sd card readers ?

back alley

back alley

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i understand that the rd1 takes a max card of 2 gigs and that no matter the speed of the card it has no impact on the rd1.
but i did read that a faster card will transfer quicker from card to computer.

i'm wondering if a card reader has any impact on that transfer rate as well?
i have 2 cheapies that work fine but are slow, would a more expensive one work faster?
 
Card speed matters when you read it from the computer. faster the card, the faster it will read the files for the computer to copy them. I use Sandisk Extreme III SD cards with Sandisk Micromate SDHC card reader and so far it is fast and works great. Cards are cheap enough now. I think I paid $15 for each card.
 
There are variations among USB card readers. My Lexar, which I bought shortly after getting my R-D1 is painfully slow; a Sandisk reader I bought later is much faster. I suspect it has more to do with vintage than brand; the Lexar was being cleared out, probably because it was an early model, sold before there were even faster cards.

Fastest of all for me is a Griffin ExpressCard/34 5 in one Card reader which fits into a slot on my mac; but it is finicky on my macbook pro, and sometimes the computer doesn't recognize the card. There's a fair bit of discussion in mac forums about this, which is why I would not recommend it.
 
If your system supports firewire you will get fastest transfer speeds. USB is slower. I use to have compact flash FW reader it was a lot faster then my current USB one. But USB one is tiny and supports SD/SDHC cards. My compact flash one would need an adapter. I just did a quick test and 1GB of R-D1 files took 50 seconds to copy to my Mac Pro over USB. not that bad
 
I have an early USB card-reader, that is noticeably slower. My PC tells me as much every time I plug it in. A current-day USB card-reader should be much faster.

  • USB 1.0: 1,5 Mbit/s (low speed)
  • USB 1.1: 12 Mbit/s (full speed)
  • USB 2.0: 480 Mbit/s (high speed)
  • USB 3.0: 4,8 Gbit/s (super speed; 2009)
 
Well, I've problems getting the card readers to work at all with a card that's been written to by the Epson. I need to go by way of another camera, which can be connected via USB.
 
back alley said:
are there difference among usb readers?
Click to expand...

Yep. I've had couple of cheapie no-name readers that were glacially slow.

Someone earlier mentioned the Sandisk Micromate. It's extremely portable and just plugs into any usb port, the SD card will come up as a drive. It works very well.

I also have the Sandisk "extreme" USB card reader, it takes both compact flash and SD cards. It is at least as fast if not faster than the micromate, haven't done a side-by-side comparison. Not quite as convenient though if you need portability. Larger, and it needs a usb cable.
 
well, it seems my mac has firewire...who knew?;)

but finding a sd card reader that uses firewire is proving to be tough. so far i have found one that handles what looks like every memory format card available and has 3 sets of plugs, for usb, firewire and something else i never have heard of, pretty cheap and free shipping too.
and that's it.
 
back alley said:
...i have found one that handles what looks like every memory format card available and has 3 sets of plugs, for usb, firewire and something else i never have heard of, pretty cheap and free shipping too...
Click to expand...
Would you have any link by chance?
 
I don't think this is what you are looking for Joe. As LCT mentioned, that is an internal reader, that is, it has to fit into a drive bay if you computer has one. I don't know what kind of computer you have, but if you have a laptop, you won't have an internal drive bay.
 
Firewire is faster than USB 2.0, however it's not going to make so much of a difference that it'll save you a lot of time, especially if you're using 2GB cards. I'd just get a good USB 2.0 card reader since they're easier to find than firewire readers.
 
The wiring looks like it might work externally too. I would drop them an email and ask about external and make sure it works on Macs. If it's firewire and USB 2.0 I do not think you will have a problem.

Biggest thing is to make sure it's USB 2.0. Older readers (ok, five years old) had problems with larger cards. I might have an extra one if you need and can hold off till Sunday when I can check. Let me know.

B2 (;->
 
all good info...

i didn't realize that unit was for internal use. i had found others that were easier to spot as internal. also found firewire cf card readers but no sd ones.
i think i will just buy another sd card reader, a better, newer, etc one and see if there is a difference. my larger sd cards that i use in the g1 seem faster as they are 'better' cards but the 2 gig cards are slower. the best cards i could find for them are extreme 2 sandisks.
 
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