I wasn't sure there was any point in upgrading from my Sandisk Extreme USB 2 card reader which has served me faithfully for all these years. I use Sandisk Ultra cards with a speed of 30mb/s which is about the usb 2 standard if I'm not mistaken so didn't see the point.
The Lexar USB 3 reader is very cheap however so I picked one up.
I ran a small test, 120 RAW files from a Sandisk Ultra CF card using the Sandisk Extreme USB 2 reader vs the Lexar USB 3 reader.
USB 2 = 95 seconds.
USB 3 = 35 seconds.
Now I don't know about you but that is going to put a smile on my face at the end of a wedding or a long day of shooting!
I bought a Lexar 3.0 card reader and generic USB 3.0 board for my desktop back in August. It's easily twice as fast as the old USB 2 kit, but I haven't bothered to do an explicit test. It's certainly way better.
Specularist wrote:
I got the same reader. Other than being seriously ugly in its shapeless glossy black and translucent plastic casing, it does the job nicely.
I like it, the pop up thingy is cool and yes I never quite grew up!
My Lexar USB 3.0 card reader is apparently having troubles with two different Sandisk cards; one an Extreme 16GB 60MB/s and the other an older Extreme IV 8GB 45MB/s. When the reader is connected to a USB 3.0 port the computer cannot see these cards at all but if the same reader is connected to a USB 2.0 port with the same cable then the computer can see them. Unfortunately it then only works at USB 2.0 speeds. The same card reader works fine with a different Extreme card. I've got another Lexar reader on its way so that I can determine where the fault lies.
Alan321 wrote:
My Lexar USB 3.0 card reader is apparently having troubles with two different Sandisk cards; one an Extreme 16GB 60MB/s and the other an older Extreme IV 8GB 45MB/s. When the reader is connected to a USB 3.0 port the computer cannot see these cards at all but if the same reader is connected to a USB 2.0 port with the same cable then the computer can see them. Unfortunately it then only works at USB 2.0 speeds. The same card reader works fine with a different Extreme card. I've got another Lexar reader on its way so that I can determine where the fault lies.
Did you try it on another computer? I have no issues with the 45 MB/sec. EX IV cards and the Lexar USB 3.0 reader. It works perfectly with a wide variety of cards and the speeds are about right on.
I don't have access to another computer with USB 3.0. I just bought two new 16GB Sandisk Extreme cards and a new Lexar USB 3.0 reader. One card works great and the other is invisible - until I use the same reader and cable on USB 2.0 instead of via the USB 3.0 adapter.
There are too many variables for me to figure this out easily - and too many far more significant things going wrong for me to worry about it too much now. It could well be the USB 3.0 ExpressCard adapter that I'm using, or the Apple computer. Apple is not noted for being USB 3.0 friendly or for having full-speed expansion ports.
All in all I'm about ready to take up woodwork instead of computers and photography
On my system I have noticed that USB 3 transfers are only about 60% faster than than usb 2 transfers - to and from the card reader. Perhaps not a lot better but worthwhile when there is up to 16GB to transfer at a time.
Have any of you tried comparing a USB 3 card reader to the Firewire card readers? Is the USB 3 card reader faster?? I have Sandisk Extreme 60mb/s cards
Yes. USB 3.0 far exceeds the bandwidth of FW800. Your cards are slow enough that the difference may be negligible, so if you have an old FW system it may not be worth upgrading to USB 3.0 yet.
firewire is pretty much a legacy (dead) issue. there is no further consumer world developement going on supporting FW400/800. FW800 never really caught on either. FW800 is being used in military aspects. they are not using the same poorly designed interconnects that consumer FW used (yes the military is quite smart at times). FW had lots of good distinct points but when you started to really develop using it sometimes was less friendly then the distortion field led to believe
thunderbolt is the next interconnect. it has its own bag of limitations to go with its potentially substantially higher speed. there are but a few consumer products out there that support it and they at this point are mac-centric and big $$$ until 2012. thats a standby to standby situation. it biggest advantage is that it is an intel based product.
Card readers are cheap enough to replace every few years. By the time they reach Tbolt or Lightpeak or whatever, there may be CFast cards or something else different.
Thing is really that the lexar USB 3 reader was so cheap that it really was a no brainer.
I shot a job on thursday, moved the 114 files from the card, by the time I'd navigated to the appropriate folder in bridge, the files were all already there. It does make life pleasant...
Just got one of these Lexar USB 3 to replace same model USB 2. Wow, 70 MB/s from my 16 GB Sandisk Extreme. My 1D3 can't take advantage of the Extreme but they sure upload faster!
Has anyone compared the Lexar to the Transcend (TS-RDF8)? I have two of the Lexars and love the 50+ MB/s I'm getting with my Lexar 400x cards. I see these Transcend at around half the price on Amazon. Since I need to buy at least four more, I'm wondering.
John Patrick wrote:
Has anyone compared the Lexar to the Transcend (TS-RDF8)? John
Yes, I have tested 16GB Lexar, SanDisk and Transcend 600x CF cards in different USB 3.0 Readers, results can be found here: http://www.usb3.thedocaus.com/
Look under The Results Tab. In short Transcend cards perform very well against the Lexar and and the SanDisk.
