Card Reader Question

I'd like to pick up a memory card reader, partly for conveinience and partly for what I hope will be added speed when downloading a memory card to my computer.

Anyways, can anyone suggest a good one in the $30(ish) range? I don't want to spend a lot, but I don't want complete junk. Thanks.

- Scott

Go out to the Sandisk site as one possibilty:

http://www.sandisk.com …ctFlash_ReaderW​riter.aspx

I only use CF cards - you didn't say which ones you use - so I bought this simple, one slot device, on sale for about $14.95 I think. There are a lot of flavors out there, with multi-card slots. I think some of those will show up as additional drive letters on your pc also.

This sits plugged in all the time so when I'm done with a wedding I just pop the CF cards right into without messing with camera cables. - Stu

These days they are about all the same. TigerDirecthas a real nice one for under $8. Small, portable, cheap, and gets the job done.

sapearl, sorry I didn't mention... I will only be using CF cards. What you mentioned sounds pretty good, I just hope its faster than downloading straight from the camera like I've been doing. That way takes forever.

gjl711 wrote in post #2366997
These days they are about all the same. TigerDirecthas a real nice one for under $8. Small, portable, cheap, and gets the job done.

I thought they were all the same as well. But, I've just found on that my card reader averages around 2.8mb/sec transfer on some Sandisk II Ultra and a ritek 150x card. This is on usb 2.0 as well. The read speed for the ultra is 10mb/sec so I'm getting hit quite bad from my card reader. I've read the sandisk card readers have much faster transfer rates, so I'm going to give that a try.

B&H has one sapearl linked for $16, I'll probably get that.

Rellik wrote in post #2367035
I thought they were all the same as well. But, I've just found on that my card reader averages around 2.8mb/sec transfer on some Sandisk II Ultra and a ritek 150x card. This is on usb 2.0 as well. The read speed for the ultra is 10mb/sec so I'm getting hit quite bad from my card reader. I've read the sandisk card readers have much faster transfer rates, so I'm going to give that a try.

B&H has one sapearl linked for $16, I'll probably get that.

Hmm. interesting. What tool do you use to check throughput? I have three readers, one cheapie that is small and easy to carry so it's my traveling one for my laptop, I have a nicer desktop one I got from Bestbuy because I forgot my little portable one on a vacation, then I have the internal one in my PC. I would love to do some benchmarking.

I found mine at Home Depot for $20.00; works VERY well; made by GE (general electric) and it is a 11-in-1.

gjl711 wrote in post #2366997
These days they are about all the same. TigerDirecthas a real nice one for under $8. Small, portable, cheap, and gets the job done.

One would certainly think so.

Rellik wrote in post #2367035
I thought they were all the same as well. But, I've just found on that my card reader averages around 2.8mb/sec transfer on some Sandisk II Ultra and a ritek 150x card. This is on usb 2.0 as well. The read speed for the ultra is 10mb/sec so I'm getting hit quite bad from my card reader. I've read the sandisk card readers have much faster transfer rates, so I'm going to give that a try.

B&H has one sapearl linked for $16, I'll probably get that.

I had similar problems although I don't know what the exact speed happened to be. I do know this much; I bought a GE USB Hi-Speed 2.0 CF reader because I liked the fact that it could be used with/without a cable. My downloads speeds were approximately 10 mintues for a full 1GB Ultra II card. I borrowed a co-worker's Delkin and found that I could transfer the same daya off of the same card in less than 3 minutes. I had a SanDisk reader for my other camera and was hapy with its speed so I tried again with SanDisk and achieved the same results as the Delkin.

I was using downloader pro and it shows the transfer rate. You can also just time it yourself. Like 10 mins for 1GB, turns out to 1000mb/6000sec = 1.67mb/sec transfer. If it took 3 mins, then its 1000mb/180sec = 5.56mb/sec. Not bad.

The difference in card readers is also documented in the 3rd paragraph here: http://www.bobatkins.c​om …al/sandisk_extr​emeIV.html

Imagine having Extreme IV cards with the fire wire reader combo.... 40mb/sec... meaning it will be done with 1gb in 25 seconds. *drool*

I use the Transcend multi-card reader (USB 2.0)
http://www.amazon.com …426?ie=UTF8&s=e​lectronics

$15 and it reads CF I, CF II, MS, MS PRO, Microdrive, MMC, SD, MS Duo, xD, MS PRO Duo, miniSD, MultiMediaCardplus.

I just wanted a cheap CF reader that supported xD too.. so it was perfect.

Sandisk ImageMate. Fast & cheap, about $15.

I'm sure it will be.... You really don't want to have to unpack the camera and cable it to the PC everytime you want to move files..... a real pain.

I use the Sandisk 2GB Ultra II cards which are only rated at 9MB/sec I believe. They are not the fastest in the world, but reliable, and the price to punch ratio was pretty good considering I took advantage of the Frys.com special of $37.95 for the 2GB card. I shoot my weddings RAW with a 5D, so the files are 12-15MB in size. It takes around 4-5 minutes to download 150 files to the PC from each card, approx.

Stime187 wrote in post #2367001
sapearl, sorry I didn't mention... I will only be using CF cards. What you mentioned sounds pretty good, I just hope its faster than downloading straight from the camera like I've been doing. That way takes forever.

Thanks everyone, sounds like it'll help alot... I'll pick up the Sandisk as mentioned above.

- Scott