I have just moved from a USB 1.0 to Firewire card reader and the difference is amazing. I got a little round pot thingy from Sandisk and it plugs in to my lap top (via a hub) with other things. I can even access Raw images as though it were an additional drive using C1.
My old USB reader (cheapo) used to hog the whole of my 1GB of Ram when downloading from a 512MB card. I couldn't even play Free Cell!
I wish I had done this a year ago!
Martin


