Patent ID: 7522197

Claim:
A method for transmitting image data from an electronic camera to a computer apparatus, comprising: preparing a plurality of sets of attribute information of a set of image data when generating the set of image data, by the electronic camera; recording in a recording device of the computer apparatus an attribute data file in which a plurality of sets of attribute information corresponding to a set of image data already recorded in the recording device are recorded, by the computer apparatus; receiving the plurality of sets of attribute information of the set of image data, comparing the plurality of sets of attribute information thus received with the plurality of sets of attribute information recorded in the attribute data file in the recording device of the computer apparatus, and issuing a request for the image data to the electronic camera only when the plurality of sets of attribute information of the image data do not completely match the plurality of sets of attribute information recorded in said attribute data file, by the computer apparatus; preparing the set of image data upon receiving the request for the set of image data, by the electronic camera; receiving the set of image data to newly record in the recording device and updating said attribute data file by recording the plurality of sets of attribute information of the set of image data after the set of image data have been newly recorded, by the computer apparatus; and displaying an image at a display device based upon the set of image data newly recorded in the recording device in response to newly recording the set of image data in the recording device, by the computer apparatus.