Down load from camera or card reader?

Ellinor William · Jan 2, 2025

Wired Always!

I prefer using the card reader. As it transfers the photos much faster without draining the camera battery. I use an extreme USB-C Reader from Sandisk. It is a high-speed card reader and minimizes all types of risks.

Hike Pics · Jan 2, 2025

If it's a camera that uses a compact flash card I use the data cable and download from the camera.

If it's a camera that uses any other card I use a universal card reader to the computer.

john isaacs · Jan 2, 2025

GeoffRG said:
Simple question, do you connect your camera to your computer, wired or wirelessly, to download images or do you use a card reader?

I plug the camera in to charge and pull the card to put into a card reader.

riveredger · Jan 2, 2025

I use the card reader in my laptop. I would have no issues connecting directly to the camera, though.

Sam Bennett · Jan 2, 2025

GeoffRG said:
Simple question, do you connect your camera to your computer, wired or wirelessly, to download images or do you use a card reader?

A lot of my work is events for social media - in that case I transfer JPEGs via WiFi to my phone, process in SnapSeed, watermark in Lightroom Mobile and deliver from there. This allows me to quickly deliver photos the night of the event - sometimes during the event in the case of a concert with multiple artists.

"Back at the office" I use the card reader built in to my docking station to transfer RAW+JPEG in case I need to do further processing in Lightroom, and to have a more high-quality backup.

That said, I don't have anything against using the camera as a card reader - it just isn't any easier than using a dedicated reader since the dock has one (as well as my laptop).

tbcass · Jan 2, 2025

Card reader. It's just easier for me to pop the card into the slot on my computer than using a cable.

--
Tom

tbcass · Jan 2, 2025

MediaArchivist said:
The pins on an SD card can be damaged, but that is not likely if:

you have decent, name brand SD cards

you exhibit more dexterity than a gorila

I use "tough" cards that are marketed as "harder to damage than lesser cards" and my cursory comparison with other cards leads me to believe that they are, in fact, tough. I still do an insertion cycle from time to time to prevent any possible corrosion from building up on the contacts and pins.

CF card readers have pins that are much easier to bend or damage.

SD cards don't have "pins". Instead, they have a flat recessed surface that is very difficult to damage.

RetCapt · Jan 2, 2025

Card reader for me. I have a Lexar card reader that accomodates the three different configurations of cards I use.

When I take the card out of the camera, I immediately replace it with aother and close up the camera. Thus the camera is not open and vulnerable.

When a replacement card is put into a camera I format it. Then the camera is set to go.

This takes place at my desk so it is routine.

GeoffRG · Jan 2, 2025

tbcass said:
MediaArchivist said:

The pins on an SD card can be damaged, but that is not likely if:

you have decent, name brand SD cards

you exhibit more dexterity than a gorila

I use "tough" cards that are marketed as "harder to damage than lesser cards" and my cursory comparison with other cards leads me to believe that they are, in fact, tough. I still do an insertion cycle from time to time to prevent any possible corrosion from building up on the contacts and pins.

CF card readers have pins that are much easier to bend or damage.

Click to expand...

SD cards don't have "pins". Instead, they have a flat recessed surface that is very difficult to damage.

Neither do CF cards, the pins are in the receptacle and are relatively easily damaged if you insert the wrong type of card. Damaging the card is actually quite difficult.

richj20 · Jan 2, 2025

My computer has a card slot. I use a Batch file to download from the card automatically to my PhotoShoots directory.

While the files are downloading, I change battery ( if necessary) and clean my lens and camera body.

thayes15 · Jan 2, 2025

Thanks all the team even though replying to Ellis;

All good feedback. Are a card's contacts more likely to become corroded if you just leave it in the camera permanently like a battery's contacts?

Is it good to clean the contacts every now and then?

DMKAlex · Jan 2, 2025

GeoffRG said:
Simple question, do you connect your camera to your computer, wired or wirelessly, to download images or do you use a card reader?

In all my previous (until now) experience with Nikon DSLR and the 2 Panasonic Gh4 and 5, I always removed the card to be read thru card readers and charged the batteries in separate charger.

Now I have the Gh6, I do both thru the camera. It's a matter of convenience. The Gh6 has the SD card as well as the CFExpress type B which necessitate carrying two card readers and two different cables, The camera connects to the computer via USB-C, which also charge my gimbal. It's so much more convenient to carry just one cable and do all the jobs.

