Any affordable firewire CF readers out there?

[kafene]

Spoke to my brother who also has a 10D and he asked if I'd start buying the faster Flash Cards. I told him that the write speed doesn't bother me nearly as much as the speed it take for my reader device to copy it to my computer.

I have an external multi-card reader and all I have are a few 256MB CF cards. It's USB, but I'm now thinking, maybe I should look into a firewire reader for transfering to the computer.

1.) Do they make one? and/or who's tried it?
2.) How much are they?

Thanks!

kafene.
kafene@ohmark.com
www.ohmark.com

[RichardtheSane]

Also you may want to consider USB 2 - you get the same sort of performance at a lower price.
I just got an internal USB 2 reader and I am blown away by the speed increase :D :D

[imago57]

I have the Lexar firewire reader, and it works just fine for me. I don't remember spending more than $ 25.00 when I purchased it a few months ago.

[toddb]

RichardtheSane wrote:
Also you may want to consider USB 2 - you get the same sort of performance at a lower price.
I just got an internal USB 2 reader and I am blown away by the speed increase :D :D

Oh ya, the USB 1.1 is soooo slow! You can get a USB 2.0 reader for under $30 and it's fast, very fast. I download my 1GB card in no time. Usually on like a 256MB card, I will be done transfering before I start my program and point it to that directory. The bandwidth of USB 2.0 compared to USB 1.1 is huge step up.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Kafene,

USB2 and Firewire will give you the same speed (both are faster than the cards themselves so the card becomes the limiting factor)

So the first question is,.. what is your computer ALLREADY equipped with? Does it have either USB2 or Firewire?

If it has one and not the other than that should be your decision. IF it has both.. USB2 is cheaper. If it has neither,. than decide which you would want to install in which case you would need a Firewire or a USB2 card.

Here is a link to a USB2 Card reader for $18.00

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GS-G2

..and here is an $11.00 USB2 card...

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=A-6202-4

[kafene]

CyberDyneSystems wrote:
Kafene,

USB2 and Firewire will give you the same speed (both are faster than the cards themselves so the card becomes the limiting factor)

So the first question is,.. what is your computer ALLREADY equipped with? Does it have either USB2 or Firewire?

If it has one and not the other than that should be your decision. IF it has both.. USB2 is cheaper. If it has neither,. than decide which you would want to install in which case you would need a Firewire or a USB2 card.

Here is a link to a USB2 Card reader for $18.00

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GS-G2

..and here is an $11.00 USB2 card...

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=A-6202-4



I'm excited now :) So does that mean that the type of CF Card type doesn't matter? It's just a 256 MB card I bought at Costco. I don't think it's the faster card type. I don't know which USB I have, but I do have Firewire.

kafene.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Even if you have a standard card,. it is definatley capable of more speed than USB1... and it is Definately NOT faster than the Firwire reader you should get...

So you will be able to read that card at its highest speed with a firewire reader and it should be MUCHG faster than the current slow as molasses USB1 reasder you use now (and much faster than reading from the camera via a direct cable)

here are some Firewire readers...

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?description=20-300-004&depa=1

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?description=20-176-816&depa=1

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?description=20-191-852&depa=1

[kafene]

imago57 wrote:
I have the Lexar firewire reader, and it works just fine for me. I don't remember spending more than $ 25.00 when I purchased it a few months ago.

Found out I don't have USB2, so I'm going Firewire. Do you remember where you got the reader?

kafene.

[imago57]

Ebay.

Max

[bluebomberx]

Hey CDS, that second reader is NOT IEE1394. It is USB 2.0. It is only IEE1394 in the sense that it has a 4-pin port on the front of the reader. The actual reader is run from USB 1.1/2.0. You can get a USB 2.0 card from New Egg for about $18. I actually have this unit and it is quite fast and a great buy. Below is what it looks like in my workstation.


http://www.phototalk.net/rryerson/albums/private/166_6697.jpg

[pwagner]

Are you using a Mac? (I ask because you have USB 1.1 and Firewire, which is the exact scenereo of Macs until quite recently.) I use an 18-month-old Mac with OS X 10.3 Panther. I bought a Belkin "Hi-Speed USB 2.0 5-Port PCI Card" and a Lexar USB 2.0 CF card reader ($45 + $20 at Walmart). The cool thing about OX X 10.3 is that you plug the PCI card into the computer and you plug the reader into 1 of the 5 new ports and you are ALL DONE! The OS handles everything. The extra additional ports come in handy for my 2 printers as well.

I also have the Costco SanDisk 256 MB card. Unfortunatley, the card itself tops out at about 1.8 MB per second. USB 1.1 runs about 1.1 MB per second. Therefore, you won't see a huge speedup no matter what card reader system you use. If you want blazing speed, you should find a 24x or 40x CF card in addition to a USB 2.0 or FireWire reader.

[kafene]

Very good guess, pwagner,

I am on a Mac G4 running OS X 10.2.8. I guess I won't worry about getting the reader until I upgrade the cards. :( Oh well. I'm glad you posted with the info.

kafene.

[CyberDyneSystems]

? Just confused a little,. if you allready have a firewire port (which you should with a G4) then you don't need to upgrade anything to get a firewire reader?

[kafene]

CyberDyneSystems wrote:
? Just confused a little,. if you allready have a firewire port (which you should with a G4) then you don't need to upgrade anything to get a firewire reader?

You're right. I don't have to upgrade any hardware, but from what pwagner says, I'll still need to get faster Compact Flash cards because that'll be the determining factor on real speed increase in transfers. I'll need to get faster CF cards which I'm not looking to get at this very moment. I've got three 256MB cards. I could use some more, but it's not high on my list (yet). :)

kafene.