The Need for Speed - Gear Review

The Importance of Speed

The importance of speed should never be under-estimated with digital photography. Higher resolution photographs create larger file sizes and larger files require larger memory card capacities. At the same time - larger file sizes make it increasingly more difficult for cameras and computers to process and transfer these images with speed.

Throughout the digital photography process there are a few bottlenecks that can slow down your workflow - from waiting for your camera to finish writing the last burst of images you just captured to uploading those images to your computer in order to analyze, edit, archive, and publish these images. As memory card capacities get larger, the upload times become excruciatingly slow when used with older transfer methods. In this gear review I will be taking a look at how faster memory cards and card readers can improve your digital photography experience now that resolution, RAW file capture, and memory card sizes have increased.

When shooting, does speed really matter?

The answer is mostly no.

Back when memory card capacities were limited to 512MB the speed of the card was not of huge importance, but as capacities have increased the need for faster read and write times have also increased. Believe it or not, it is the READ time of a memory card and not the write time that will play a bigger role in speeding up your workflow. The reason for this is that virtually all digital SLR's have fairly large internal buffers that allow them to hold multiple captured images in memory while writing them to the memory card. Because of this, the speed of the card becomes less important.

The chart below gives results from two tests that I did using a Canon EOS Rebel XTi. The first was to determine how many RAW images the camera would capture while holding down the shutter and how quickly it would capture them.

Because of the camera's internal buffer each of the memory cards were able to fire off an initial 12 images in the same amount of time. However, the faster memory cards recovered quicker thus freeing the buffer more quickly. Because of this I decided to hold down the shutter for 30 seconds with each memory card to see how many photos each would capture. This is where the speed differences become apparent - at least when shooting.

After the shoot is when memory card speed makes a big difference

While higher-speed memory cards enhance the burst recovery time on digital SLR's, the real benefit of these cards are in post-production, where the faster transfer-speeds help to upload your images to your PC much more quickly. As of this writing the Lexar Professional UDMA (300x or 45MB/sec.) memory cards are the fastest rated cards on the market, slightly ahead of Kingston's new 266x speed cards and the Sandisk Extreme IV series, also rated at 266x speed or 40MB/sec.

In order to benefit from faster upload speeds to your computer you will also need to get one of the new high-speed card readers, which are available with FireWire 800 or USB 2.0 connectors. FireWire800 card readers offer the fastest transfer rates to your PC, but very few PCs or Notebooks have FireWire 800 ports.

In this review I will be taking a look at memory cards of varying speeds and two high-speed card readers: The SanDisk Extreme USB 2.0 card reader; and the Lexar Professional UDMA USB 2.0 card reader. Originally I had planned to review the Lexar Professional UDMA FireWire 800 Reader, however I was unable to get it working with my Dell Inspiron 6000 notebook. The notebook has a standard FireWire 400 port, which doesn't offer the speed advantage or integrated power required by the Lexar FireWire 800 reader. I tried using a FireWire 800 PC Card (PCMCIA) but the one I ordered didn't provide power to the card reader so I was once again out of luck. Fortunately, a couple of weeks ago, Lexar released the new Professional UDMA USB 2.0 card reader, which they immediately got into my hands so that I could get this review underway. The new Lexar Professional UDMA USB 2.0 reader, while not as fast as the FireWire 800 version, was dramatically faster than the method I was using prior, which was through the use of a PCMCIA to CompactFlash adapter. Further down in this review I have posted some of the speed differences. It also proved to be a great way to compare two USB 2.0 card readers from the two biggest memory brands - Lexar and SanDisk.

The Lexar Professional UDMA USB 2.0 reader

The Lexar Professional UDMA Dual-Slot USB Reader is compact and designed for portability. The reader, when in use, measures 2.75" x 2.5" x 1.35" (w x d x h). The card slots are kept hidden away from dust and moisture and are quickly accessed by pressing a button on each side of the reader. The reader is compatible with all Type I and II CompactFlash memory cards as well as all SD and SDHC memory cards and provides very fast upload speeds when used with fast memory cards and improved transfer speeds even with slower cards.

The SanDisk Extreme USB 2.0 Reader

The SanDisk reader measures 2.5"w x 2.56"d x 0.75"h making it even more compact than the Lexar reader. The design of the SanDisk reader allows multiple readers to be stacked since the ports are on the front bezel and are always exposed and ready to go. This makes the unit more compact for everyday use but doesn't offer any (dust or moisture) protection for the ports when traveling.

Simple Installation - Just connect to your PC's USB (2.0) Port

When you connect the reader directly to a USB 2.0 port or hub your PC will instantly recognize it. This is the way 'plug and play' was designed - with no need to install software. In Windows the inserted memory cards show up as a drive letter - just as if it was another drive on your system. On my Dell notebook the CF cards show up as drive G: and the SD cards show us as drive H: - but this varies from system to system.

Getting data from the memory card to your PC is extremely easy. Just double-click on the appropriate drive letter to reveal the DCIM folder (DCIM is the name most cameras give to the folder it creates inside the camera) and then drag them over to one of your PC's hard drive.

Also, after you insert a memory card into the card reader, a pop-up box will appear on your Windows desktop asking you which action you would like to perform.

