anyone use card readers?

[Wayne Simpson]

Hello all,

I have the K10D on order and have been following this forum for awhile and noticed many shoot in RAW. I currently have a Pany FZ30 and tried using RAW for the 1st time. Now I see the advantages! Much more you can do to rescue some bad images. My question...when I transfer from the cam to PC via USB2, jpeg's take about 3 seconds and RAW files take close to 10 seconds. I realize RAW files are much larger, but if I have a full 2GB card to transfer, well, that could take quite a while. Would a card reader speed that up considerably or not make too much a difference? If it does make a big difference, could some of you make a suggestion of which one to get? Also, I've seen sometimes there are issues of the reader corrupting, damaging, or erasing files, is this common? Should I get a reader or just deal with the waiting.....which I'm dealing with, waiting on the K10D delivery :-( Any help or suggestions would be welcome!
cheers, Wayne
--
If everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane!
Homepage.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/waynespixels/

toys of choice...FZ30...FZ7...BSA RDS...Nikon TC-E17ED...Raynox DCR-250...MCON-40...Nikon 4T...Sunpak 383...Pentax K10D (soon)...Pentax M 50mm f1.7...Tamron 2X AF TC...Tamron f2.8 28-75...Tamron 70-300 f4-5.6 Di LD Macro

 

[Godfrey]

I use card readers exclusively. I've test four or five USB 2.0 card readers and find the Sandisk ImageMate 12-in-1 card reader to be the best performer, achieving transfer rates of around 8.5 Mbytes per second with Transcend 150x SD cards. Most of the others didn't get much over 4.5-5.5 Mbytes per second reliably, and some were down in the 2-3 Mbytes per second range.

Godfrey

 

[tknterry]

Ive always used a card reader since I think its much more convenient than plugging in my camera. Actually my computer has a built in card reader but I mainly use this one:
http://lexar.com/readers/trio.html
It accepts SD, memory stick and xD and can also be used as a flash drive.
--
---Terry http://photostuff.org

 

[Stomie]

If your cam is not usb2 you may perhaps see a speed increase with a usb2 reader if your pc is usb2 capable.
Another speed block may be your memory card's writing/seek speed.
Cards can now write in excess of 165X
Hope this helps
--
A collection of images posted by me on this forum can be found here:
http://pentax.pixelcritic.com/user.php?id=100&page=user_images

 

[Wayne Simpson]

Thanks Godfrey and Terry. But will it make a big difference in transferring?
Wayne
--
If everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane!
Homepage.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/waynespixels/

toys of choice...FZ30...FZ7...BSA RDS...Nikon TC-E17ED...Raynox DCR-250...MCON-40...Nikon 4T...Sunpak 383...Pentax K10D (soon)...Pentax M 50mm f1.7...Pentax F50mm f1.7...Tamron 2X AF TC...Tamron f2.8 28-75...Tamron 70-300 f4-5.6 Di LD Macro

 

[Wayne Simpson]

If your cam is not usb2 you may perhaps see a speed increase with a
usb2 reader if your pc is usb2 capable.
Another speed block may be your memory card's writing/seek speed.
Cards can now write in excess of 165X
Hope this helps
--
A collection of images posted by me on this forum can be found here:
http://pentax.pixelcritic.com/user.php?id=100&page=user_images

It is USB2
--
If everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane!
Homepage.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/waynespixels/

toys of choice...FZ30...FZ7...BSA RDS...Nikon TC-E17ED...Raynox DCR-250...MCON-40...Nikon 4T...Sunpak 383...Pentax K10D (soon)...Pentax M 50mm f1.7...Pentax F50mm f1.7...Tamron 2X AF TC...Tamron f2.8 28-75...Tamron 70-300 f4-5.6 Di LD Macro

 

[Teja]

The speed difference is amazing.

I have a Dazzle Thunderbolt CF reader that can copy a 1GB file in under 2 minutes.

And I recently got a Transcend TS-RD13S Portable Multi-Card Reader to handle the SD cards for the K100D, and find that it is just as fast if not a little bit faster. For $13 it is a very good time saver. I got mine from here:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=83149

There are other good readers too, but don't get a cheap one from eBay - it won't be any faster than your camera (I know, I got two rusting in my closet). Look here for some pretty fast readers:
http://robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-8462

Good luck,
Teja

Should I get a reader or just deal with the waiting.....which I'm dealing with, waiting on the K10D delivery :-( Any help or suggestions would be welcome!

 

[Nico13]

With the istD I always use a card reader. As it's compact flash in the "D" I have a multi generic reader in my desktop and a PCMCIA adapt in my notebook. desktop is fast, never timed it though and notebook is a bit slower but when I get the K10 the notebook has a dedicated SD reader so it will be interesting to see if its faster then.

--
Nico.
http://www.pbase.com/nico13

If at first you don't succeed don't try sky diving.



Ride FAST Bikes instead!

 

[Wayne Simpson]

WOW...that's a huge difference! Thanks Teja. Goin shoppin now.
cheers, Wayne
--
If everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane!
Homepage.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/waynespixels/

toys of choice...FZ30...FZ7...BSA RDS...Nikon TC-E17ED...Raynox DCR-250...MCON-40...Nikon 4T...Sunpak 383...Pentax K10D (soon)...Pentax M 50mm f1.7...Pentax F50mm f1.7...Tamron 2X AF TC...Tamron f2.8 28-75...Tamron 70-300 f4-5.6 Di LD Macro

 

[Godfrey]

Thanks Godfrey and Terry. But will it make a big difference in
transferring?

