Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
ExpressCard missing. so any CF to SD card adapters ?
- Thread starter joecool99
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
A quick search doesn't find a beast such as a CF to SD.. I expected as much.
Firewire 800 based solutions do exist but in my brief searching they don't look like they are very robust when used in OS X. Someone who has actually used one will know more.
Firewire 800 based solutions do exist but in my brief searching they don't look like they are very robust when used in OS X. Someone who has actually used one will know more.
I've used the SanDisk Firewire 800 Compact Flash reader for a couple of years. It's UDMA compatible and it's wicked fast! No issues whatsoever. It's faster than an Express Card CF reader that I used in the past. Of course, UDMA CF cards are required for the wicked fast part. Otherwise, it's just fast. 🙂
Mark
Mark
iBookG4user
macrumors 604
I use a Calumet branded FireWire 800 CF card reader that is UDMA compatible and it is very fast. And it's not that expensive as far as FireWire 800 readers go.
i have the Lexar FW 800 reader and all i can say is that it is super-fast but as i haven't used any of the readers that the other posters mention i can't compare.
only thing i dislike is that it feels a bit tight when inserting a card but this is no real biggie. one cool feature is that you can daisy-chain it - excellent for pro's. here's a decent review:
http://www.momentcorp.com/review/lexar_proffessional_firewire800_cf_reader.html
NOTE: Some people were reporting that it stopped working with the advent of SL 10.6 but i never had a problem on my Mac Pro - looks like it depended on people's configurations. never tried the reader on my dell mini 10v hackintosh (if that had a fw800 port that would be toooo sweet 🙂
no-one mentions this any more from what i have googled - i guess Lexar sorted the problem by the time 10.6.1 rolled-out.
only thing i dislike is that it feels a bit tight when inserting a card but this is no real biggie. one cool feature is that you can daisy-chain it - excellent for pro's. here's a decent review:
http://www.momentcorp.com/review/lexar_proffessional_firewire800_cf_reader.html
NOTE: Some people were reporting that it stopped working with the advent of SL 10.6 but i never had a problem on my Mac Pro - looks like it depended on people's configurations. never tried the reader on my dell mini 10v hackintosh (if that had a fw800 port that would be toooo sweet 🙂
no-one mentions this any more from what i have googled - i guess Lexar sorted the problem by the time 10.6.1 rolled-out.
You can get a USB multi-reader with a CF slot. Not sure how difficult they are to find but I've got one.
Pressure
macrumors 603
The two great CompactFlash readers have already been mentioned in this thread but I want to share my opinion as well.
The Sandisk Extreme FireWire Reader and the Lexar CompactFlash FireWire Reader are both UDMA compatible and are probably the best options right now (both supporting FireWire800).
A friend of mine had one of those cheap "I read everything" crappy memory readers built-in in his computer and it would take him nearly an hour to import some footage we had shot on the Canon 5D Mark II. I told him to hook up my FireWire800 Sandisk Extreme and the process only took 3 minutes.
Avoid USB-connected memory readers!
The Sandisk Extreme FireWire Reader and the Lexar CompactFlash FireWire Reader are both UDMA compatible and are probably the best options right now (both supporting FireWire800).
A friend of mine had one of those cheap "I read everything" crappy memory readers built-in in his computer and it would take him nearly an hour to import some footage we had shot on the Canon 5D Mark II. I told him to hook up my FireWire800 Sandisk Extreme and the process only took 3 minutes.
Avoid USB-connected memory readers!
barefeats
macrumors 65816
The fastest ExpressCard/34 CF Card Reader reads photos only slightly faster than a FireWire 800 Reader. However, if you copy anything to the CF Card, the ExpressCard Reader is faster:
http://barefeats.com/flash08.html
Since 99% of the time, I'm copying from the CF Card to the MacBook Pro, then the FW800 Reader is plenty fast if I don't have an ExpressCard slot.
However, I do like having an ExpressCard slot for connecting to eSATA ports on HDD enclosures. My favorite is the fastest one:
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/temposataproexpress34.html
http://barefeats.com/flash08.html
Since 99% of the time, I'm copying from the CF Card to the MacBook Pro, then the FW800 Reader is plenty fast if I don't have an ExpressCard slot.
However, I do like having an ExpressCard slot for connecting to eSATA ports on HDD enclosures. My favorite is the fastest one:
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/temposataproexpress34.html
Robert, The link you included (which I've, of course, visited before) shows the FireWire 800 CF Card Reader to be faster on reads. Typo above? 🙂
Mark