I like to use Google's Picasa (Free from Google) for managing my images as it makes uploading and managing my photos even easier.

When this box pops-up I select "Copy pictures and view them using Picasa2" (see illustration to right). Picasa automatically opens and displays thumbnails of all the images on the card. I then enter a folder name and click "Upload" - and in a matter of seconds the photos are on my PC and are now easily managed by Picasa. Using Picasa I can then find images by keyword, folder name, date, color, and more. I can also do many basic editing tasks much easier than with other programs.

The Benefits of a High Speed Card Reader

No matter what speed memory card you have, the Lexar Professional and SanDisk Extreme card reader will likely speed up your data transfers quite dramatically - assuming you connect it to a USB 2.0 port on your PC

Uploading images using my notebooks PC Card slot - Painful!

Since I have typically used my notebook's PC Card slot to upload images, I noticed a dramatic speed increase using both the Lexar and SanDisk card readers. How much so?

Uploading images from the Lexar 300x CompactFlash card took 33 minutes and 37 seconds when using a PC Card adapter in my notebook PCMCIA slot - that's over half-an-hour just to get the pictures I shot into my PC. Plus, when I use the notebooks PCMCIA card adapter to transfer photos, my PC becomes useless - as all processing power is taken up by this task.

Uploading the same card of images using the Lexar Professional UDMA USB 2.0 reader only took 3 minutes and 44 seconds (3 min, 51 seconds using the SanDisk reader). Even when I did this test using the slower Kingston 50x it still only took 5 minutes. I used to hate filling up a memory card because I knew how long it was going to take to upload the images. Now, thanks to these new readers, I can upload my images in the amount of time it takes me to put my gear away and settle into my chair.

The chart below illustrates the speed differences when transferring 2GB of images to and from my Dell Inspiron computer to the Lexar Professional UDMA USB 2.0 card reader. I repeated this test using a 50x Kingston Elite Pro CF card, the new Kingston 266x Ultimate CF card, and the new 300x Lexar 8GB Professional UDMA CF card (filled with 2GB of images for comparison purposes).

Read Speed Test

Transferring Images From the Lexar UDMA USB 2.0 Reader to my PC
Reader ---> Computer

Write Speed Test

Transferring Images From my PC to the Lexar UDMA USB 2.0 Reader
Computer ---> Reader

* The Kingston 2GB Ultimate CompactFlash (266x) memory card held slightly less data than the other cards, 1.83GB vs. 1.84GB. This extra 10MB did not significantly impact the results as the difference would have been only a second or two more.

Review Conclusion

Sometimes we just grin and bear things that we don't have time to investigate. This is what I have been doing for the past two years. After every photo event (birthdays, family gatherings, photo shoots), I come home and wait for the images from my memory cards to transfer at snails pace to my computer. Yes, I find things to do, but often times it prevents me from even looking at my images full screen until the next day. I actually dread coming home with multiple memory ca

Now that I have discovered how big of a difference a faster card reader makes - even with older cards - I feel as if my photography has a new lease on life. In a world where 24 hours doesn't seem to be enough time in a day - it's amazing how much more I can get done now that my photos are in my PC and organized in under 5 minutes. I actually have time to view, delete, keyword tag, and even edit some of the images the same night.

While this review also serves as a comparison of two of the most popular card readers, the Lexar Professional and the SanDisk Extreme, it should be noted that each of the readers have their merits and the speed differences between each are fairly small. The SanDisk Extreme Dual-Slot USB reader seems to offer slightly faster read and write times when used with non-UDMA compactflash cards but slightly slower times with UDMA cards. The Lexar was designed to offer the fastest speeds when used with UDMA compactflash cards but is also very quick with non-UDMA cards. Its pop-up / push-down design could also be beneficial to photographers who will carry the reader with them in their gear bag - as the design helps to protect the card slots from dirt or other foreign objects from getting inside.

The speed of the memory card itself seems less important in the camera unless your a professional sports photographer or working to be one. The internal buffer on most dSLR's really minimize the benefit of using a faster card and most, if not all, point & shoot models, do not offer internal support for faster write times. However, as mentioned in this review, a faster memory card does translate into faster upload times when using one of the newer card readers like the SanDisk or Lexar models we reviewed here.

It is important to note that both the memory cards and card readers tested are rated for much faster transfer speeds than was achieved in this review. This might be due to the computer I used (Dell Inspiron 6000) or might be a limitation of the USB 2.0 standard - I'm not really sure. Regardless, the speed increase from 30+ minutes using my PC Card adapter to less than 5 minutes using these new readers was enough to convince me. At a selling price of only $24.99 for the SanDisk USB 2.0 reader and $49 for the Lexar USB 2.0 reader (not yet available) - it's a small price to pay for the benefits they offer.

Both of these card readers offer dual-slots, one that is compatible with SD and SDHC media cards and the other slot that is compatible with CompactFlash Type I/II cards as well as Microdrives. Both readers are able to access each slot as a separate drive and cards can be accessed simultaneously - allowing both to uploaded or written to at the same time.

The SanDisk Extreme® 2.0 USB Reader includes Data recovery software, which allows you to recover photos that were accidentally deleted. It also seems to be a better value when compared to the suggested $49.99 price of the new Lexar Reader. Once the Lexar reader ships you may find that its street price is lower than that.

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