"I don’t know if this is a problem that is specific to OM System cameras, and I’m not particularly interested in investing in a new camera system just to find out."
A better way to have further narrowed down the problem down to Actually iPhoto would've been to do the same tests with a USB-C card reader plugged directly into the Mac, which would've eliminated cables, hubs, and camera hardware/software/firmware as possibilities.
It's worth noting that searches show that OM-1 USB support is imperfect, the camera manual addresses that "USB transfers aren’t guaranteed in some setups", and user consensus seems to be to use a card reader for reliable file transfers.
> the camera manual addresses that "USB transfers aren’t guaranteed in some setups"
That is a... pretty damning thing to have in your user manual. I've owned many cameras over the years, and I don't think I've ever seen a manufacturer hedge basic functionality like this.
They're actually the usual hedges you'll see. Hell, even some mice will say to not plug them into a USB hub.
> Data transfer is not guaranteed in the following environments, even if your computer is equipped with a USB port.
>> Computers with a USB port added by means of an extension card, etc., computers without a factory-installed OS, or home-built computers
Manual for version 1.7 page 286
https://download.omsystem.com/pages/inst/om1/manual_om1_v1.7...
This. I work as a professional photographer. Nikon shooter. I only ever import directly from my camera in very rare cases. And when I have a problem importing directly from card to Lightroom, first step is to copy everything to the hard drive and import from there.
Yeah, seconded. For all cameras of all brands, pop the SD card out and into a reliable reader (I recommend Lexar and Sony hubs).
Never use the camera over USB, the experience is terrible on everything from Canon to Sony to Panasonic to Fuji.
Don't fight it, just buy that $30 USB hub and get on with your day.
This may be a varying mileage kind of situation. I have an OM1 and basically only ever transferred pictures with the camera's connection. I don't have the fastest SD cards, and the transfer speed I get is the same as my dedicated Sandisk SD card reader, around 100 MB/s.
My older camera only had a usb 2 connection over a special connector, so I used to pop out the card. But the OM1 can also charge the battery via the usb-c connection, so it's an all-round great experience: I don't have to fiddle with random parts, not forget to put them back in, etc.
Never had a single image corrupted among dozens of thousands of them. Funnily enough, my older camera used to complain about the SD card every other time after plugging it into my mac. It would shut up after a format. That card is still going strong.
I transfer the files with lightroom (but don't remove them from the card) on a windows pc.
Exactly.
I'm no longer even a semi-pro photog, but these days I even just plug in a USB-C SD reader into my iPhone and upload them that way, it's quite nice really. No corruption yet for me, but I only shot a thousand photos on my trip to Italy, and few other than that these days!