Fastest way to download your CF card???

[KBMphotography.com]

What have you found is the fastest way to downlood a memory card?

Attach lead to camera - or use a USB device?

Anyone using firewire??

Appreciate your thoughts......

[timmyquest]

Firewire would be fastest, but i have not been able to find an external firewire CF card reader. USB 2.0 is plenty fast enough though. I dont even know where the USB/camera cable is now that i have a card reader.

[Jesper]

Get an USB 2.0 card reader.

Timmy, Firewire is NOT faster. Both the USB 2.0 and Firewire interfaces are MUCH faster than the fastest CF card. The speed will be limited by the speed of the CF card, not the speed of the interface.

Alan, I don't know what camera you have, but unless it's a big and expensive one such as the 1D Mark II, it only has a slow USB 1.1 interface, so connecting the camera to the computer and downloading images is slow.

[timmyquest]

Timmy, Firewire is NOT faster. Both the USB 2.0 and Firewire interfaces are MUCH faster than the fastest CF card. The speed will be limited by the speed of the CF card, not the speed of the interface.


Would you put money on this?

The peak speed of USB 2.0 is indeed 80mb/s faster however firewire maintains it's max speed where as USB (of any kind) varries during the transfer.

I can assure you, based on my own expereience, firewire is faster.

[Jesper]

Timmy, Firewire is NOT faster. Both the USB 2.0 and Firewire interfaces are MUCH faster than the fastest CF card. The speed will be limited by the speed of the CF card, not the speed of the interface.


Would you put money on this?

The peak speed of USB 2.0 is indeed 80mb/s faster however firewire maintains it's max speed where as USB (of any kind) varries during the transfer.

I can assure you, based on my own expereience, firewire is faster.

The theoretical max. speed of USB 2.0 is 480 Mbit/s (megaBIT; that's 60 MB/s) while Firewire is 400 MBit/s (and there's even a new, 800 Mbit/s version). In practice, Firewire is faster because USB 2.0 uses a lot of the computer's CPU power.

However, for reading CF cards, it all doesn't matter. The fastest CF cards can read maybe 10 MB/s. That's 6x slower than USB 2.0 and 5x slower than Firewire. So for a card reader, it doesn't matter if it has an USB 2.0 or Firewire interface.

The max. speed of USB 1.1 is 12 Mbit/s (1.5 MB/s) which is a lot slower than the read speed of a fast CF card.

[KBMphotography.com]

Thanks for your replies.

Jesper - It is indeed a 1D MkII - just wondered what everyone else was using

(need justification for Mrs KBM to allow me to spend some money!!!!:))

[natalka]

I download first to a nixvue digital album, take about 6 minutes for a 2 G card, then use firewire from desktop to nixvue to transfer all my files. each RAW folder on the nixvue transfers in about 15 seconds.

otherwise, it seems to take forever when i insert the RAW cf card directly into the desktop and attampt to transfer.

nata

[WestFalcon]

Timmyquest,

I have a Sandisk External Card Reader with firewire....Paid about $29.95 from JR Music in NY I believe...They do make them in firewire.

[drisley]

I find my USB2.0 reader is about 10x faster than transfering directly to PC from my 300D.
This is using 12x CF cards. I imagine the difference would be even greater with a 40x or faster CF card.

[DocFrankenstein]

I transfer directly from my 300D. Nice and fast at 40 minutes for a 256 mb 12x card :twisted:

[Scottes]

Does anyone know the transfer difference between one of those USB 2.0 Multi-card readers and a Lexar Jumpshot? I've got a Jumpshot - is it worth getting a reader?

It seems that the Jumpshot *is* a card reader so it doesn't seem worthwhile, but for $20...

[ajmcdo]

I've used Firewire (400) for 18 months now. It will download a 1 gig CF card in no time at all. Firewire 800 would really fly!

Wombat

[Jesper]

I've used Firewire (400) for 18 months now. It will download a 1 gig CF card in no time at all. Firewire 800 would really fly!

Wombat

No Wombat, that's what I've explained above, it would NOT make any difference at all! :roll: Firewire 400 is already five times faster than the read speed of the fastest CF cards. The bottleneck is NOT the interface; it's the speed of the CF card.......

[redbutt]

You're both right. The speed of the card is a limiting factor, however only in getting the data to the interface. However, once the interface has the data, the speed of the interface does make a difference. So, using the same card, the new Firewire would be faster...though not as fast as if you used a new card with the new interface.

I forgot who started this thread, but to answer the original question, I originally had a USB 1.0 card reader to dump my 1GB Micro Drive (Canon 10D is the camera). A typical day of shooting would take ~ 15 minutes to download. I now have a Lexar Firewire card reader, and the same qty of photos now downloads in 3 minutes. The firewire reader is worth it. Plus, I'm running two large external hard drives with Firewire Pyro kits. I recommend that as well. Makes for great working disks for Photoshop as well as very easy to take a store/archive.


I've used Firewire (400) for 18 months now. It will download a 1 gig CF card in no time at all. Firewire 800 would really fly!

Wombat

No Wombat, that's what I've explained above, it would NOT make any difference at all! :roll: Firewire 400 is already five times faster than the read speed of the fastest CF cards. The bottleneck is NOT the interface; it's the speed of the CF card.......

