Memory Card Reader - Internal/External?

Howdy All!

Just getting into photography and got a 20D on it's way and was excited to start taking pictures, but then I realized my computer doesn't have a compact flash reader! Anyone have any suggestions for a decent one? I looked on newegg and there really isn't a decent one out there. Seems like they're all.... junkie

Suggestions/Thoughts/C​omments/Bad Jokes/Etc...

which interface? FW400, FW800, eSATA, USB2, USB3 ?

Honestly there isn't that much to a flash reader and they are a lot faster for transfer than camera bodies (quite why this is the case I've no idea but it is). Any cheap $5-15 reader will do the job you ask of it - quickly and without bother.

Overread wrote in post #11851685
Honestly there isn't that much to a flash reader and they are a lot faster for transfer than camera bodies (quite why this is the case I've no idea but it is). Any cheap $5-15 reader will do the job you ask of it - quickly and without bother.

Can you name a few examples? I'd be interested as well.

First you want a UDMA compliant reader so that you get faster reads from your cards. Next you want the faster transfer protocol your target computer can handle.

USB 2
FW400
FW800
eSATA or an expressbus reader for a laptop

The fastest I found for our laptop was a Lexar expressbus reader. For our current destops the fastest was the Addonics eSATA reader.

I am sitting here looking at my Pretec P240 USB 3, yes USB 3, reader. I have all the parts to build new Sandy Bridge PCs. Then Intel screwed up the related chipset. So I will not build the new machines until I get replacement motherboards in April (if I am lucky....THANK YOU INTEL!!!).

MCAsan wrote in post #11851676
which interface? FW400, FW800, eSATA, USB2, USB3 ?

I build my own computers, and my computer can/will be able to handle any of those :P So I guess which ever is better, either taking the card out or firewire'ing it.

Yeah, I'm likely to hold off until April so I can build me a SB-based PC.

Speaking of which, has the 3rd gen. SSD come out yet? It's all about speed here

Crucial has their SATA 6GBs SSDs out. I am sure others will follow.

FW800 will likely be around the same speed as eSATA. But not as fast as USB 3.
For our Sandy Bridge desktops, there will not be any internal readers wired to any headers on the mobo. The machines will have USB 3 and USB 3 ports on the front of the case wired to mobo headers. On the back of the case will be USB 2, eSATA, and USB 3 ports. I will be using external USB 3 reader with the desktop connector to the front ports.

But out laptop does not have USB3. So for it I will continue to use the expresscard reader. It is twice as fast ast USB 2.

Once USB 3 gets out there a bit more, we will likely see FW and eSATA begin to die out. I can't believe anyone will implement FW3200.

MCAsan wrote in post #11853340
Crucial has their SATA 6GBs SSDs out. I am sure others will follow.

When others come out with the 6GB/s, I'm in.

Which brand would you recommend? Back then I believe Intel is best performance-wise?

The secret to getting a decent USB transfer rate is to make sure the reader is on it's own USB bus. If a low speed device is on the bus the entire bus will operate at low speed. If your laptop has USB ports on different sides they may in fact be different channels. I have my USB reader on a dedicated port on one side and the mass of USB hub and peripherals on the other side. Works great. My Esata is dedicated to a 2TB Raid 1 (2 2TB drives) system from Buffalo.

MCAsan wrote in post #11851912
I am sitting here looking at my Pretec P240 USB 3, yes USB 3, reader. I have all the parts to build new Sandy Bridge PCs. Then Intel screwed up the related chipset. So I will not build the new machines until I get replacement motherboards in April (if I am lucky....THANK YOU INTEL!!!).

The Pains of Early Adoption!

no, the pains of having an Intel CPU. USB 3 as fine.