135 BLOG - SANDISK CARD READERS
Entry #19: Using SDHC cards in SanDisk Card Readers
SDHC CARDS AND THE LEICA M8
USING SDHC CARDS IN THE LEICA M8
The Leica M8 firmware 2.00 release added SDHC compatibility to the Leica M8, so that inspired me to purchase a SanDisk 16 GB SDHC Extreme III (30 MB/Sec) card. Currently there is a $20 rebate, so that made the purchase decision a bit easier. However, the bigger motivator was simplifying from three 2-GB cards down to one. I keep misplacing the 2-GB cards, so using one card that is either in the camera or in the reader is easier for me to keep track of. UPS delivered the SD card earlier this week and today I used it for the first time. The card formatted fine, the Leica M8 counter showed “999” (how cool is that!) and I was out the door to take some pictures.
Time - 7:48 PM. Mission - get a SDHC compatible card reader. There is no shortage of shopping in the North Dallas, so decisions, decisions, decisions. About 10 miles from the house is Fry’s Electronics, Compusa and Best Buy all in a mile radius of each other. So first up was Fry’s - and all they had was cheap, no name readers for ~$20. Since I just got burned by the old SanDisk reader, I wanted to make sure I found a SanDisk reader that clearly stated on the box that it supported SDHC cards. Unbelievably Fry’s does not carry SanDisk readers. They had the cards, but not the readers. Next was Compusa. Exact same situation. The last chance was Best Buy. They did have a SanDisk reader (pictured above), but it was over-priced at $39.99. B&H carries the same reader for $24.50. Had I known my reader did not support SDHC cards, I could saved $15, gas money and time. Arg... $40 later I am back in the car headed home.
SANDISK IMAGEMATE ALL IN ONE READER (SDDR-189R)
Before even plugging in the USB cable, I noticed the MAGNETIC stand for the new card reader. Memory cards and magnets? Flash cards do not use magnetic signals to store data, so “technically” magnet should not impact the card, but it still... some of us remember floppy disks. Despite the magnets it is a stylish little stand, so even if it does corrupt a memory card, at least it looks good. Long story short, the reader works and the files downloaded without issue, but the download speeds seemed slow. Or at least slower than expected, after all 30 MB/Sec is should mean 3 DNG files per second, so 40 files should take ~15 seconds. It easily felt like 30 seconds. Hmmm...
Using a group of 20 files I ran three test cases: fast card & new reader, old card & new reader and old card & old reader. Below are the results and after several runs for each test case:
If you are looking at this like I am, then why buy the “new” 30 MB / Sec cards? Or maybe my old Extreme III were already 30 MB / Sec cards and just did not have the fancy-schmancy marketing blurb. I have some old Ultra II’s, but did not test those cards because they are slow, slow, slow... 201.7 MB in 11.5 works out to be ~17 MB/Sec. My margin of error is +/- .5 seconds. For a quick comparison against the 30 MB/Sec Extreme III CF card, 1.91 GB was copied in 71 seconds using the new reader for an effective speed of 27 MB/Sec. The CF side seems quite quick and I am happy with those speeds. But the SD side feels much slower - and it is - about 35% slower.
ROB GALBRAITH’s CF/SD DATABASE
The source for checking memory card speeds is Rob Galbrath’s CF / SD Database. Rob’s site also has a page for card readers. The SanDisk ImageMate Multi-Card USB 2.0 is designed for 30 MB/Sec cards and should do better - but it does not read CF cards. If using just SDHC cards (no compact flash cards), then this is “the” reader to buy for SanDisk’s 30 MB/Sec SDHC cards. I am using both SDHC and compact flash, and SanDisk does not offer a reader optimized for 30 MB/Sec compact flash AND 30 MB/Sec SDHC. Is that stupid or what? I was better off (financially) with the non-SDHC cards.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
