sd card readers ?

[back alley]

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?

 

[ZeissFan]

A Firewire card reader will transfer data much faster than a USB card reader. Noticeably faster.

 

[back alley]

A Firewire card reader will transfer data much faster than a USB card reader. Noticeably faster.

that sounds like a day's worth of research/reading for me.

 

[kalex]

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.

 

[back alley]

i'm wondering about the card reader, does is factor into the transfer speed or all?

 

[LCT]

i'm wondering about the card reader, does is factor into the transfer speed or all?

Yes of course. I have both USB (Sandisk) and FireWire (Amtron) card readers and the latter is much faster. It is discontinued though.

 

[back alley]

are there difference among usb readers?

 

[sevres_babylone]

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.

 

[kalex]

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

 

[Mr_Flibble]

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)

 

[Ezzie]

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.

 

[fergus]

are there difference among usb readers?

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.

 

[back alley]

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.

 

[LCT]

...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...

Would you have any link by chance?

 

[back alley]

here

 

[LCT]

Interesting thanks but it is for internal bays apparently.

 

[oftheherd]

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.

 

[sienarot]

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.

 

[BillBingham2]

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 (;->

 

[back alley]

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.