CF reader vs USB cable

[papa]

I just ordered an S330 camera and have a question about downloading images to my PC. How does the speed of using the USB cable that comes with the camera to download images compare to the speed of using using a Compac Flash card reader to download images to my PC??

I am wondering if its worth the expense to buy a Compact Flash card reader.

[bmwracer]

IMO, I don't think there's much of a noticable difference in transfer speed...

Many say the CF reader is more convenient, but I think removing and reinserting the CF card is much more of a hassle than just inserting the USB cable to the camera...

Many also say that using the USB cable drains the battery... I think the battery drain is negligible compared to that of the LCD, and besides most people have spare batteries anyways...

[UK_Terry]

Wow the transfer rate of the S330 must be impressive!!!

if i use the USB on my D30 i can go and cut the grass, wash the car and take the dog for a walk while it downloads.

using a CF Card reader takes a minute or two.

[SteveCliff]

bmwracer wrote:
IMO, I don't think there's much of a noticable difference in transfer speed...


Interesting - using my S40 for transfer is much slower than using the same CF in my PCMCIA based reader. The reader flies along. I presume this is because the camera transfer is limited to the constrains of the USB specification whereas the reader is treated more like a hard drive.

Cheers,
Steve.

[UK_Terry]

SteveCliff wrote:
bmwracer wrote:
IMO, I don't think there's much of a noticable difference in transfer speed...


I presume this is because the camera transfer is limited to the constrains of the USB specification whereas the reader is treated more like a hard drive.

.

I agree completly a card reader is much faster than camera to PC

[Rustle]

PCMCIA devices are based on PCI interface technology, with a top speed of 132MB/sec. They're actually much faster than a standard IDE hard drive controller (about 17MB/sec) and USB (1.5MB/sec). CF cards obviously don't have anything near the bandwidth of the PCMCIA spec (Sandisk UltraCF cards are 2.8MB/sec), but using a PCMCIA adapter, Firewire, or USB2.0 guarantees that you'll have more than enough bandwidth to transfer data at the fastest speed.

As well, a USB CF card reader will always be faster than a Canon camera, because of the card reader's singular purpose. With most cameras, data transfer has to share the USB bandwidth with other camera-to-PC communication functions (such as My Camera).

Russ

[papa]

Thank everybody who replied! I bought a CF card reader.