[drisley]

Additionally, if you download directly from the 300D or 10D, it drains the battery VERY quickly.

[DocFrankenstein]

Additionally, if you download directly from the 300D or 10D, it drains the battery VERY quickly.
I wonder why :? Doesn't seem that drainy, it's just reading :? :shock:

[Xibalba]

I transfer directly from my 300D. Nice and fast at 40 minutes for a 256 mb 12x card :twisted:

Wow, that is slow :o I am sure it only took around 25 minutes to download a full 256MB 4x card from my 300D.

Thankfully, my father-in-law had an old USB 1.1 CF card reading lying around , it isn't USB 2 or firewire, but it is much faster than via the 300D :)

Rick

[evilenglishman]

i download my images via an xdrive usb2. firewire might improve the interface of a hard drive but not a card

[lcoleman]

redbutt,

You wrote,
You're both right. The speed of the card is a limiting factor, however only in getting the data to the interface. However, once the interface has the data, the speed of the interface does make a difference. So, using the same card, the new Firewire would be faster...though not as fast as if you used a new card with the new interface

Please explain to me how this works and if there is a significant difference between firewire 400 and 800 with an average speed CF card and even the fastest CF card. I would have thought that if the card was delivering the data at 10MB/s and the interface was moving that data at 400MB/s after it received it that it would not help to increase the interface to 800MB/s.

Thank you

[redbutt]

redbutt,

Please explain to me how this works....

Thank you

Well...there are two transfers that are happening. There getting the data off the card, and then moving that data through the pipe to the final destination. The card is obvoiusly the limiting factor for the first element.

If the card can only off load information at speed "x"...that will not change not matter how much faster your card reader gets. However, your card reader is what gets the data to your computer. So, when you speed that interface up, you get a faster transfer.

It's like connecting to a server a 56k modem, then cable, then T1. At some point, the gains will become miniscule and not really noticable to the naked eye...because the server can only serve up data at a certain rate...but the pipe can get you data faster. So, I'm not saying that upgrading is worth it...just that technically, you were both right.

[DocFrankenstein]

Here's a question for you. Why does the reader has the speed advantage. It doesn't seem that hard to make the rebel transfer the info at the same speed. :?

[redbutt]

Here's a question for you. Why does the reader has the speed advantage. It doesn't seem that hard to make the rebel transfer the info at the same speed. :?

Personal opinion....it's like VCR tapre rewinders. That's not the camera's job. The camera's job is to take pictures, so the manufacturers concentrate on that.

[Jesper]

redbutt,

Please explain to me how this works....

Thank you

Well...there are two transfers that are happening. There getting the data off the card, and then moving that data through the pipe to the final destination. The card is obvoiusly the limiting factor for the first element.

If the card can only off load information at speed "x"...that will not change not matter how much faster your card reader gets. However, your card reader is what gets the data to your computer. So, when you speed that interface up, you get a faster transfer.

But the bottleneck is still the CF card and not the reader-to-computer interface, so making the latter faster will maybe make the total time to copy a full CF card a bit shorter, but not by any significant amount.

[MikesJo]

Jesper is right about the CF card being the limiting factor. Even if the card reader can transfer that fast, it can only transfer as fast as the card will let it. The card is the bottleneck after you switch to USB 2.0. But it's way faster than USB 1.0. My laptop has USB 2.0 but not my desktop :(.

Here's another way to think about, it's like a cdwriter. Even though the cdwriter can write at 52x, if the media isn't 52x compatible, it won't write at 52x. It'll write at the speed rated on the CD-R. So if the CD-r is 32x, then the 52x writer will only write at 32x. Hope that helps.

[KennyG]

I have just run a test using Downloader Pro as it measures the download speed and there is NO difference between my Firewire reader and my USB2 reader for a full Lexar 1GB card. QED.

[drisley]

Additionally, if you download directly from the 300D or 10D, it drains the battery VERY quickly.
I wonder why :? Doesn't seem that drainy, it's just reading :? :shock:
Dunno. I read an article once that showed you lose about 50% of battery power just by transfering a few images from the Rebel to the PC.
When I used to transfer directly to the PC, I noticed that my battery would need charging shortly thereafter.
That's what made me finally get a USB2 reader, now I'm so much happier.

[Bruce Foreman]

What have you found is the fastest way to downlood a memory card?

Attach lead to camera - or use a USB device?

Anyone using firewire??

Appreciate your thoughts......

I guess I just plain got lucky, computer I bought for video editing last Christmas has a 7 in 1 media reader on the front panel next to the audio jacks, firewire, and front USB ports.

Don't know as that would be any faster than an external reader plugged into USB or Firewire, though. I didn't pay attention to exact time but an almost full 256MB Lexar 4X CF card seemed to only take about 4 or 5 minutes to copy to a harddrive folder the other day.

Bruce Foreman
______________
Digital Rebel kit, hp photosmart945, pair of EOS650's, and a couple of geriatric RB's (shoulda sold those critters a decade or two back!)

[Molydood]

yaaay, read this thread the other day then went and bought a card reader for £15. Download my pictures in a tenth of the time now, well worth it IMO.
Plus, you can view the pictures direct from the card in your file manager, so you can start to view them immediately upon inserting the card.
and if your camera is out of charge..........