The quickest way to get photos off a CF card

[droosan]

is definitely not using the USB reader that came with Lexar's Card.

Does anyone know a quicker way? Is there a firewire card reader, and if so, is it significantly faster, or is the bottleneck the card itself? I am using Lexar 40x cards.

I have a mac, if it makes a difference.

[Gerdav43]

I don't know much about MACs. I use a Dazzle USB 2.0 card reader and it's pretty fast. If your system is only USB 1.0 then speeds will be significantly reduced. There are other options as you have suggested but I will not pretend to know anything about them. The USB was the cheapest option. I got mine for $19 after rebates (Circuit City). Some are free now with rebates. Just make sure your up to USB 2.0 or you will have to seek other options for faster transfer.

[droosan]

I don't know much about MACs. I use a Dazzle USB 2.0 card reader and it's pretty fast. If your system is only USB 1.0 then speeds will be significantly reduced. There are other options as you have suggested but I will not pretend to know anything about them. The USB was the cheapest option. I got mine for $19 after rebates (Circuit City). Some are free now with rebates. Just make sure your up to USB 2.0 or you will have to seek other options for faster transfer.

Now I see the difficulty of this discussion. What is "pretty fast?" I generally take pictures on 6.3MP resolution with medium compression, on a 10D. My Lexar reader transfers at about 10 pictures a minute. Do you have a sense of how that would compare to you?

[De Paula]

I'm using the PQI Travel Flash CF Card Reader USB 2.0 and I can "download" 2 photos in a sec. :wink:

[rcrobert]

USB 2.0 is a bit faster than Firewire (if I remember right) -- but not much. To my knowledge, USB 2.0 is the fastest practical way to transfer right now.

[jens1204@earthlink.net]

Lexar makes a firewire card reader. It is pretty fast.

[mson]

How new is your Mac? The new one's come with Firewire 800 (800Mbs) which is much faster than USB2 (480Mbs). I did a quick search on a few sites and was not able to find a Firewire 800 Card reader so they may not exist yet. If you can find a fw 800 card reader go with that otherwise USB2 is the fastest.

[belmondo]

USB 2.0 is slightly faster than IEEE-1394, but is also affected by other traffic on the bus. If you're doing other things with USB (printing, writing to external drives, mousing, etc.) it can slow down your read/write speeds. That doesn't happen with firewire.

[jrm]

Lexar makes a FireWire Card reader. I am using it with my DRebel and a Mac G5 - no drivers or software needed. It works fine.

All I have to compare it to for speed is the DRebel alone via USB. The speed difference is night and day. Get teh FW reader.

BTW, when you put the card in the reader, it mounts on the desktop as a drive. All the Mac applications (iPhoto, Image Capture and the Canon supplied software) recognize the card in the Lexar reader as if it were the DRebel itself.

--Joe

[timmyquest]

USB 2.0 has higher burst rates but if you were to take a 512mb file and transfer it on firewire and then on USB 2.0, the firewire would be faster.

[dwc]

I have a laptop so I use a eFilm PRO CompactFLash CardBus Adapter from Delkin Devices. The Speed for this Card Adapter is affected by the CompactFlash Read Speed. Thier web site states...

CardBus transfer rates are, theoretically, up to 132MB a second. Actual transfer rates for the CardBus CompactFlash Adapter will depend on the CompactFlash cards controller speed. Customers with high-speed CF cards, such as the eFilm PRO, will notice a significant speed difference when downloading files, compared with a standard PC Card adapter. However, customers with slower CF cards may not notice any difference at all.

I Get 4MB per second off of a LEXAR 256MB 12x card...
I have a 2.0 Pentium 4m Sony Laptop. It only has 4 pin firewire and Most external Firewire readers require six pin or another power source. To be mobile another power source won't work for me.

Scott W.

[De Paula]

http://www.mercadolivre.com.br/org-img/preview/MLB/042004/16773951_4889.jpg

[dwc]

I forgot to put the link to the site.

http://www.delkin.com/delkin_products_adapters_cardbus.html

Scott W.

