Card Readers

[psychonaut]

my girlfriend's camera is digital rebel, i dont know the model or her 512mb card ... will have to check it out later, but it takes a LONG time to transfer the images to computer.

i am looking for a way to speed it up. i was thinking about getting Lexar Firewire Compact Flash reader and *maybe* also upgrading the card to a Sandisk Extreme 3.

but i dont know if there would be any software compatibity issues, and just how much of an improvement in speed i would see. also i dont know if i would wear out or break the mechanism that retains the flash card in the camera if i keep taking it out and putting it in ?

in other words, is it worth it ?

thanx in advance :)

[Andrew Pratt]

Yes its worth it esp with the dRebel as that only has USB 1.0 interface so its very slow. Make sure that the card reader you get is either USB2 or Firewire (doens't much matter which). As for the CF card depending on what you have now you'll likely see faster transfer rates to the PC but the dRebel can't really take advantage of the faster cards.

[psychonaut]

but will i notice the speed increase if i keep the slow card ? or will i need to get a fast card to really see the difference from a firewire reader ?

[weemannie]

You'll see a substantial improvement in download from the reader to your PC with Firewire or USB 2. I can't say whether you'll get any improvement in camera when shooting as I don't know the Rebel.

Also, with a faster card you'll get faster downloads from reader to PC, but you may want to get the reader first and try it. You may find that you're happy with the speed you get. If not, buy a faster card, I use the SanDisk Ultra 2 and am very happy with it:)

[Longwatcher]

From camera to card with the drebel (300D), you will not see any significant speed difference between a 12x Lexar (or faster) and most Sandisk cards above 256 no matter what speed. There is technically a speed difference that can be measured, but you won't notice it after a certain point is reached, which seems to be what ever speed the Lexar 12x cards run at.

However, you will see a noticable speed difference in card to computer (given a fast reader) from all the way up to at least the Sandisk Extreme III cards.

For CF cards, I use the Sandisk USB 2.0 reader

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=359519&is=REG

for SD cards I use the Lexar 5-in-1 reader

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=352045&is=REG

Both of which seem to be among the fastest on the market right now. I do know the internal 6-in-1 card reader I have on my computer and my old card reader will read up to a Lexar 40x card faster as the card gets faster, but my Ultra II and Extreme III cards go no noticeably faster on those readers then the 40x card. My old Delkin Picture Pad will actually read the cards faster then the computer reader.

I am quite pleased that I spend the money on the two USB 2.0 readers, given most of my cards are Sandisk Ultra II CF cards these days.

Hope that helps

[dave_bass5]

i also have the scandisk Cf card reader and it does seem faster than my 350d which is also USB2.
If you get a USB2 card reader make sure your PC also has USB2 ports or else you wont see any improvement.

Dave.

[psychonaut]

thanx, well i ordered

http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.477/it.A/id.649/.f

and

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000VYJTM/qid=1115229202/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xglna/103-9546400-7028642?v=glance&n=507846

cuz i got firewire on both computers and i am partial to it over USB2. in the past i have had some problems with USB2 bus-powered devices when the USB port didnt have enough power to drive them. USB bus power is 5 Volt, Firewire is 12 Volt. I am pretty sure that would not be an issue with a flash reader ( my problem was with a 2.5" portable hard drive ) but at this point i just dislike USB.