After buying a usb card reader, however, I found it much easier to just mount my reader and download the pictures directly to a file:

$ mount /mnt/usbsm
$ cp /mnt/usbsm/dcim/100olymp/*.jpg /home/user/pics/new_pic

I use a script for the above commands which also asks for a new directory name for the pictures so I don't overwrite other pictures.

You just need to make sure you have scsi support, scsi generic, scsi disk, usb support, usb mass storage and the proper controller support for your chipset: UHCI/OHCI modules loaded into the kernel. Then add the appropriate mount point to /etc/fstab and add the named mount point to /mnt or where ever you want to mount it.