CF Card Reader vs. Camera Download

[joseel]

Hi, this is my first post here, so I wish you can help me...
I own a Powershot and an Eos Rebel Digital, both uses CF cards, and I don't know what is best for transferring photographs to the PC... I've been told that card readers are good because you don't use the battery charge of the camera, but other people says that it is better downloading the photos directly form the camera... what's your opinion,

Thanks

[intechpcx]

Depends on how you handle the pictures once they're on your PC. The card reader typically will transfer the images faster (assuming it and your PC support USB 2.0). Additionally, you're correct that it won't draw on your camera's battery to perform the transfer.

The big factor in favor of connecting the camera to do the transfer is the integration with the File Viewer and other Canon software. Using the reader, you have to copy the files by hand like you would between disks or folders on your PC. When you transfer from the camera, the Canon software fires up, takes you through transfering the images and then arranges your photos according to your pre-determined settings.

So it really comes down to a balance of the following:

How fast do you want to transfer the pictures
How much power is left on your battery
How much do you used the Canon software and do you mind adding the pictures to your albums manually.

One final note in favor of using the camera to transfer, there is less wear and tear on the card and the camera's card port. Obviously the more you handle the card the more you risk accidentally causing damage (very very very small risk but it's there).

[yellow_belly]

Hi, after being in the electronics business for 30 years I *know* the weakest system point is where one component interfaces with another especially mechanical ones e.g. compact flash card contacts, so personally I always, where ever posible, download from the camera. This not only reduces wear on the camera pins and CF contacts but also reduces the chances of getting a pin bent, because of the reduced number of insertions. If anyone has ever had a bent pin on a CF card interface (or anything else) they will know that it is very difficult (and may also be expensive) to rectify.

Everyone has to determine the risk for themselves and decide what is their prefered method but mine is 'download from camera' when ever possible :)

Terry

[ed2day]

I've been struggling with this choice myself. For the exact reasons given. Connectors are usually rated by number of insertion cycles. Has anyone heard a number for CF connectors? That doesn't say anything about bent pin problems however, which I have heard happen.

[Cayenne]

I use a reader and you can set up the software to automatically dowload the pics from the card once the card is detected in the reader (in xp anyway).

[scottbergerphoto]

Trip over any cords lately?
I'll take a bent CF card pin over a broken camera or lens any day. In addition, with each new update of DPP and EVU, problems crop up between OS's and Canon's software resulting in camera-computer communication problems. In addition USB 2.0 card readers are much faster. You can use a program like Downloader Pro to organize and rename your files while they download.
Scott

[lomond]

I hear what you are all saying but I rember capturing from a digital video camera 2 years ago and being advised by the Sony manual to always capture with the unit connected to the main power supply , not battery.
To cut a long a long story short the digital board on the camcorder was fried because I connected the firewire last and not perfectly square. £ 300 repair.
Anyway I never connect a camcorder or camera directly to anything, TV included.
My advice, always, always a card reader.
They don't cost much.
They certainly don't cost £ 300.

[pcasciola]

I prefer the USB 2.0 readers. They are many times faster for one, and going directly to the camera uses a lot of battery. If you battery dies in the camera while tranferring you are likely going to lose images. I also like that with the reader, the CF card just appears like another drive on the computer, so I can use Windows Explorer to drag and drop the files and view the thumbnails.

[yellow_belly]

If you battery dies in the camera while tranferring you are likely going to lose images. 8( I dont think so ???

Terry

[Jon]

USB 2 Card reader. They're faster, the camera cords are a nuisance (even now that Canon's using stock USB cables), unless you're really careless you're not likely to break/bend pins in moving a card for download (as opposed to changing cards in the middle of a shooting session), and you'll probably need a card reader to set up for a firmware upgrade. Besides, if you have more than one card, you're likely to be uploading from a card that's not in the camera somewhere along the line.

I've been using PCMCIA/PC Cards and CF cards for at least 15 years, including swapping memory, modem, network, drive interface, and GPS cards in and out, in computers, PDAs and digital cameras, and not seen problems with bent pins. Even doing IT support, I haven't seen this from end users.

