Under Ubuntu I can open the camera in two ways: either by using f-spot Photo
Manager or Picasa (installed from the Internet). F-spot is faster and more
efficient for copying photos from my camera.
Under Kubuntu there is Digikam which I find better than F-Spot for this
purpose. I simply plug the camera to a USB cable and click on the camera icon
that appears, then make a folder into which to copy the pictures, open the
folder, go back and select all the photos in the camera folder then drag and
drop into the folder to which I want to copy them and I usually choose "transfer
here", not "copy here" and it copies the pics from the camera and deletes them
from the camera. Very elegant.
I rarely take out my card from the camera. I have a mobile phone that can be
connected to the computer and used as a card reader. I use it to boot Damn Small
Linux from the SD card.