The difference is that if you are dumping a full 2-4G card, your card can be transferring while you fit another one in the camera and keep on shooting. It can be quite a bit faster depending upon what camera you have.

I've never plugged any of my cameras to the computer. The card reader is on my desk next to the monitor as a standard part of my workstation equipment.

Godfrey

 

[Teja]

But will it make a big difference in transferring?
Wayne

You can measure it yourself. How long does it take to transfer 1GB worth of pics from you cam to your PC over the USB cable? Then transfer the same files over the card reader and you will see if there is any difference.

Transferring from my A2 (USB 2.0) to the PC seemed to take forever - easily 10 mins or more. With the Dazzle Thunderbolt, it took about 100 secs to copy a full 1GB CF card.

Teja

 

[Wayne Simpson]

But will it make a big difference in transferring?
Wayne

You can measure it yourself. How long does it take to transfer 1GB
worth of pics from you cam to your PC over the USB cable? Then
transfer the same files over the card reader and you will see if
there is any difference.

Transferring from my A2 (USB 2.0) to the PC seemed to take forever

• easily 10 mins or more. With the Dazzle Thunderbolt, it took

about 100 secs to copy a full 1GB CF card.

Teja

That's pretty impressive! The link you gave me is out of stock but I'm sure I'll find it elsewhere, thanks again.
Wayne
--
If everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane!
Homepage.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/waynespixels/

toys of choice...FZ30...FZ7...BSA RDS...Nikon TC-E17ED...Raynox DCR-250...MCON-40...Nikon 4T...Sunpak 383...Pentax K10D (soon)...Pentax M 50mm f1.7...Pentax F50mm f1.7...Tamron 2X AF TC...Tamron f2.8 28-75...Tamron 70-300 f4-5.6 Di LD Macro

 

[Quinbus]

I have (and have had) various digital cameras, and always use a card reader. It's just more convenient. Whatever you get, be sure it supports USB 2.0.

 

[Wayne Simpson]

Thanks all for the fast and great help! Looks like the Transcend TS-RD13S Portable Multi-Card Reader is the one I'll get. Mine as well push my luck and ask for reccomendations for SD cards and some external hard drive backup too ;-) I've got lots of cards now but not too fast and I like to take BIF ( bird in flight ) pics so speed is probably a good idea. Thanks again all....gotta love this forum!
cheers, Wayne...................I want my K10D!!!!
--
If everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane!
Homepage.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/waynespixels/

toys of choice...FZ30...FZ7...BSA RDS...Nikon TC-E17ED...Raynox DCR-250...MCON-40...Nikon 4T...Sunpak 383...Pentax K10D (soon)...Pentax M 50mm f1.7...Pentax F50mm f1.7...Tamron 2X AF TC...Tamron f2.8 28-75...Tamron 70-300 f4-5.6 Di LD Macro

 

[Teja]

Thanks all for the fast and great help! Looks like the Transcend
TS-RD13S Portable Multi-Card Reader is the one I'll get.

The "S" at the end is for Silver. It also comes in other colors.
http://www.transcendusa.com/Products/ShowImg.asp?ModNo=94

And if you want, you can buy any color directly from Transcend for $15

http://ec.transcendusa.com/product/product_memory.asp?chtype=Peripherals&Cid=13&indexnum=7

But the $7 shipping is a bit of a downer. Maybe you can do a group buy if you can find some friends/colleagues interested in this and share the shipping.

 

[wlachan]

maybe you wish to look for SDHC compliant, if they exist?
--
Alan Chan
http://www.pbase.com/wlachan

 

[Barry O]

Sorry to 'slightly hi-jack' this topic, but I have a question to ask you good people.

My K100D seems to have something against high(er) speed SD cards. I was hoping to use my 1gb Transcend 80x SD card on my brand new 100D but all I get is the memory card activity light going off for a very long time each time I shoot several pictures within a few seconds. Mind you, not even close to burst-mode number of shots we are talking about here. Curiously, when I use a regular slow 256mb SD card, it works well. At first, I thought it could have been the Transcend card, but I tried another one, this time a Twinmos 150x 1gb SD card and it showed the same problem as the Transcend! - can somebody please share with me your experience with the K100D wrt the SD card used.

 

[volosong]

Wayne,

I've never (that is, NEVER) use the USB cable to transfer images from a body to a computer. That is over 16,000 exposures in the past two years. I either use the built-in SD card reader on my laptop, or a Sandisk card reader. The card readers are very inexpensive these days. Sometimes, they even come free with a card.

Speed is adequate with a card reader and have never had problems with file corruption.

--
Steven
GMT -8

 

[Dana G]

Should I
get a reader or just deal with the waiting.....which I'm dealing
with, waiting on the K10D delivery :-( Any help or suggestions
would be welcome!
cheers, Wayne
--

Most people use a card reader. Save camera batteries, time, and the Sandisk zillion-in-one reader (I lost count at around 8) is a lot faster.

Plus, it'll work on my D, my K10D (eventually), and any friends' cameras that have odd cards. I have a teely point and shoot that uses a weird card that I've never seen before but the reader supports it, and it's blazingly fast!

--
'We have met the enemy, and he is us!

 

[Dana G]

FWIW, I bought a Lexar 133x SD card in anticipation of the K10D (why can't they use CF cards?) and they include a little USB card reader with it. I guess they are trying to tell us something.

--
'We have met the enemy, and he is us!