I have not experienced any problem except one time the computer kept failing to recognize the USB-C. Other than that, I think it's an improvement in workflow.

Ellis Vener · Jan 2, 2025

thayes15 said:
Thanks all the team even though replying to Ellis;

All good feedback. Are a card's contacts more likely to become corroded if you just leave it in the camera permanently like a battery's contacts?

Thank you for asking but I do not have definitive answers for your really insightful questions.

I have no idea but if you spend time in an area where the primary source of humidity is salt water I suppose that could be a possibility. The difference is that media doesn’t store a charge and the amperage and voltage running through media contacts surely is much lower than at battery contacts.

thayes15 said:
Is it good to clean the contacts every now and then?

I have never done that myself but if you ever take a camera to be serviced that would be a good question to ask.

thayes15 · Jan 2, 2025

Bingo!

No charge or amperage!

I'm happy boy now. Thanks Ellis!

Ellis Vener · Jan 2, 2025

thayes15 said:
Bingo!

No charge or amperage!

I'm happy boy now. Thanks Ellis!

Wait a second, I didn't say there is no current flow. There has to be a small amount of energy involved i nthe transfer of data.

The best answer I could find quickly is this:

thayes15 said:
In early versions of the SD spec (e.g., version 2.00, from 2006), cards were allowed to draw up to 200mA. In newer standards, cards are allowed to draw more current than that, but only after they've notified the host that they want more current, and the host has assented to it.. According to the Physical Layer Simplified Specification Version 8.00, if you're using the SD card in its default power-on configuration (3.3V supply, maximum clock speed 25 MHz), the power consumption shouldn't exceed 0.36W for SDSC or SDHC, or 0.54W for SDXC or SDUC.

Assuming that you're providing the nominal supply voltage, 3.3V, that means that the card can draw a maximum of 163mA. Slightly more or less as the voltage varies within the allowable range.

The Physical Layer Simplified Specification Version 8.00 is a free download (though you have to agree to terms). In that document, the relevant information is table 3-6 on page 23 (page 43 of the PDF file).

I found it here: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/33472/how-much-current-does-a-microsd-card-use

also;

Advice about microsd current consumption

I'm designing circuit with STM32L0 MCU that storage some data in microSD via SPI interface. I have power budget of 5V @ 500mA via VBUS so, I would like to estimate microsd's current consumption. ...

electronics.stackexchange.com

Power consumption to write to SD card?

I'm trying to determine power consumption of my project. It's a fairly straightforward circuit to download data over a serial interface, process it, and save it to an SD card. I'm using a Teensy 2.0 with the pjrc.com microSD adapter. Unfortunately, it's going to be a few weeks until I can test...

forum.arduino.cc

But this discussion might be more definitive for photographic usage: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1685273/0

AlephNull · Jan 3, 2025

GeoffRG said:
Simple question, do you connect your camera to your computer, wired or wirelessly, to download images or do you use a card reader?

I always use a reader. I have no interest in using my camera as an expensive card reader

I am now using V4 CFexpress A cards, and when I use a V4 reader going to a fast SSD the transfer is far faster than the V2 slot in the camera can read.

AlephNull · Jan 3, 2025

GeoffRG said:
tbcass said:

MediaArchivist said:

The pins on an SD card can be damaged, but that is not likely if:

you have decent, name brand SD cards

you exhibit more dexterity than a gorila

I use "tough" cards that are marketed as "harder to damage than lesser cards" and my cursory comparison with other cards leads me to believe that they are, in fact, tough. I still do an insertion cycle from time to time to prevent any possible corrosion from building up on the contacts and pins.

CF card readers have pins that are much easier to bend or damage.

Click to expand...

SD cards don't have "pins". Instead, they have a flat recessed surface that is very difficult to damage.

Click to expand...

Neither do CF cards, the pins are in the receptacle and are relatively easily damaged if you insert the wrong type of card. Damaging the card is actually quite difficult.

I think you are confused - the original CF cards (I think I first used them in 2004) had pin holes with pins in the slot, but I have trouble remembering the last camera I have which used those cards. The current CF express type A cards have exposed stripes just like SD cards (although narrower than the SD).