[droosan]

Thanks everyone,

I don't have USB2 or FW800, so it looks like for me, Lexar's FW reader is the way to go. BH has it for $49.95. I'll do that unless someone knows of somewhere significantly cheaper.

I didn't know whether FW would do speed it up much if it it's the card that is keeping it slow, but it sound like it does.

[gsmx2]

Thanks everyone,

I don't have USB2 or FW800, so it looks like for me, Lexar's FW reader is the way to go. BH has it for $49.95. I'll do that unless someone knows of somewhere significantly cheaper.

I didn't know whether FW would do speed it up much if it it's the card that is keeping it slow, but it sound like it does.

Don't know about Mac, but just did a search for "USB 2.0 card" at www.compusa.com There were two cards listed for under $20.00. Add a USB 2.0 reader in there for $20.00 and you''d have a decent way to download for less than the BH price.

Just a thought...and CompUSA would install it for you for free if you aren't so inclined.

gsm x2

[mjordan]

I bought a Firewire 800 card and a 2 slot Black Box hot swappable harddrive box not too long ago. I was going to install it in my wife's computer and I was going to get the 4 bay Black Box hot swappable box and Firewire 800 card. I found that the 800 card needs a 64 bit slot to take advantage of the 800 speed, which neither my wife's nor my main work computer have. Luckily my secondary work computer does have a 64 bit slot so I was able to put it in there and I got a couple of more 400 cards.

So before you go Firewire 800 on your PC, make sure it can take the card.

Mike

[vvizard]

.... Simply doesn't matter. USB2 got a theoretical bandwidth of 480Mbit/s. And firewire are maybe up to 800 now? Anyway, even that are theoretical bus-speeds, and by no means things you will see in practical experiments, its way faster than what your cards are capable of delivering. Firewire probably beeing the fastest for disklike things, as it's related with the SCSI-bus, which is the fastest way to transfer diskdata on "normal" systems. But then again, it all depends on the "disk", and I doubt the highspeed cards have reached the level where they outperform the BUS-capability itself. I use a Sandisk USB-2.0 card-reader, and got ~ 2.8MB/s when downloading images to harddrive in Linux. The microdrive is a real harddisk actually, so it's performance is probably some slower than regular compactflash cards. But on Securedigital-cards, I get ~ 4MB/s on the same reader. How much you will reach on a 40x card I don't want to try guessing, but even though they dont got any spinning things in them, I would be hardly surprised to see them coming close to fully exploiting the USB/Firewire-bus, which should be ("theoretically") capable of outperforming a fast IDE-harddisk (which usually lies around 30-50MB/s)

[jfretless]

I have the lexar firewire reader. It's fast and well worth the price.

As for USB2.0 being faster, I have to disagree.

I work for a Flash memory company and the guys here have a compatibility lab were they test all brand cards and card readers. Before I bought my own Lexar firewire reader, I kept asking to borrow theirs. They said, you can borrow anyone except that one...

Theoretical throughput my be higher with USB2 than firewire 400, but real world... firewire is faster.

John

[jdbulldog]

My primary card is a 4 GB Hitatchi microdrive and I also have several other Type 1 CF cards. For the basic Type 1 cards I use a SanDisk PC Card Adapter which I purchased from Amazon.com for $10.00. It treats the CF cards like a small hard drive and can be accessed through windows explorer. The files are transferred at 3 to 4 times the rate of my 2.0 USB. For my Type II Microdrive I am using the eFilm PRO CompactFLash CardBus Adapter from Delkin Devices. I am getting about 4MB/sec out of this wonderful device. I paid $60.00 at Amazon.com and I am extremely pleased. I have also used the Type II SimpleTech PC Card Adapter with great luck. These Card adapters save me time and space as I do not have to carry any wires or worry about connections. Not to mention it is really easy to load files into the cards and transfer to my camera, palm, or other CF/Microdrive device.

