jim_d5 Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 Just got my 30D yesterday. I love it, until I get to the computer, transfertakes f o r e v e r. I have seen many card readers. I would like it to be ableto read type I and II cards and do it very quickly. I do not care about itreading other formats and would like it to be portable for my laptop/camera bag. I just want to know which reader you guys have the best experience with. I am using all 80x+ cards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim_d5 Posted June 16, 2006 Author Share Posted June 16, 2006 oops, forgot something, it needs to be USB 2.0 type Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PuppyDigs Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 I tried a few USB 2 readers and they were slow compared to my SanDisk Firewire reader. Not sure why as my USB 2 and Firewire iPods update at about the same speed. Sometimes the light’s all shining on me. Other times I can barely see. - Robert Hunter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave92029 Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 I use the white USB cable that came with my 30D and photos transfer like a hot knife thru butter...and it didn't cost me any extra money and its small and very portable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyunyu Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 I bought earlier in the week the SanDisk USB2 12-in-1 Image Mate reader (model no. SDDR-89 V3), and it can download from my SanDisk Extreme III 2GB CF card at a rate of 14-15MB per second. It takes just around 2 minutes to download a full 2GB card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyunyu Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 Forgot to add, my old SanDisk USB2 reader, SDDR-86, used to be able to download about 2.3MB per second using the same CF card, to the same USB2 port on my computer. Obviously, even within USB2 hi-speed (480mbps) family, the chipset and controller matter greatly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m_barbu1 Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 I second what Puppy Face wrote. The FireWire reader(s) is(are) much faster than USB 2.0. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyunyu Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 What kind of download speed do you get with a Firewire reader? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fxdonny Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 I also feel that my SanDisk CF card reader (USB 2.0) is faster than my other USB 2.0 card readers. I use only USB, but the SanDisk is definitely a lot faster than other brand I used, ie Lexar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eos 10 fan Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 I don't know if this ol' box has USB 1 or 2 or ? HELP -- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawngibson Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager>Universal Serial Bus Controllers Or something similar. But that's XP, and I'm not sure it is exactly the same on other OSes... Shawn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitmstr Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 I have been using Lexar cards & readers. After buying their newest USB 2 reader I can say it is considerably faster than their older, firewire model. Either way (1394 or USB 2) you'll be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheldonnalos Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 Rob Galbraith has done fairly extensive testing of different CF card readers. The fastest throughput transfer rates were obtained on the Lexar Firewire reader, model RW019. I have one and it is very fast. It is also very compact, maybe 2 inches square. The only faster reader would be the SanDisk ImageMate USB 2.0 reader, which is faster when combined with a SanDisk Extreme III CF Card. If you use any other card, it's slower than the Lexar. Lexar is going to be shipping a new reader, the Pro series which is supposed to be an upgrade for the model RW019. It will be available in either USB 2.0 or firewire. If you have a firewire port, I'd definetely recommend the current Lexar reader. http://www.lexar.com/readers/firewire.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyunyu Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 Sheldon, Do you happen to know what kind of throughput (MB/sec) you get with your Firewire reader? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheldonnalos Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 Giampi - Do you have the newer Pro series Lexar reader? What kind of transfer rates are you getting and with what card? I'm curious whether it would be worth the $80 price tag to make the upgrade. I'm currently getting about 9.45 mb/sec with my 2GB SanDisk Ultra II cards and Lexar Firewire reader on an average spec PC box. Rob Galbraith quotes 11.1 mb/sec with the same combo, so his machine may be slightly faster than mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tan Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 I have the lexar RW016 firewire card reader too, and yes, it's a lot faster my USB card readers. Lexar has a new "pro" firewire card reader that should be even faster than their older (non-pro) firewire card reader: http://www.lexar.com/readers/pro_reader.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyunyu Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 Instead of just saying "a lot faster than USB" or "considerably faster" or "much faster," could you guys actually post what kind of throughput you get? In terms of megabytes per second, or say how long it takes to download a full 1GB card. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyunyu Posted June 18, 2006 Share Posted June 18, 2006 I ran another test tonight on the SanDisk Image Mate 12-in-1 USB2 reader with about 700MB worth of CR2 files on a SanDisk Extreme III 2GB CF card. The average download speed, as measured by my downloader program, was 17MB/sec. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m_barbu1 Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 Unfortunately, I don't have a FireWire card reader handy, in order to give you hard data. However, <a href="http://www.mackido.com/Hardware/USB2.html">this article</a> may be of help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m_barbu1 Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 Here's one more link comparing the performance between <a href="http://www.qimaging.com/support/downloads/documents/FirewireUSB.pdf">FireWire and USB 2.0</a>. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyunyu Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 Well, having been using USB2 and Firewire external HDDs extensively for the past few years, I know that despite USB2's theoretical higher throughput, Firewire actually gives better performance. No arguments from me there. I was more curious if the moderately higher price of Firewire readers returned appreciably higher performance over USB2 readers. For example, my SanDisk 12-in-1 USB2 reader cost me $35; a basic Lexar Firewire CF reader (not the professional, stackable one) costs $40 from B&H, and it only reads CF. I checked the Lexar site for their products, and was a bit surprised to see that they do not quote any kind of throughput for their Firewire readers; perhaps I was not looking in the right spot. One review of the basic Lexar Firewire reader on Amazon.com stated that he/she got around 9MB per second download speed with a Lexar 80x card. On my SanDisk USB2 reader, I get about 5MB per second with my Lexar 12x card and 17MB per second with SanDisk Extreme III card. I don't have any Lexar 80x cards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyunyu Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 Aha! Rob Galbraith comes through: http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-6133 12.93MB/sec using a Lexar Firewire reader and SanDisk Extreme III 2GB CF card. This test is from November of 2004--I wonder if there are newer versions of the Lexar Firewire readers that will give better performance, much like my new SanDisk USB2 reader far, far outperforms the old SanDisk USB2 reader. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m_barbu1 Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 My experience has been that FireWire speeds (and USB 2.0) speeds vary from machine to machine, as well. So, it would be important to do the USB 2.0 to FireWire comparison on the same machine. This could be for any number of reasons ranging from the specific FireWire drivers on the machine to other potential bottlenecks like system bus speeds or available memory. Is there a way to identify your Sandisk reader from the older ones? I'm curious to see if I've got the older one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyunyu Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 My 3-year old SanDisk Image Mate 6-in-1 USB2 reader is model no. "SDDR-85". The new one , 12-in-1 USB2 reader I got last week, is "SDDR-89 V3". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m_barbu1 Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 Ah! I have the 12-1. I misundestood, thinking that model had two versions. Thanks! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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