Hi, bigal,
(I apologize if you've already tried this). Have you tried using a USB media card reader (
http://tinyurl.com/28jdp9a )? They are inexpensive and allow you to bypass downloading from the camera altogether -- you just insert your SD card into the reader, it mounts as a mass-storage device, and you transfer your photos into your application of choice.
Based on my experience, uploading photos from the card reader is significantly faster than downloading them from the digital camera. I wouldn't want to go back to directly connecting the camera again ...
The other thing you might check is looking at your owner's manual to learn if there is an option to set your camera to behave as a mass-storage device. (Our HP Photosmart R742 has such a setting, under the menu
Camera Setup > USB Configuration > Disk Drive [uses MSDC (Mass Storage Device Class)]).
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Edit:
I found the owner's manual for your camera here (
http://tinyurl.com/285ead2) and skimmed through it. Although the section on using the supplied Windows and Mac software (PDF file pages 64 and following; actual manual pages 50 and following) makes it sound like connecting the camera to your computer and using the software is the only way to transfer photos, it is curious that on file page 95 (manual page 81), there is a diagram showing the camera's SD/SDHC card being inserted into an SD card slot or card reader. So that option may be possible, even though Fuji is not explicitly stating it. I think it should work; I hope other forum members with more digital camera experience will correct me if this is inaccurate. >