Firewire CF Readers (SanDisk vs. Lexar)

[Alexis Hanawalt]

To my knowledge, there aren't eSATA CF readers on the market, and since I'll have my expresscard slot taken up by an eSATA card, I'll need to go the Firewire 800 route to capture CF card footage.

It looks like it's between the Lexar and SanDisk models,

http://store.lexar.com/?category=22&subcategory=47&productid=RW034-001

and http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Item(2015)-SDDRX4-CF-SanDisk_Extreme_FireWire_Reader.aspx

Both about the same price, but the Lexar CLAIMS to support data transfer up to 100MB/sec vs. the SanDisk's 40MB/sec.

Anybody have any experience with these or advice? It would be so nice to be able to offload footage at twice the speed it takes to shoot it. Less chasing my own tail.

 

[mikeburton]

I have been using the Lexar for a few months and it works great. FireWire 800 only ports. Fast, effective, just what you need. I don't know about the other, but my suggestion is the Lexar.

 

[Lexicon]

You can go with either one but whatever difference you get from the Lexar will be minimal if at all measurable depending on the card/reader controller combination. You won't be winning any races with one reader over the other if you're looking for a clear winner. From what I've been getting from others, the Firewire 800 peripherals seem to work sporadically with Leopard while the Firewire 400 stuff works about as normal as ever.

 

[Evin Grant]

Used them both, no apparent difference in speed. I went Sandisk because in a pinch you can hook up a FW800-400 cable and use it on older machines.

I'm going to try this next though...

http://www.redmodz.com/medias/47-expresscard34/65-compact-flash-cf-expresscard-34-reader-review

 

[Brent J. Craig]

My box has a SATA CF reader in it. It's the same speed (so far) as FW800. Haven't found a card that can max it out yet.

 

[Deanan]

Used them both, no apparent difference in speed. I went Sandisk because in a pinch you can hook up a FW800-400 cable and use it on older machines.

I'm going to try this next though...

http://www.redmodz.com/medias/47-expresscard34/65-compact-flash-cf-expresscard-34-reader-review

The first osx driver version I had of this card worked great. The newer version for 10.4.6 and leopard locks up and crashes osx occasionally on inserting a card.

It does mount faster than anything else out there.

 

[dino g]

i use the san disks fw800, make sure you do not have a 400 drive connected it will slow everything down by half, also use good 800 cables, cheap ones slow things down as well.

 

[Paul Leeming]

My box has a SATA CF reader in it. It's the same speed (so far) as FW800. Haven't found a card that can max it out yet.

Could you give some more details on this? Do you mean you have a PC or laptop with a CF reader built in?

I'm in the market for a small laptop with a CF reader built in (and eSATA would be icing on the cake) so any info is welcome!

Cheers,

Paul

 

[zak forrest]

The first osx driver version I had of this card worked great. The newer version for 10.4.6 and leopard locks up and crashes osx occasionally on inserting a card.

It does mount faster than anything else out there.

i get lots of errors and crashes with that thing. also i find it super annoying to load, if you barely press it, the reader pops out of the laptop, i find the whole thing super annoying. i never know if its really in or out, i like the lexar cuz i know for sure the cards in and when im done i press a button to make it come out. that laptop reader just never feels secure to me. but all that aside, the main thing for me is that its always crashing, or not loading a card when i put it in, and then i have to restart. it just freaks me out. i have 10.4.11

 

[Lexicon]

Could you give some more details on this? Do you mean you have a PC or laptop with a CF reader built in?

I'm in the market for a small laptop with a CF reader built in (and eSATA would be icing on the cake) so any info is welcome!

Cheers,

Paul

Addonics and a few other companies have CF-SATA readers. You should only use them with chipsets that fully support hot-swap otherwise you'll get crashes when the cards are removed.