D300 users: How do you transfer files, USB or card reader?

<p>I can't imagine anything easier than plugging the USB cable into the camera! That's all I've ever done with my D70 and then D80. I guess I don't usually shoot more than one card will hold, so I don't run into needing multiple cards.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the responses. Looks like a lot of folks are ejecting and reinserting the CF cards without significant issues.<br>

I think I'll stick with my USB method and learn how to seal the rubber door easier.</p>

<p>Not a D300 user...D50 and now D90. I bought a card reader and during one of the first transfers the reader corrupted several images. Then I had cards the card reader would not read (2Gb card size limit on the reader). Nowadays, I use the USB cable. The speed of transfer really depends on the speed of the card. The rubber door was easy to close once I got used to it.</p>

<p>I use a card reader. Never had any problems so far.</p>

<p>I use a Lexar UDMA card reader, with UDMA cards. An additional advantage is the significantly higher transfer speeds using UDMA readers. I'm fairly careful with the cards when inserting them into the camera - had a bent pin several years back, and learned a costly lesson!</p>

<p>I'm with USB transfer all the time. The compact flash card has 50 pin slots (25 each row, top & bottom), and it's just too easy to misalign one of those pins when you are removing and installing the card repeatedly.</p>

<p>Card reader. I'm afraid to knock the camera and damage the USB port. I don't jam in the CF card & am consistently careful about it. Can a pin be bent one day? Sure...</p>

<p>I've had maybe 15 various digital (Nikon) bodies, from the D100, D70, through the D300(s) (lots because I turn them over after minimal use) and the D700 and D3.</p>

<p>I've never had one bent camera card mating pin in over 500,000 photos.<br>

At first, I used to tether my D70 (my most-used camera until recently a friend began using it), but there was a battery drain issue that was significant. It was well over its rated shutter count, I think . . . . bless Nikon.</p>

<p>I switched to card readers and found this:</p>

<p>With a card reader, there is substantially more chance of bending pins in the card reader IF one buys the cheaper ones, especially those in which the pins are located nearer to the card entrance. </p>

<p>The reason seems to be twofold:</p>

<p>(1) the pins simply are made cheaper and less sturdy because the entire card reader is less sturdy. </p>

<p>You'll often find such card readers on sale at your local or regional super-electronics store (Not Best Buy, Office Depot, Staples, etc., which care about quality, but you folks who build computers know who I mean, particularly on the West Coast). </p>

<p>They have little incentive to ensure that of the 25 to 100 card readers they stock (or once stocked) all are sturdy, and since the readers can be made VERY cheaply, frequently they appear for the electronics supermarket 'on sale' for a few dollars. Be wary of such readers unless it's an emergency.</p>

<p>Best Buy has different incentives, as it does cost money to process returns and they do value happy customers, so you can imagine you'll certainly pay a lot more at a Best Buy, Staples, etc., but there will be some sort of implicit quality over your massive computer parts store/supermarket.</p>

<p>The second reason is that in the cheaper design, usually the pins are closer to the entrance. This saves on card bulk and material and ultimately may save the manufacturer a fraction of a cent, which means additional profit potential OR more sales or both.</p>

<p>Any sideways twisting that is not the result of inserting the card perfectly and dead center, is going to result in torque on one or more pins and torque can result in pin bending.</p>

<p>That torque (turning force) increases the chance that the card will become stuck with its side or end stuck on one pin or several, bending it(them). The pins can be the devil or even impossible to bend back, which you will be tempted to try in an emergency.</p>

<p>The deeper into the slot the pins are, the less chance of the card being inserted any way other than deeply and dead center, virtually eliminating the chance of getting the side of a card or the end of the card stuck on one or more pins . . . . and thus ruining the pins and/or card.</p>

<p>I've thrown away several CHEAP cards readers, and although I may get stuck using one or another from time to time, I'm VERY CAREFUL when inserting a card into a card reader that may not have its pins VERY DEEP within the reader. (I'm still careful and have never lost a card of photo because of 'issues', even though I've bent a few pins on CHEAP card readers.) </p>

<p>'Cheap' with card readers often translates into 'easily bent pins' so be careful on trying to save a few bucks on that one purchase -- look for sturdiness and maybe a brand name and expect to pay more.</p>

