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CF card reader and Aperture #1
Florian Cortese's picture
by Florian Cortese
March 25, 2011 - 11:22am

I just purchased a Canon 5D mark II and now have to start using CF cards (UDMA). Obviously the SD card reader slot on my Macbook Pro won't do anymore. What card readers do any of you suggest? I have Lexar Pro 400x CF cards. Most card readers that I have found so far are USB connected. Lexar makes an Express card reader that fits into the PCI slot on the side of the MBP, but one reviewer on Adorama web site had trouble with Aperture 3 reading the files on the card. any suggestions? Thanks

Florian Cortese
www.fotosbyflorian.com

Jaimie Harris's picture
by Jaimie Harris
March 25, 2011 - 8:18pm

Florian

I have a Lexar USB 2.0 UDMA Reader (Model No. RW035-7000) which works fine on my iMac and MBP. There is a Firewire version however which is obviously much faster and this is what I would go with if I were buying a new one.

Jai

Robert Sfeir's picture
by Robert Sfeir
March 25, 2011 - 8:58pm

Lexar Professional UDMA CompactFlash & SD Reader (USB 2.0)

If someone can find a reliable firewire one, I’d love to use it, but it has to handle both types of cards for me :)

Florian Cortese's picture
by Florian Cortese
March 25, 2011 - 10:38pm

On both Adorama and B&H’s sites they have the Lexar Express card reader like I mentioned in my OP. Reviewers are mixed with regards to its use with A3. The gist of the reviews comes down to making sure you properly load the drivers first. It has caused some crashed on Mac if not done-which makes it a little leery for me. Some are by-passing the direct load into A3 by loading their uploaded photos onto the desktop first and then importing them into A3. I’d like to avoid that extra step if possible. So I may play it safe and get the USB one for now. I’ll wait until the end of tomorrow to make my decision and await any more feedback on this thread. I’ll give a followup IF I decide to try out the express card model. Thanks.

Florian Cortese
www.fotosbyflorian.com

James Stevens's picture
by James Stevens
March 25, 2011 - 11:41pm

I typically just use the USB connection from my camera to my Mac. Never had any problems.

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
March 26, 2011 - 2:29am

James,

FYI, the USB cable to the camera directly is probably the slowest way of making the transfer. A dedicated USB reader will likely be much faster.

-Joseph @ApertureExpert

@PhotoJoseph
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Thomas Emmerich's picture
by Thomas Emmerich
March 26, 2011 - 8:01am

Florian,

I find that Aperture can be flaky noticing whether a camera’s flash card is inserted in a reader. I have a Sony multicard reader/writer connected via USB. I frequently have trouble getting a memory card to show up in Aperture. Sometimes canceling and restarting Aperture’s import mode causes the card to appear. Sometimes if I just wait long enough it comes in. Sometimes I have to just pull the card out and re-insert it.

Frankly I don’t know where the problem lies.

You apparently have a 17” MBP since those are the only recent models to have an Express Card Slot and a built-in SD card slot.

Not much help to you I know.
Tom

Thomas

Florian Cortese's picture
by Florian Cortese
March 27, 2011 - 12:26am

Thanks Thomas. Actually I have a 15in MBP bought within the last year. AFter mulling this over in my mind repeatedly I ordered a Sandisk 800FW reader from Amazon. One of the reviewers was a pro photographer who recommended it. He uses both Lexar and Sandisk CF cards and had no problems loading large volumer of pictures onto his MBP. What I do not know is whether he is using Aperture or PS. I should be getting this in by mid-week and I’ll test drive it and see how it goes. Fingers crossed.
Florian

Florian Cortese
www.fotosbyflorian.com

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
March 27, 2011 - 11:56pm

Florian,

I asume this is the SanDisk FireWire CF Card Reader you ordered? I’d be very interested to hear how that goes for you. I didn’t even know that SanDisk had a FW reader. It’s frustrating that there isn’t a single photo of the back of the device even on their website—I want to know if you can daisy chain this or if it has to be at the end of your FW chain. The Lexar readers were stackable, which was fantastic, but then again those aren’t available anymore and I suspect it’s because I wasn’t the only one having problems with them.

