the files where you'd like them to go.