Firewire or PC Card (type ii)

[GenEOS]

Anybody own a firewire CF card reader? Is it really faster than a USB2.0 CF reader or a PC Card adapter for your laptop??

[FrankD]

I had USB 1.2 CF card reader. Now I use iTec FireWire. With USB it takes more more time than with FireWire which is many times faster (good purchase for me).

[iwatkins]

In practice FireWire is marginally faster than USB 2.0 even though the specs say otherwise. Also note that USB 2.0 is even slower if you have lots of other stuff happening (e.g. webcam etc.) on the same bus.

But saying all that, I use a USB 2.0 card reader even though I have built in FireWire on my PC. Only reason I use USB 2.0 is because I can take the reader with me and use on other peoples machines and also on my laptop while on holiday (which is never :().

The actual practical difference is only a few seconds for a couple of hundred meg of RAW images. I'm in no real rush. :)

Cheers

Ian

[defordphoto]

GenEOS wrote:
Anybody own a firewire CF card reader? Is it really faster than a USB2.0 CF reader or a PC Card adapter for your laptop??

I have both. I don't measurebate. The difference between USB 2.0 and Firewire is nominal. Pick what's mroe convenient for you and forget about it.

[defordphoto]

FrankD wrote:
I had USB 1.2 CF card reader. Now I use iTec FireWire. With USB it takes more more time than with FireWire which is many times faster (good purchase for me).

Ya missed the question there Frank: The comparison spoken of was USB 2.0 and Firewire. USB 1.X is a dinosaur.

[Jesper]

The transfer speeds of both the USB 2.0 and Firewire interfaces are MUCH faster than the read speed of the fastest CF cards. The speed will be limited by the CF card; it doesn't matter if you use a USB 2.0 or Firewire card reader.

[Tom W]

RFMSports wrote:

Ya missed the question there Frank: The comparison spoken of was USB 2.0 and Firewire. USB 1.X is a dinosaur.

I can vouch for that - my S-400 connects to the computer via USB 1.x and it takes 2 or 3 minutes do download 25-30 1.7 mb images. I usually use a USB 2.0 CF reader instead which moves data very fast. Just a few seconds for the same images.

[CyberDyneSystems]

All three specs listed are faster than any flash memory availble,. thus the card itself will not be fast enough for a real no holds barred race in this case.

So any of the readers availble in these three interfaces SHOULD be about = in speed limited only by the media itself.