<p>I'd go for a very sturdy and well designed card reader. See if you can get sales staff to open the blister pack so you can test the card (many will do so if your request sounds reasonable and well modulated to them and you have a CF card (or SD card) with photos on it with you for the purpose, and you seriously intend to buy the card (or keep it).</p>

<p>Best Buy may make you buy the card first, but if you insert a card and test it before leaving the store, they'll assuredly refund you on the spot if you say you're going to test it to see if it works (if they won't let you test it before) and it does not meet your expectations.</p>

<p>Card readers put NO drain on a camera's batteries, whereas if you leave a cable in a camera, attached to a computer, and are downloading a HUGE card through download software (such as Adobe's) which inserts information into or changes the EXIF information somewhat, downloading can be slow.</p>

<p>Those times you might walk away from the camera and computer, and if something intervenes, you might forget, and return from giving your baby a bottle and putting it 'down' only to find your camera's batteries drained, especially on the earlier models (of Nikon -- the only camera I'm presently familiar with).</p>

<p>That can't happen with a card reader and is the prime reason I switched to card readers.</p>

<p>(There is something to be said, if you're traveling, to buying a huge capacity CF (or other) card, and downloading regularly, especially if you're on a trip where repairs are going to be nearly impossible . . . . . and if you do ruin the camera's USB mini outlet, it can be repaired later, whereas the quick fix is simply to remove the card and substitute a card reader if that happens. (however, don't forget, cards fail too, and I've had more Lexar and Sandisk cards fail on me than any 'off' brand . . . . and the 'no name' brands have often withstood trips to Siberia and other places where temps get down to -40 or so and still work (assuredly my camera is going to be warmer, as I shield it). </p>

<p>So be prepared for the worst -- take backup cards AND at least one card reader 'just in case' there's a multiple failure. They don't happen often but if they can ruin a trip, don't even give it a thought; buy backups.</p>

<p>That being said, I've never seen personally of a bad camera USB port from defect, breakage, or just misuse, so the chances of losing a USB connector seem to me to be pretty slim but undoubtedly it must happen.</p>

<p>If you're taking one camera to the Antarctic on that cruise, and have NO backup for reading, I'd probably stay with the one-card method, but take a card reader along. </p>

<p>Beware, however, those BIG cards can hold a LOT of photo data, and if you use EXIF altering software such as the Adobe down loader, and your computer is slow, you just might run out of camera battery before all your photos are transferred. . . moreover the whole affair in my experience lasts generally much longer from a camera than directly from a card reader (your experience may vary, and it almost certainly also relates to camera model - say the D700 seems much faster than the D2X in my experience and those seem like machine guns compared to my old D70 or D100.</p>

<p>Heres a hint: Buy the fastest most reliable CF card you can, and your downloading will zip along. I think you will use less camera battery (if you're tethered) - I surmise that the battery power expended goes far less into powering the movement of the pixels TO the computer than keeping the connection alive and monitoring it with the camera 'brain' and firmware and that's the primary source of battery drain. The camera DOES have to talk to the computer, I think, but not so (except rudimentarily) for a card reader.</p>

<p>If you keep the camera and firmware less active, or active for a shorter time (using a fast card) - it stands to reason you'll use less camera battery, even if some camera battery electrical energy is used to 'push those photos through'.</p>

<p>I use 600x Cards made by Transcend, which so far I have not found in the US, but I've found 512x cards made by another manufacturer, and they should do dandy. My downloads now ZIP ALONG, almost so fast I cannot believe it . . . . The cards were expensive (over $100) but worth every penny for the 16 G 600 x models. (These cards got horrible reviews that I read, but mine function perfectly and either I got lucky or a manufacturing problem got fixed.</p>

<p>I'm a frequent user of Nikon USA Service in El Segundo, and since I courteously almost always wait until almost every person in the service lobby has been helped before I bring up my 'problem' or 'issue' I hear a lot of problems discussed. Bent camera 'pins' is not a frequent issue in a Nikon DSLR, in my experience there though it happens.</p>

<p>With Nikon's design, pins deep into the slot, it's extremely hard to insert a card and bend a pin or two, plus since that is an easy point of possible failure, my experience with Nikon tells me they use the strongest pin they can and they appear to have designed their slots well.</p>

<p>Take an e-SATA hard drive, 5" size, of any brand, from a desktop computer and try to bend one of the pins on that and see how much force it takes; it's very hard.</p>

