Card reader or Card - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

10/17/2010 11:53:25 AM · #1

Since I up graded to the 5D II it takes almost 45sec. to completely bring up the image. The program I use is Digital Photo Professional. The cards are 4gb SanDisk Extreme III. The reader I use is about 5yrs old made by SanDisk. Thinking it might be the card reader. Has SanDisk came out with a faster card reader? I'm going to invest in a couple 8gb cards here shortly, is it the cards? Any suggestions would be appreciated......Thxs.

cowtownmom

Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT

10/17/2010 12:11:25 PM · #2

Steve,

yo_spiff and I use the same software. It doesn't take that long for start to show our pictures. I know that there is some difference in the cards because he tells me that one of them is really slow. We use a card reader to move the pictures rather than connecting directly to the computer. A new card reader isn't a big investment and it's one that you should probably make. It's worth a try to see if that fixes your speed problems.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

10/17/2010 12:21:40 PM · #3

I try to never open the image on the card -- I transfer it to a hard drive and view it there.

My opinion is to never open the only copy of the file -- if you have it open and you have a crash or power failure and the file on the card gets corrupted ... :-(

NathanWert

Canon EOS-90D

Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM

10/17/2010 12:23:09 PM · #4

I never use a card reader anymore. i always connect directly to my camera and Download it.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

10/17/2010 01:02:21 PM · #5

Interesting. I've never went straight to the hard drive from the camera other then to my backup external drive. I like to preview prior to down loading. I've gone from 300D, 20d, 40D, 5D the 5D II files are twice the size then the prior camera's.

Generale makes very good point. I have to do some thing. I can't take a couple hundred SP and work at this slow speed.

cowtownmom Your right there not that expense so I might do that. hmmmm it's getting frustrating. Thanks for the responses and suggestions. ....ace

Yo_Spiff

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

10/17/2010 01:15:16 PM · #6

If your reader is 5 years old, it might be USB 1.1, which is only 12Mb per second. USB 2.0 devices are many times faster and a cheap upgrade. I use a Vivitar model that costs $10 at Fry's. It takes 5-10 minutes for me to copy the contents of an 8Gb card to my computer.

Biggest thing to be aware of with card readers is to use one that guides the card in straight all the time. You would think designing the guides would be easy, but the design quality here varies. If you have to fuss to get it in right, you may eventually bend some pins. I had that happen with a couple of other card readers.

Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM

10/17/2010 01:57:53 PM · #7

Thanks...I was kind of thinking this might be the issue. I back everything up so I think I'll give this a try first. I like my work flow as is.....

Originally posted by Yo_Spiff:

SteveJ

Canon EOS-7D

10/17/2010 04:02:25 PM · #8

Since day 1 I have always used card readers. As an ex-Canon user/Pentax user, I have Zoombrowser on my PC and laptop, the card reader sends everything straight to ZB. The original files stay on the card until I have checked the download, then I format the card in the camera. USB 2.0 is pretty quick on an 8Gb card.

Simms

10/17/2010 04:54:48 PM · #9

Ace Flyman I would say the way forward for you is to rethink your workflow and storage strategy. "Cherry picking" the images off the card seems to me a very long drawn out process and it doesnt surprise me your 21mp files are taking a while to open. I really think you should intially move everything from card to hard-drive and then get some kind of system in place where you can whiz through the images with a keep/reject workflow. Once you have rejected the stuff you really dont want then you can go back to the start and play with your images in DPP.

For example - my workflow is:-

Copy all images to a folder on my hard-drive (generally I drop them into the clients Wedding folder, in the case of shooting for fun I copy them into a folder with the date the shots were taken - Lightroom looks after this for me. During import Lightroom also adds my standard processing settings such as contrast, sharpening etc.

I then go through the images and rate then as 1 = reject 5 = keep 3 = keep for self (test shots, shots just messing around etc). I also make the changes during this pass such as exposure/white balance adjustments. When I hit the rating button then the current image will disappear from the filmstrip and present the next image.

I can usually get through 1500 shots in a (working) day without breaking into a sweat.

When I finish the job, I select all the images rated 1 and delete them, freeing up HDD space in the process, the rest get dumped down to HighRes JPG ready for the album design or the DVD.