Quickest download method?

KIPAX

KIPAX

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KIPAX Lancashire UK
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My mem cards take an age to download.. would seem this computer although a decent spec only has usb 1

what are my options to speed up download without buying a new computer... its desktop BTW and compact flash
 
I tried a usb 2 card and installed.. it.. fitting was easy enough... never made the slightest difference..


i thought about firewire and that would be one of the reasons for this thread.. but wasnt sure if that required usb2 anyways ?
 
I have the Lexar Firewire 800 reader which isn't cheap but is sooo fast. It'll suck up a Gig in a few seconds.. seriously. It's bloody invaluable pitch side for live trans. :)

Fits straight into the firewire 800 port and doesn't need power or usb2.
 
Yep thats the one. The FW 800 ports are the square ones, the one that looks like a wide USB with the corners cut off one end is the FW 400 port.

My MBP and iMac both have them built in so I've never had to research card brand/quality so can't help you on that, but this one certainly looks correct.
 
Heres a screen shot of the Lexar 800 UDMA pro downloading 1gig of pics. As you can see the timer says less than 1 minute. It actually took 34 seconds! Would have taken 5 mins with my old USB2 reader.

Picture2.png
 
nice...

on my laptop I have the card slot that fits a compact flash.. thats very fast and used when i need to send pics from onsite... at home i prefer the desktop and its painful ....

will look into this card and reader... thanks :)
 
This is what i use to download via firewire to my laptop that only came with usb, so much quicker
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=36037
IEEE 1394 Firewire Cardbus
Add Firewire to your notebook/laptop PC
Provides 2 Firewire Ports
Hot-Plug Feature allows you to connect and disconnect devices without powering down
Only £19.99

Order Code: A06AZ In Stock
more information
 
KIPAX said:
I tried a usb 2 card and installed.. it.. fitting was easy enough... never made the slightest difference..?
Click to expand...

What were you using to plug the CF into ? To get the speed benefit of a USB 2.0 port you'll need a USB 2.0 card reader :)
 
Which today is the USB2 reader ;)

Guess which one is the USB2 and which one is the FW800.. started at the same time.

Picture4.png


I'll stop banging the firewire drum now :geek:
 
That's why you check on the reader before you buy it , Not all Card Readers are created equal (USB or Firewire).
 
mrgubby said:
That's why you check on the reader before you buy it , Not all Card Readers are created equal (USB or Firewire).
Click to expand...

Agreed, I have inbuilt card reader including a usb2 port on desktop and its quick, I also have a plugin USB2 card reader, which is painfully slow. Though my habit is to get home, put card in machine and leave uploading while I make coffee, make dinner, do whatever else I have to do before I can sit down and start on pics guilt free, so speed doesn't really worry me that much.
 
mrgubby said:
That's why you check on the reader before you buy it , Not all Card Readers are created equal (USB or Firewire).
Click to expand...

Thanks for those sage words. :wave:

The USB2 reader in question is the highly acclaimed Dazzle CF USB2 reader that you see taped to the laptop lid of many a sports pro pitchside. For all that it is created above others in speed and quality it is still crapola when compared with a decent FW800 reader.

I believe the OP asked what the quickest download method available to him would be. :thumbs:

Over and out.
 
TheBionicDan said:
Thanks for those sage words. :wave:


I believe the OP asked what the quickest download method available to him would be. :thumbs:

Over and out.
Click to expand...

Sorry for posting :wave:

Obviously a 800Mb (ish) interface is going to be faster than a 480Mb (ish) CPU driven interface but whether it's worth the present cost overhead :shrug:

But then again OP was asking for the fastest method :D



Ps. your USB2 reader "appears" to be a bit sick, my £5 card reader downloads 1Gb (51 files) from my Sandisk Extreme III (30Mb/s) in 43 seconds
 
:)

Sorry not trying to be a forum knob. No hard feelings I hope.

P.s I think you might be right about my sick USB2 reader... but don't tell anyone ;)
 
ok,

firstly what is the spec of the PC?

what brand/speed of memory card do you have which is tbh going to be fairly crucial and has been overlooked.

Do you still have the USB2 PCI Card? If yes, go and buy a decent USB2 card reader.

lastly and a little off topic, if your PC is old enought not to have usb2 it may be worth considering upgrading other areas of the PC overall it would give you a better experience of using it especially if you want to regularly edit and library pictures
 
The motherboard has to support usb2 in the first instance if it dosnt it must be really old......
 
andrewc said:
you can buy a plug in USB2 card which should give you a couple of faster USB slots. Or a firewire card and card reader. Both are much faster than USB1 which must be painfully slow.
Click to expand...

If the mainboard is usb1 then no usb card can change it.
 
Thanks everyone... got a bargain firewire card reader.... changing PC is a bit too drastic as apart from the usb thing everything else is fine... I only use it for web which as we all know isnt power reliant....and PP my pics .. Photoshop 8 runs fast so am happy :)

Just need the firewire card to stick in the computer and jobs a goodun :)
 
Hi,

Couldn't help but notice this thread, I have a SD card based SLR(450D) and I would like to find a decent fast reader as the one I currently use(Sandisk USB reader
that came with my SD card) is slow when transferring RAW files over on my iMac. Ideally I would like to use a firewire based reader but I'm also aware that the limitations of the SD card format may prevent me from gaining any additional speed improvement when transferring such large files in RAW format over in the first place.

Any good SD HC card readers/writers out there to look for?

Michael.
 
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