<p>It's possible to design and build a pin that is almost impossible to bend, outside of blunt trauma. Not all pins are fragile and it would be stupid to build cameras with cheap pins in them that can be bent when good materials and good design can virtually eliminate that as an issue.</p>

<p>Bent pins do happen, though, when people use their shoe bottoms or hammers to try to pound in that CF or SD card, -- or their kids do and 'forget' to tell them about the card that 'wouldn't fit'.</p>

<p>My personal favorite card reader has a bright blue light which goes on when there's electrical signal moving to or from the card, letting me know the card is seated. I first attach the USB connector to the computer, then to the card reader (making sure the computer 'installs' them), insert the card and look for a bright blue light . . . . when I see that, I've got a great connection. If I think I'm connected, but don't see that light, something's wrong with the reader, the card in the reader, or the computer/software.</p>

<p>john</p>

<p>John (Crosley)</p>

<p>About that 'darn rubber door'.<br>

That is a separate issue, so beware, especially if you're near the end of a warranty period.<br>

Sweat and wear from hand holding a camera especially, can loosen or weaken the rubber-like coating on the camera, and cause it to create problems that can only be fixed easily by Nikon repair, and it's not cheap. It's also a frequent problem. It's not a user-serviceable problem and I don't think independent camera shops are prepared to repair such problems; besides I've seen it handled as a warranty issue. <br>

Nikon will give a month's courtesy extension to a warranty in the USA, I've seen . . . just to avoid issues, since there's often a delay between appearance of an issue and the time the camera/lens hits the shop. They don't have to do that, and it's not a 'right', so you can't count on it.<br>

A camera coating issue might show up in 'that darn rubber door' not being able to be closed easily or harder each time.<br>

If you examine your camera and its coating, and it the coating appears at all loose or ill fitting in one spot or more and you have a Nikon warranty or a third party warranty, I'd go for a warranty repair immediately. It's almost impossible to sell OR USE a Nikon camera with rubber separation, and the problem ALWAYS gets worse as you use the camera more.<br>

'That darn rubber door' may be the first symptoms of a further problem. (Mine fit snugly, very snugly, but I can ALWAYS close them easily, which is why I write this).<br>

john<br>

John (Crosley)</p>

<p>I always use card reader with my D100 and D300.<br>

Once, I have bended a pin of the card reader. It was a cheaper one.<br>

I'm very careful when ejecting the card from my camera, inserting it into the card reader and reinserting it into the camera...</p>

<p>card reader</p>

<p>I use the cable, but only because I'm too lazy/cheap to get a good card reader.</p>

<p>Either way the D300 is well designed and should be well capable of handling the card going in and out a lot. There's always a <em>chance </em>a pin could bend, but it's no more likely than getting a grain of sand stuck somewhere and busting the whole camera to pieces, or the USB port suddenly giving up the ghost for whatever reason.</p>

<p>I'd say go for it, I believe it's faster anyway. with a fast card + card reader.</p>

<p>-Barry Hennessy.</p>

<p>I always use a card reader - a] because it's much quicker, and b] because using USB kills your battery if you've got a lot of images/data to copy across. [and c] because while I'm downloading images my battery's in the charger :)]<br>

[My general strategy is based around the need to get my batteries recharged as quickly as possible - I've run out of battery power while taking pictures more often than I've run out of memory cards...]</p>

<p>I started out with the USB download cable provided with the camera. That was fine with less than a hundred images to download at a time. But my calling was to shoot sport and very quickly it became 500 images or more to download at one time.<br>

So very quickly it became the card reader (faster and more reliable with no battery issues). To date I have never had any problems with card insertion/extraction (I do so with care) and see no reason why I might in the future.<br>

Having experienced the convenience of the card reader (significantly faster) my download cables are simply kept for back-up.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I use the card readers supplied on my Dell XPS9000. Never had a problem.</p>

<p>I always use USB and Windows copy/paste with my D300. I have 2 8GB cards. I keep my camera set at RAW + Small Normal JPEG. I generally get 500+ shots per card. I believe there is less potential for damage with the 4 USB contacts vs 50 pins as noted by Rafael above. The rubber door is a bit of a pain but is not a problem for me.</p>

<p>I only use a card reader, no problems to be had.</p>