[Jon]

8( I dont think so ???

Terry

It's happened - documented here on the board.

[kb244]

Compared to the rebel, a USB 2.0 card reader is definitly going to be better. Also in terms of whats the speed of write performance to the card from the camera.

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007

Pull down the list in top right to pick you camera, and you'll see how each CF stacks up to each other.

keep in mind, from the camera , you are working with USB 1.1, which is only rated for about 12Mbit ( about 1 meg or so per second ), also theres the limitation of the control board that talks to the CF card. where as a USB 2.0 reader, USB 2.0 is rated for 480Mbit, and will most likely utilize the card's fastest speed, for example a Sandisk Ultra II card can transfer upto 9MB/sec versus the 700K/sec or so from the camera.

[intechpcx]

I prefer the USB 2.0 readers. They are many times faster for one, and going directly to the camera uses a lot of battery. If you battery dies in the camera while tranferring you are likely going to lose images. I also like that with the reader, the CF card just appears like another drive on the computer, so I can use Windows Explorer to drag and drop the files and view the thumbnails.

One note, I don't know about the 20D but the dRebel (300D) checks the battery before it will start downloading. It makes sure there is plenty (and I mean to a rediculous threshold) of power in the battery otherwise it will not let you transfer. I connected my rebel with the battery meter showing full (it shows full until it's under 50% I believe) and it told me to replace the battery first.

Jon, as far as PC cards and the like, I've not run into bent pins either but it can happen. It is much harder with PCMCIA, CF and other such cards for computers because the slots are built with enough keying in place to make it very hard. However, one thing I've run into with PCMCIA card slots is the stress put on the soldered connections causing issues. I just had the slot on my laptop replaced for this reason. I have a wireless card that I insert and remove easily 30 times a week. A soldered connection in the card slot came loose and so the whole thing had to be replaced.

[pradeep1]

Hi, after being in the electronics business for 30 years I *know* the weakest system point is where one component interfaces with another especially mechanical ones e.g. compact flash card contacts, so personally I always, where ever posible, download from the camera. This not only reduces wear on the camera pins and CF contacts but also reduces the chances of getting a pin bent, because of the reduced number of insertions. If anyone has ever had a bent pin on a CF card interface (or anything else) they will know that it is very difficult (and may also be expensive) to rectify.

Everyone has to determine the risk for themselves and decide what is their prefered method but mine is 'download from camera' when ever possible :)
Terry

I think you will effectively wear out your camera from use before you wear out a CF pin.

[S230]

I guess I am probably the few that had actually bent a pin on a CF card.
I was in a hurry that day and actually bent the metal contact in the card reader. Just as anything, if you don't take care of things properly, it will not last. I also heard the pin breaking inside the Digital Rebel before which really worries me. But as someone pointed out, it's definitely cheaper to replace the CF card reader. And the camera will probably be outdated before the pins do go wrong.

It's still probably safer to use a CF card reader than hooking up a wire to the camera because it will eventually break just like any metal contact. Personally, I find it more fragile.

[Persian-Rice]

Block out all this techy info.

-Card reader is much faster (almost all the time, so guys dont post your big formulas of how it actually isn't)
-Doesn't eat battery
-Easier to transfer files back and forth using a reader.
- If god forbid your CF decides to have "that time of the month" moment, recovery softwares tend to want a reader.

[sid]

I'd also recommend getting a card reader. Make sure you get a USB 2.0. I've found it to be faster than the camera and even if it wasnt, it doesnt waste the camera battery.
And as someone posted on this website before, the camera was made to take pictures and not to transfer data.

[Naytwan]

Reader. Most readers you do not need to add any drivers to your machine. The 20D will not be recognized as a removable drive or a camera without the driver.

Go to your friends house, take some photos, he wants a copy? If you have a reader you can plug it right in and transfer the files. If you don't your sh_t out of luck. I personally use either my card reader or my picturemate printer card reader.