I am unsure what CF express type B cards use, but I think it has stripes inside.

GeoffRG · Jan 3, 2025

Ellis Vener said:
thayes15 said:

Bingo!

No charge or amperage!

I'm happy boy now. Thanks Ellis!

Click to expand...

Wait a second, I didn't say there is no current flow. There has to be a small amount of energy involved i nthe transfer of data.

The best answer I could find quickly is this:

Ellis Vener said:

In early versions of the SD spec (e.g., version 2.00, from 2006), cards were allowed to draw up to 200mA. In newer standards, cards are allowed to draw more current than that, but only after they've notified the host that they want more current, and the host has assented to it.. According to the Physical Layer Simplified Specification Version 8.00, if you're using the SD card in its default power-on configuration (3.3V supply, maximum clock speed 25 MHz), the power consumption shouldn't exceed 0.36W for SDSC or SDHC, or 0.54W for SDXC or SDUC.

Assuming that you're providing the nominal supply voltage, 3.3V, that means that the card can draw a maximum of 163mA. Slightly more or less as the voltage varies within the allowable range.

The Physical Layer Simplified Specification Version 8.00 is a free download (though you have to agree to terms). In that document, the relevant information is table 3-6 on page 23 (page 43 of the PDF file).

Click to expand...

I found it here: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/33472/how-much-current-does-a-microsd-card-use

also;

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/388238/advice-about-microsd-current-consumption

https://forum.arduino.cc/t/power-consumption-to-write-to-sd-card/129434

But this discussion might be more definitive for photographic usage: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1685273/0

Let's close this particular rabbit hole.

Almost all memory cards and sockets have what are known as "wiping" contacts they don't need chemical or mechanical cleaning because wiping contacts do that on insertion/extraction.

The majority of, accessible, contacts on cards are gold plated which pretty much eliminates corrosion. This is SD and Micro SD cards.

CF and CFast cards have multiple sockets and these are inaccessible for cleaning as are the pins in the camera.

XQD/CFexpress B cards have their contacts covered and they too are inaccessible for cleaning, as are the contacts in the camera. I wouldn't advise spraying contact cleaner into either a camera or memory card, it will do more harm than good.

Many years ago Popular Photography tested some of the then current memory cards by gluing them to the road surface in Times Square, at the end of the experiment they all still worked. It is, apparently, very difficult to damage a card mechanically. Unfortunately there are plastic bits on XQD (and probably CFexpress) cards that can break but their loss doesn't affect card operation.

Johan Borg · Jan 3, 2025

I use a reader small enough to always carry with my camera:

https://www.dpreview.com/news/8539846849/prograde-digital-unveils-new-dual-sd-microsd-uhs-ii-card-reader-transfer-speeds-625mb-s

However, I always turn or write protection before reading the SD card, since I've experienced data corruption in the past. Not to mention all the useless files a Mac tends to fill external drives with.

GeoffRG · Jan 3, 2025

AlephNull said:
GeoffRG said:

tbcass said:

MediaArchivist said:

The pins on an SD card can be damaged, but that is not likely if:

you have decent, name brand SD cards

you exhibit more dexterity than a gorila

I use "tough" cards that are marketed as "harder to damage than lesser cards" and my cursory comparison with other cards leads me to believe that they are, in fact, tough. I still do an insertion cycle from time to time to prevent any possible corrosion from building up on the contacts and pins.

CF card readers have pins that are much easier to bend or damage.

Click to expand...

SD cards don't have "pins". Instead, they have a flat recessed surface that is very difficult to damage.

Click to expand...

Neither do CF cards, the pins are in the receptacle and are relatively easily damaged if you insert the wrong type of card. Damaging the card is actually quite difficult.

Click to expand...

I think you are confused - the original CF cards (I think I first used them in 2004) had pin holes with pins in the slot, but I have trouble remembering the last camera I have which used those cards. The current CF express type A cards have exposed stripes just like SD cards (although narrower than the SD).

I am unsure what CF express type B cards use, but I think it has stripes inside.

I am not confused, CF cards, and CFast, have two rows or 25 sockets, the pins are in the camera. I have just counted them. CFexpress B cards are the same form as XQD cards and the contacts are inaccessible.

CFexpress A cards are used only by Sony cameras as far as I am aware thus I have no experience of them.

Down load from camera or card reader?

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