Minimizing download times in the field

On a recent trip, I spend hours moving files from four 16GB Extreme 60MB cards each night to a pair of Seagate 1TB USB 2.0 drives. That card reader was not UDMA. So I now have a UDMA USB 2.0 reader on the way. That should give me max read speed via a USB 2.0 port.

For max writing speed, I am thinking of adding PCI USB 3.0 card connected to external enclosures with SATA 3 (6GB) 1TB drives. Right now it seems as if I have build those myself. You can get 500GB USB 3.0 packages from Seagate and Iomega.

But the big key...where the heck are the UDMA USB 3.0 CF readers? I saw one announcement from Pretec or similar company. But try to find something that is ready to ship....

What product combos are you using to minimize the field downloads from CF cards to HDs...and or using LR to import, convert to DNG, and then right to external HDs?

I don't think there is a consumer drive made that can even approach SATA 1 speeds, let alone SATA II or III. Don't pay a premium for SATA III.

MCAsan wrote in post #10352983
For max writing speed, I am thinking of adding PCI USB 3.0 card connected to external enclosures with SATA 3 (6GB) 1TB drives.

As you've discovered USB3 is still too young to be useful. Look into getting an eSATA card (they're dirt cheap) and eSATA enclosures (also dirt cheap). That'll give you speeds as fast as you'd get with internal drives.

Gents...what about Firewire reader paired with either Firewire or esata external HD? Good luck, Paul

Even with eSATA you'll soon hit the next bottleneck - the speed at which data can be written to the hard drive. That's gonna top out at around 50-60 MB/s. The fastest transfer I've yet managed is from a Sandisk 60 MB/s CF card (the fastest I own) via a Lexar Expresscard reader to an Intel SSD - and that was 75 MB/s. I'd love to get my hands on 90 MB/s card to see if that setup could reach the magic ton.

as an fyi.. the Lenovo T410 I JUST got for acceptance testing @ work has USB3.0 ports built in. that's all I know.. Haven't had a chance to play with them yet.

I started a seperate thread reporting my brief testing today. I compared using UDMA USB 2 reader to Lexar expresscard reader. On my laptop (5200rpm drive) I got download speeds of around 20-22MB. Using the same card and data, with the expresscard I got 48-52MB. Expresscard on my laptop doubled the speed compared to USB2. Since I don't have firewire 800 on the laptop, can't compare it.

Can't wait for USB 3 readers and SATA 3 drives.

MCAsan wrote in post #10409780
Can't wait for USB 3 readers and SATA 3 drives.

SATA 3 won't make a lot of difference when using a HDD. You'll need to switch to an SSD as well.

SSD = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

so who said photography was an inexpensive hobby? ha ha

MCAsan wrote in post #10412351
SSD = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

And about the best bang for the buck around for speeding up your PC. Around $200 will make your PC a lot faster than it is now. People are quite happy to spend that sort of money on processors, graphics cards, memory, etc. in an attempt to increase speed by a few percentage points. All while ignoring the 19th Century technology that the other components rely on to pass them the data.

I happened to get the latest Microcenter flyer in the mail today. Looks like largest SSD they had was 120-160GB. That is OK for bootdisk and storing applications (Office, LR, PSE..etc.). But when you have 300-500GB of photos to download in the field, I think those old slow USB HDs are still the most practical answer.

Can't wait to see a 1TB SSD at a price point less than $500. It will happen...it just may take a year or two.

what about just buying more cards and dumping when you get home?
unless you're doing that AND backup up to the HD for backup....

MCAsan wrote in post #10413975
I happened to get the latest Microcenter flyer in the mail today. Looks like largest SSD they had was 120-160GB. That is OK for bootdisk and storing applications (Office, LR, PSE..etc.). But when you have 300-500GB of photos to download in the field, I think those old slow USB HDs are still the most practical answer.

500GB! At around 20 MB per image that's 25,000 images! Who takes 25,000 images while on holiday?

Good point.

my wife and I shot over 300GB in two weeks in Kruger and Cape Town without any editting. I had to have two external drives for that trip as company latop has 80GB HD and not much of that left.

Our new personal laptop has 500GB internal drive. So indeed using it, I should only have to take one external drive into the field...even for a 2 week trip.