[wtfmate]

Sorry for the stupid question, but would the USB2.0 cord from lets say the 20d work on the 300d?

[Andy_T]

One very convenient method for laptop users is a PCMCIA adapter for the CF card.

Voila ... no cable at all. And you can keep your spare CF card safe inside your laptop until you need it. Speed is very fast (don't know whether it's as fast as USB 2.0, but definitely a lot faster than USB 1.0)

Best regards,
Andy

[Naytwan]

Sorry for the stupid question, but would the USB2.0 cord from lets say the 20d work on the 300d?

Is the 300D USB 2.0? Any USB cord rather its 2.0 or 1.1 will work. There is no diffrence in cables, its the controller that matters.

[queenbee288]

I use a card reader. I read that it saves wear and tear on your camera. Just last week I read on this forum a post by someone who's computer crashed during transfer. His camera crashed also right along with it.

[Citizensmith]

USB2/Firewire Card reader definitely. The Rebel and 10D at least are only USB1 and the card reader offloads much much faster (in my personal experience). Firewire is a bit faster too, but USB is more commonplace and most new computers have USB2.0 as standard.

Personally I have Picassa installed (free from google/downloads) and XP automatically detects the cards and offloads the photos to my selected folder without any further input from me. I delete the photos manually as I always want specific control of that part of the operation.

[Monito]

Use DIM 4 to transfer and automatically rename the files to something more meaningful as it transfers from a card reader or a builtin reader.

[triangle]

I love my USB Reader; CameraMate from ZIO. It has 4 slots for several different cards. I am with Scott on this one, my reader cost $10 and my camera and lens alot more $$$. I always hated hooking up my camera and leaving it sitting on my desk while downloading, it made me to nervous. Now my camera and lenses are tucked neat and safely in their bag while my reader downloads my photos.


(P.S.: I did find that I use only my Canon ZoomBrowser EX software that came with my DRebel to download with. The main reason is I take alot of pan shots and the software automatically rotates my pictures. Windows Wizard did not rotate them.)

[yellow_belly]

I think you will effectively wear out your camera from use before you wear out a CF pin.

Proof below if you need it, but you have to make your own decision and hopefully it will be the right one for you :)

Terry

I guess I am probably the few that had actually bent a pin on a CF card.
I was in a hurry that day and actually bent the metal contact in the card reader. Just as anything, if you don't take care of things properly, it will not last. I also heard the pin breaking inside the Digital Rebel before which really worries me. But as someone pointed out, it's definitely cheaper to replace the CF card reader. And the camera will probably be outdated before the pins do go wrong.

[kb244]

Is the 300D USB 2.0? Any USB cord rather its 2.0 or 1.1 will work. There is no diffrence in cables, its the controller that matters.

The 300D is USB 1.1 , will use a 2.0 cable but will still run at slower 1.1 speeds. The 20D is USB 2.0 "Hi-Speed", but speed compared to a CF Reader varies on the card, the compactflash controller in the camera, then the usb controller in the camera. Also the compactflash card gona put up more abuse than probally that USB plug on the 20D.

[digibeet]

I use the camera to read out the card, only it takes ages. I dit have used a Pcmcia card. That is realy fast, but the auto-rotate function don't work properly and have to do it manualy.

[S230]

This thought just came to mind. Since the USB 2.0 CF Reader is so cheap (affordable), just get one and try using both od for a while and see which one you like. Make sure you post the result for us to know. :)
This all depends on your setup but still I personally see the CF Card reader being a better solution. Recovery tools requires you to use one anyways.

I sometimes store drivers and photos to be printed onto the same card without problems.

Try both. there's no hurt and see the difference yourself.

[Naytwan]

Another thing to remember as well. There are two versions of USB 2.0. There is USB 2.0 Hi-Speed and Full Speed. Hi-Speed is rated at 480 mbps and full speed is the old 1.1 renamed.

[mvonditter]

About 10,000 times for the normal CF card. As to pins......if it doesn't feel right, don't push it in. I have only heard of cheap readers failing. You get what you pay for I guess.