How to Get Pictures off Olympus Camera | Easy Ways

Why You Need to Get Pictures off Olympus Camera?

Olympus cameras have long enjoyed remarkable popularity. Its compact size and affordable price made it a favorite among the public, firmly establishing Olympus in the portable camera market. If you are using an Olympus camera, chances are that your SD card fills up quickly with photos and videos. In many cases, users want to get pictures off their Olympus camera not just for convenience, but also for safety.

Here are some common scenarios that you may want to transfer photos from Olympus to other devices:

1. Free up Storage Space

Olympus cameras often store high-resolution images that take up a lot of space. Transferring them to a computer or cloud storage ensures you always have enough room for your next shoot.

2. Photo Editing and Sharing

Once pictures are transferred, you can edit them on your computer using professional tools or share them instantly on social media. For many users, this is the main reason to move pictures off their camera.

3. Backup and Protection

Leaving all your photos on the SD card is risky. Cards can get corrupted, formatted, or even lost. By exporting your files, you’re creating a backup and ensuring that your memories are safe.

4. Professional Needs

For photographers and videographers, quickly getting files off the Olympus camera to meet deadlines, print images, or deliver work to clients is a crucial part of their workflow.

How to Get Pictures off Olympus Camera

This section will guide you through specific methods to get photos off your Olympus camera, covering both PC and mobile devices. You can choose the most suitable method based on the tools you have.

Method 1. Transfer via USB Cable to a Computer

This is the most straightforward and universal method. By connecting your Olympus camera to a computer with a correct USB cable, the camera will appear on your computer as a storage device, allowing you to access photos and videos directly.

Step 1. Turn off the camera and connect it to your computer using a correct USB cable.

Step 2. Power on camera, your computer should recognize it immediately. If a USB Mode selection pop out, select "PC" or "Storage" mode and press "OK".

Step 3. Open File Explorer and locate the newly detected drive or camera device, then navigate to the DCIM folder. Now you can organize these photos as you like.

Method 2. Use an SD Card Reader

Removing the SD card from your Olympus camera and inserting it into a card reader usually offers faster, more stable transfers. This is the preferred method for most professionals.

Step 1. Power off the camera and gently remove the SD card from your Olympus camera.

Step 2. Insert the SD card into a card reader and connect it to your computer.

Step 3. Open File Explorer and locate to the SD card drive, you can access the pictures.

Method 3. Import with Olympus Workspace

Olympus Workspace is the official software designed for managing and importing Olympus RAW (.ORF) and JPG files. It is ideal for photographers who want file management, batch processing, and metadata preservation.

Step 1. Download and install Olympus Workspace from the official website.

Step 2. Connect your camera or SD card to the computer.

Step 3. Launch Olympus Workspace and navigate to the camera device, then open DICM folder to choose the pictures you want to recover at the right panel.

Step 4. Click "Import from Camera", you can see that all the photos in the folder are selected. Configure the import settings on the right side.

Step 5. Click "Import all images" to start the process.

Method 4. Wireless Transfer to Smartphone with OI.Share (Wi-Fi)

Many Olympus cameras support Wi-Fi connectivity. Using the Olympus Image Share (OI.Share) mobile app, you can wirelessly transfer images to your mobile device, perfect for quick sharing on social media.

Step 1. Download and install OI.Share from App Store or Google Play.

Step 2. Enable Wi-Fi on your camera and note the SSID/password or QR code displayed.

Step 3. Connect your phone to the camera’s Wi-Fi network (or scan QR code in OI.Share).

Step 4. In the OI.Share app, select "Import Photos".

Step 5. Choose the photos you want and click "Import", then save them to your Phone's gallery or other locations.

Bonus: How to Recover Deleted Photos from Olympus Camera

While transferring files, unexpected issues sometimes occur such as photos may disappear, SD cards might not be recognized, or files could get accidentally deleted. In such cases, a reliable data recovery method become important. This section will share two professional data recovery tools to retrieve your pictures.

Windows File Recovery

Windows File Recovery is command-line data recovery tool provided by Microsoft, which can recover deleted files from local storage devices, like HDDs, SD cards, USB drives and more. But it requires familiarity for basic Windows File Recovery command and only compatible with Windows 10 and 11.

Step 1. Download and install Windows File Recovery from Microsoft official channel. Connect the SD card to your computer.

Step 2. Open Windows File Recovery and run it as administrator.

Step 3. Type the following command "Winfr F: E: /regular" and press "Enter". Replace the drive letters "F" (the source drive letter) and "E" (the destination drive letter) with your actual drive letters.

When the process is completed, you can check the recovered files by pressing "y" in the destination folders.

Recover Deleted Pictures from Olympus with MyRecover

If you're uncomfortable with command-line tool, this user-friendly data recovery tool, MyRecover is tailer for you. It can scan all the drives on your computer and offer an opportunity to recover the lost data from the drives. It supports data recovery from Canon camera, Nikon Camera and other cameras from various brands.

Step 1. Download and install MyRecover on your computer from a secure channel.

Step 2. Remove the SD card of Olympus camera and connect it to computer with a card reader.

Step 3. Launch it and select the SD card drive  to scan for lost files, then click "Scan".

Step 3. Choose the files you wish to recover from the recoverable lists and click "Recover".

Step 4. Select a safe location to save the recovered files.

Once the process is finished, the message "Files have been recovered successfully" will pop out. You can access and check the recovered files by clicking the destination folder path or "Browse" button.

Final Words

At this point, you have learned multiple ways to get pictures off an Olympus camera: USB transfer, SD card reader, Olympus Workspace, wireless app, editing software, and cloud integration.

If the photo transfer process is interrupted and causes file loss, you can use a professional data recovery tool like MyRecover to retrieve the lost files. You can upgrade to the Professional edition to unlock unlimited data recovery capacity and the file content preview function. This allows you to enjoy a smoother data recovery experience.