Good luck,

[pradeep1]

Using my Sandisk USB 2.0 CF card reader, I can transfer about 512 MB worth of photos to my computer in under 2 minutes. I use Viking's 512 MB CF cards, which are not incredibly fast. That's fast enough for me.

[drisley]

I find that my USB2.0 reader is about 10x faster than directly from the Digital Rebel.
Also, transfering directly from the camera is supposed to be a killer on batteries.

[FSUScotsman]

I've got to ask. Unless you are in the field using a laptop, what's the rush. Yes, I do have a USB 2 reader, but I don't have fast cards. I start my transfers then I either read my email or go get a Coke. Are we just THAT impatient or do we really have a need for the fast downloads? Just asking.

[jrm]

I've got to ask. Unless you are in the field using a laptop, what's the rush. Yes, I do have a USB 2 reader, but I don't have fast cards. I start my transfers then I either read my email or go get a Coke. Are we just THAT impatient or do we really have a need for the fast downloads? Just asking.

Good point. But there are a few valid reasons (at least for me).

I don't like the idea of hooking my DRebel to the computer to download.
- It is very slow (just try downloading 100 RAW images)
- It puts unnecessary strain on the connection (why wear out a $1000 camera connector if you don't have to?)
- I find the camera bulky (especially with a long lens attached) to use as a card reader. Much more convenient to pop the card into a small reader that is permanently connected to the computer.

Based on this, a card reader works much better for my needs than using the camera for the same purpose. Considering that prices for card readers (slow vs. fast) are not that different, why not spend $10-$20 more and get the fastest possible?

So for me the speed issue is just part of the equation.

[FSUScotsman]

OH, I would NEVER hook my camera up to the computer!!!! :shock:

It's just that, well, at home I have a USB 1.1 reader. A 512Mb card full of RAW takes a while. Big deal.

I'm more worried right now about what I'm going to do when I'm away from the computer for more than a day. I really wanted an I/O Magic Digtal Photo Library but Radio Shack has quit selling them!!! I don't think that they are worth the $200 that they cost direct.

[Red Squirrel]

I'm using a 512 40x lexar card with the jumpshot reader - my average speed is 0.9 mbytes/sec - I think something is wrong here. It's connected to a usb 2 port but still gives the same results if connected to usb 1.
Yesterday, it took over 5 minutes to download 250 mbytes.

[rick barclay]

I've got to ask. Unless you are in the field using a laptop, what's the rush. Yes, I do have a USB 2 reader, but I don't have fast cards. I start my transfers then I either read my email or go get a Coke. Are we just THAT impatient or do we really have a need for the fast downloads? Just asking.

Yes.

[Red Squirrel]

I think waiting 10 minutes to download 512mb is harking back to the days of the commodore 64....

[Wickedfn4u]

Well after reading this post it got me thinking and wondering. I always thought it was taking a long time to get the pictures from the card to the computer. After reading on here I looked at my card reader and could not find the 2.0 or 1.1. So I then emailed the MFG and asked and found out it was a 1.1 Ah hah the bottle neck. I went and picked up a 2.0 and man it does make a world of difference. I don't have a measured time difference but just the preview part was MUCH faster. Usually I have to wait for the previews to come up so I can tell if I have to rotate before DL and this was keeping up with me which it never did.

TC

[Jesper]

The choice between USB 2.0 and Firewire doesn't matter for CF card readers. Both USB 2.0 (480 Mbit/s) and Firewire (400 Mbit/s) are MUCH, MUCH faster than the fastest available CF card. So the speed will be limited by the read speed of the CF card. Going to FW800 (is that a new, 800 Mbit/s version of Firewire?) makes no sense at all for CF card readers.

Note that USB 1.1 is MUCH slower than USB 2.0 (14 Mbit/s vs. 480 Mbit/s), and if you use USB 1.1, the speed is limited by the interface.

The 300D, 10D, etc. have an USB 1.1 interface, so downloading directly from the camera will be slow.

