Author Topic: Need some recommendations on photo SD card readers (Read 384 times)

Reschke · « **on:** December 30, 2007, 10:43:23 AM »

I had a 5-in-1 internal card reader that I picked up at Compusa last year and it worked maybe 50% of the time. It was cheap and my wife wasn't doing many photos so we could use the USB cable for transferring the photos off her Pentax K100D. The trouble with that is it takes a long time and I would like to know if there is a quality card reader out there?

Fulmar · « **Reply #1 on:** December 30, 2007, 11:30:00 AM »

Koutech IO-RCM620 USB 2.0 3.5"/5.25" Card Reader - Retail $14.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820162016

I bought this exact card. I've had it for two months, bought it with my new camera. It's cheap, it works. May not be the finest of materials. Save yourself a headache/minor heart attack and if you're running XP, do not even think of installing the driver disk. I did originally and my computer would not boot after a restart (was fixed by unplugging it, booting up, shutting down, and replugging it back in). Windows detects it just fine. Creates a new drive for the different slots. So you'll have like 5-6 more lettered drives in 'My Computer.'

Reads & writes CompactFlash Type-I/II, Microdrives, Memory Stick (Pro), Memory Stick Duo (Pro), xD-Picture Card, Type-H xD-Picture Card, Type-M xD-Picture Card, Secure Digital (SD), miniSD, microSD, MultiMediaCard (MMC), RS-MMC, MMCmobile, MMCmicro, T-Flash, SmartMedia media.

Comes with a beige/white and black faceplate (kind of a butt to change). The USB internal connector cable is a good length. Was able to reach the front of my case to the very last available usb spot on my motherboard (which is in the bottom left corner in the back, between two PCI slots).

Eagler · « **Reply #2 on:** December 30, 2007, 12:02:50 PM »

I think the speed of the memory card plays into transfer speed as well.
I picked up a sandisk ultra II 2GB for my new D80 and it seems to be alot faster than a standard SD 1GB card I have.

make sure your USB is 2.0 from the port to the card as well.

DREDIOCK · « **Reply #3 on:** December 30, 2007, 12:20:27 PM »

The best I've used so far.
Is the one that is built in to my HP PSC 1610 all in one printers.

Had one built into one of my machines I built but it crapped out within the first year

Krusty · « **Reply #4 on:** December 30, 2007, 12:46:37 PM »

Mitsumi FA-404M. Comes in black and white(-ish).

Takes an internal USB header, USB 2.0, pretty fast.

Mostly reliable. On my old mobo chipset it would stop working sometimes. Turns out something with the chipset and XP SP2's USB driver update messed it up. You just had to go in and "roll back" the driver to the previous setting. On my current mobo this hasn't happened yet (different chipset).

715 · « **Reply #5 on:** December 30, 2007, 02:01:55 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Fulmar
Koutech IO-RCM620 USB 2.0 3.5"/5.25" Card Reader - Retail $14.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820162016

Comes with a beige/white and black faceplate (kind of a butt to change).

I have this exact same device and it works fine and is fast. It is nearly impossible to change the faceplate unless you disassemble the drive and unscrew the PC board. The PC board interferes with the retention clips on the faceplates. Moving the board out of the way, temporarily, makes changing the faceplate easy.

Fulmar · « **Reply #6 on:** December 30, 2007, 02:20:21 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by 715
I have this exact same device and it works fine and is fast. It is nearly impossible to change the faceplate unless you disassemble the drive and unscrew the PC board. The PC board interferes with the retention clips on the faceplates. Moving the board out of the way, temporarily, makes changing the faceplate easy.

I remember reading the reviews on Newegg and saw that it was tought to change. When I looked at it out of the box, I said to myself, "Piece of cake!" 3-4 minutes later..."Stupid POS!" Anyways, I was able to do it w/o disassembly, though I considered it.

Following that, the 45 minutes later it took me to get the drive in because of my case's design for the 3.5 slot external....that's another story.

Reschke · « **Reply #7 on:** January 02, 2008, 04:24:13 PM »

Thanks for the help guys. I will be checking those out soon.

Reschke · « **Reply #8 on:** January 02, 2008, 04:26:25 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Eagler
I think the speed of the memory card plays into transfer speed as well.
I picked up a sandisk ultra II 2GB for my new D80 and it seems to be alot faster than a standard SD 1GB card I have.

make sure your USB is 2.0 from the port to the card as well.

Yep the only ones we have are the Sandisk Ultra II cards. They seem to work super fast when we take the photos to Wolf Camera or our local camera shop here in town that does the same thing as Wolf.

Vulcan · « **Reply #9 on:** January 02, 2008, 05:48:25 PM »

Make sure you get one that supports new spec's like HD SD.

715 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 02, 2008, 10:59:39 PM »

The Koutech supports SDHC. I know as I have one and it read/wrote both 4GB SDHC cards I put in it.

(Is HD SC different from SDHC?)