To be able to use your digital camera with Digikam, connect the camera to your computer, switch the camera to the image display mode and turn it on. Now you need to setup the camera model and port using the setup interface. Try and see if Digikam can auto-detect the camera; if not, you can set the camera model and port manually. Once you have the camera setup, goto the "Cameras" menu in the main interface and you will see the camera listed in the menu (Note: You can choose any title you like for the camera in the setup and this title will be used in the "Cameras" menu). If you have more than one cameras, you can add them throught the setup interface. Clicking on the camera item in the menu will popup a new Camera Interface and this will connect to the camera, and thumbnails (if supported by the camera) will be downloaded and displayed. You can then select the images and download or delete them from the camera. Downloading can be done by using the menu/toolbar buttons or by dragging and dropping them onto an album folder.
Digital cameras nowadays store images on either a CompactFlash card or SmartMedia card. The camera internally makes subfolders in these storage media which it uses to save the images. Digikam displays these internal folder tree and also provides a global virtual folder which shows all the images available in the camera. When you open the camera interface for the first time the folders are hidden and the contents of the global virtual folder are shown (i.e. all the pictures in the camera). You can choose to see the actual folders on the camera by unselecting "Hide Folders" in the "View" menu. This will show the folders on the camera, the topmost folder being the global virtual folder. Clicking on a folder will show the contents of the folder in the thumbnailview.
