Download speed...

[Gary]

Friends -

I've observed when using my laptop that the download speed of images from my D30 is about three times faster when I read the CF card in the laptop's PC card slot as compared to a USB download from the camera.

Most of my digital imaging work will be on my desktop, though, which has no such card slot. I could purchase a USB card reader, of course. Does anyone know if using a USB card reader offers faster downloads that directly connecting the camera via its USB cable?

[gandini]

I am using a MicroTech CameraMate USB reader (CF-i, CF-II and SM cpmpatible).

I just downloaded 22 RAW images with THM files from a 1gig MD in 62 seconds. So that's about 3 seconds per image. Not bad.

I also use BreezeBrowser to convert from RAW to TIFF. It takes approximately 9 seconds per image for this conversion. Not bad.

cheers,

[Gary]

Philip -

I agree, your download speed is very brisk!

I was downloading large/fine JPG's through the D30 USB connection and it was taking seven seconds per image.

I'll have to get a card reader, it appears...

[LaptopPop]

Yes, by all means get a card reader -- the download speeds are significantly higher.

Of course, now you have to think about what KIND of card reader. Tests over on DPReview.com seem to indicate that a firewire reader is MUCH faster than a USB reader. I'm currently using a USB reader (which was $30., and is much faster than the camera USB speed), but I'm considering adding a firewire port to my Windows PC just so I can add an ultra fast reader.

-lee-

[wadewitz]

I've tried every method I could think of and what I found to be fastest was the pc card adapter you mentioned. I don't think you can beat that speed. My PCs are networked and I just connect to my laptop from my desktop to transfer. Over a 100mb hub, I think it's faster than the USB options.

[AJSJones]

I compared a Firewire CF reader to the D30 attached (to my G4) by USB for downloading about 400 large/fineJPEGs. The Firewire was almost exactly 10x faster. Don't know how this would compare to a USB CF card reader which may be faster than the direct to camera USB (?) ...
Andy

[thermann]

Microtech has a nice comparison chart showing typical transfer rates for various types of card readers.


http://www.microtechint.com/cardreaders.html

[CanonRock]

On a desktop, the fastest way to download from your CF/MD is by using a FireWire reader.

The USB reader works fine, but when having to download lots of RAW files the wait could be painful since you still have lots of post processing to do.

My take, invest in a good FireWire reader and you are set.

I recently bought a Lexar FireWire reader brand new for about $90. Might sounds a little pricy just for a reader, but it was worth every penny.

TN
http://www.imageevent.com/d30photo

[gerry]

i use scsi microtech, and have heard that scsi is better than firewire or usb

[D30Photo]

gerry wrote:
i use scsi microtech, and have heard that scsi is better than firewire or usb

The data from by www.microtechint.com showed that their fastest SCSI model is cabable of 3MB/sec. That's equivalent to 24Mbps (1Byte=8bits if I'm correct).

The speed on FireWire cabable devices range from 100, 200, and 400Mbps.

You might have a fast SCSI card (like UltraFast SCSI) that can handle up to 160MB/sec or 1280Mbps, but the true speed is dependent on the device that it connected to, in this case just 3MB/sec data transfer rate with model http://www.microtechint.com/qs-PCD40.html


TN
http://www.imageevent.com/d30photo