14 February, 2008

Quick Photo Tip: Card Reader.


In honor of Valentines Day, I'd like to say that I heart my card reader. Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles.

Defined: a beautiful, glorious little tool for lightening speed photo downloading without sucking the life from your camera. The memory card is inserted into the reader and vuala. . . in less than half the time, your shots are downloaded and ready for their Photoshop debut!

Purchasing Guidelines: It's tempting to make the mistake I did and buy a universal card reader. . . that accommodates all types and sizes of cards. . . It seemed a prudent choice as I use my DSLR as well as my point and shoot and thus have two different sizes of cards. I quickly found however that this type of reader is a) not quite as fast (though still leaps and bounds beyond the camera connected directly to the computer) b) it used the same hole to insert two different types of cards and thus it was very difficult to get the card in "just so" in order for it to connect correctly to the computer. I ended up bending the little teethie thingies (technical. . . I know). If you're running Windows XP you'll find that each of the different readers shows up on your desktop as different disks/hard drives. . . it makes it very confusing. . . so, in my humble opinion. . . universal reader: totally out.

So what's in? Single-card reader. Now you may or may not have the option for a FireWire or a USB. If you choose a USB reader: The regular USB type= totally slow. MAKE SURE to get a USB2.0 reader.

Cost: What should you expect as far as cost is concerned? Well. . . that stupid universal reader I bought was under $20. I'd recommend shooting for around the $20 range. Although they are available for around $10, you can also find them toward the $100 range. You can check them out for yourself here and here.

Here's a great "upper end" option if you so desire. Probably not a necessity, but again. . . if you so desire. If you're going to pay a little bit more. . . this is the one I'd recommend.

This may be old news for many of you, but for those of you who are hearing about this for the first time. . . you're going to be praising my name to high Heaven.

Happy Shooting! And HAPPY DAY OF LOVE!

2 comments:

shelly said...

I think I would LOVE to have one of those! Thanks, Natalie!

Trude said...

Thanks for the tip! I've wondered why you would get one of this instead of just direct connect (especially after experiencing the snail-speed of using the built-in reader on my printer!), and now I know! :) Yet another thing to add to my wish list.