If you get an USB 2.0 card reader, make sure the interface on the side of the computer is also USB 2.0. There is no difference between USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 connectors; however, if you connect an USB 2.0 device to an USB 1.1 interface on the computer or vice versa, it will run at the slow USB 1.1 speed. For PC, you can get an USB 2.0 interface card for maybe US$ 20 or so. I don't know how it works on the Mac.

[playinhockey]

I can't resist...Delete all!

[Red Squirrel]

so... is the Lexar jumpshot reader USB 1???

anyone??

[droosan]

so... is the Lexar jumpshot reader USB 1???

anyone??

I presume so. Since they don't advertise that it as USB2 and they give it away.

[belmondo]

I seem to recall some discussion a while back that the Jumpshot card reader is not a USB device at all. It's a cable.

Lexar puts the USB circuitry in their 40X CF cards and not the Jumpshot card reader. Accodringly, it will only work with the appropriate Lexar card.

Anyway, that's how I remember the discussion.

[droosan]

I received Lexar's Firewire400 Reader today and tried it out. It's faster, but only (at least on my old iMac) about 5 times faster than Lexar's Jumpshot. This is connected to a Lexar 40x 256MB card. I am guessing it is now up against the card's maximum speed, since my iPod and my FW harddrives get much higher bitrates over firewire.

[droosan]

More Follow-uponly (at least on my old iMac) about 5 times faster than Lexar's Jumpshot.

The above mentioned slowness seems to have been caused by iPhoto. When I use GraphicConvertor to load the pictures from the card, the Lexar Firewire card reader transfers a couple pictures per SECOND. Easily 20 times faster, maybe more.

[Blues67]

Ive got a built in card reader in my Sony tower and a Sandisk PCIMA card for my HP laptop. The Sony downloads a full 256 mb Sandisk Ultra II card in about 90 seconds, the HP in 130 seconds. These both make the cards function as hard drives and will read as fast as the card will allow. Sandisk ultra II and extreme are the fastest out there at around 1330 kb sec. Lexars are in the 900 to 1000 range. Slow that down with usb or firewire and yes its going to take a while. Put some coffee on Ethel

[dwc]

Blues67 how old is your tower?

I just tested my Delkin Cardbus Adapter with a lexar 12x 256MB full card and read the whole card in in 73 seconds and thats a slow card. On a slow laptop compared to most towers. I have a Sony GRX670 with 2.00GHZ, 512mb.
I love my 32bit Cardbus.

http://www.delkin.com/delkin_products_adapters_cardbus.html

Scott W.

[Blues67]

Its an RX44G 2.8 Ghz 512mb ram. Everything and the kitchen sink. I have a bad habit of watching TV in the corner of the screen while I work on stuff and usually have the net hooked up, a couple of games of freecell, etc. I usually have several things going at once though. My laptop is an HP ze4566 2500 Athlon XP-M. Ill shut everything down and retime just the download.....but the five minutes they were talking about, thats rediculous.

[Andy_T]

Blues67 how old is your tower?

I just tested my Delkin Cardbus Adapter with a lexar 12x 256MB full card and read the whole card in in 73 seconds and thats a slow card. On a slow laptop compared to most towers. I have a Sony GRX670 with 2.00GHZ, 512mb.
I love my 32bit Cardbus.

http://www.delkin.com/delkin_products_adapters_cardbus.html

Scott W.

Boy, that's just incredible!

Blues67, did you realize that you are actually wasting 67 seconds (that's more than a minute of your life :lol:) per every 50 or so photos (more if you don't shoot RAW, but JPG) you take?

I'd seriously consider replacing your PC....

Best regards,
Andy

[Blues67]

The damn thing is less than five months old and was the second best Sony makes. the only one is the rz46g at 3.2Ghz and 1ghz of ram. I'll stop running a dozen programs at once and see what the time is. Half the time I'm watching tv on it or recording to the hard drive or dvd while working on pics.