As far as Aperture not seeing the card on insert—that is a legacy problem that they just can’t seem to get rid of. Annoying as hell and sometime I’ll even have to relaunch Aperture for it to show up. grrr

-Joseph @ApertureExpert

@PhotoJoseph
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Robert Sfeir's picture
by Robert Sfeir
March 28, 2011 - 12:10am

Joseph,

I often do a search on the reviews to see if anyone’s answered the questions. From a photographer who’s used a similar version http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-SDDRX4-CFR-Sandisk-Extreme-FireWire/dp/B00

PROS
- Super fast downloads
- Easy to use, corrects to FireWire 800.
- Small footprint.

CONS
- Expensive vs. the actual performance increase. I guess I was expecting faster downloads vs. USB 2.0, but I guess just looking at the bandwidth you kind of expect this thing to not blow USB 2.0 devices out of the water.
- Only compact flash, no other devices.
- If you daisy chain this to another FireWire 800 device and are doing read/write to it, bandwidth (speed) is decreased.

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
March 28, 2011 - 12:29am

Robert,

Thanks for the info. FW800 is definitely faster than USB 2.0 (USB 2 roughly equals FW400), but if the reader isn’t UDMA, then your limit is in the reading of the card, not the transfer of data.

I don’t think that’s a UDMA reader. The Lexar one was.

Of course now I’m just waiting for Thunderbolt readers, and a Thunderbolt port on my MacBook Air ;-)

-Joseph @ApertureExpert

@PhotoJoseph
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Florian Cortese's picture
by Florian Cortese
March 28, 2011 - 1:00am

Joseph- Yes as noted it is a Sandisk Extreme FireWire Reader found on amazon at this site: http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-SDDRX4-CFR-Sandisk-Extreme-FireWire/dp/B00

I am not sure if that’s the same as noted above. If you click on the 5 star ratings the first one up is the review that swayed me into going ahead and getting this. It’s by Jasper Johal “Professional Photographer.” I had hit upon mixed reviews with the Lexar, which is not longer available, and was leery of getting their Express card that slips into the slot on the side of the MBP because of issues with loading drivers and kernal panics. I’m not quite that computer savvy enough nor have a great deal of time to spend dealing with that. It should be here this week so I’ll see if it can be daisy-chained. I was hoping on getting out today and test driving my new 5DII but the weather is dreary and snowy here in western MT. I’ll try soon and see how the Sandisk works.

Florian

Florian Cortese
www.fotosbyflorian.com

Florian Cortese's picture
by Florian Cortese
March 30, 2011 - 7:44am

Follow-Up:
I got the Sandisk Extreme Firewire Reader today and went out and took some quick photos. When I put my Lexar 400x CF card into the card reader after plugging it into the FW port on my MBP, it showed up immediately on my desktop and launched Aperture. I did get worried when the spinning beach ball seemed to take quite a while to disappear but in reality it was only about 20-30 seconds. The pictures loaded up for import. I did my labeling and got them imported. Joseph, this has two cords one with two 800 FW ends and another with a 800 FW end and a different end (the end is labeled “1394.)” I am not that familiar with these things but it may be a 4 pin 400FW cable. I am not sure how this effects or works with a daisy chain set up. Let’s hope this continues to work without any glitches and that the spinning beach ball time decreases next time I fire it up.

Florian

Florian Cortese
www.fotosbyflorian.com

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
March 25, 2011 - 1:30pm

Florian,

I’m interested to hear what others here are using. I use a Lexar Firewire 800 UDMA reader, however this has been discontinued and I’ve had lots of Firewire bus problems with it (chronicled on my photo blog; “Spontaneous FireWire Drive Dismounts? You Too? Read On…”).

I also have a USB UDMA combo reader from Lexar (both CF and SD), which is nice but it’s slower and it doesn’t daisy-chain like the FW800 one does.

I’m expecting that Lexar will release a Thunderbolt reader soon, but of course if you don’t have a brand new MacBook Pro, that won’t do you much good.

What is everyone else using?

-Joseph @ApertureExpert

@PhotoJoseph
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