Slow loading images from camera to PC

[PeterLanky]

I use an EOS 5D with 8GB compact flash cards. To load to images onto my laptop, I have tried loading direct from the camera, using a USB multi card reader, a PC/CF converter in the PC slot and a USB single CF card reader.

I have tried downloading using both the Photoshop Elements downloader, and the drag and drop method.


The single CF reader would not work with my 8GB cards, and the other methods are incredibly slow. Has anyone discovered a fast method of downloading images from camera to laptop?

[Norman]

The fastest method will be using a modern USB2 or Firewire CF card reader. If your existing reader is USB1 it will take considerably longer. How long is it taking to download 8gb of data?

[spinno]

The single CF reader would not work with my 8GB cards, and the other methods are incredibly slow. Has anyone discovered a fast method of downloading images from camera to laptop?

no because they are actually SD-HC cards...needs an updated card reader

[AlexMonro]

no because they are actually SD-HC cards...needs an updated card reader

Are you sure about that? All the reviews of the 5D (and 5DmkII) that I've seen say it takes CF cards.

OP, what speed cards are you using?

[spinno]

no because they are actually SD-HC cards...needs an updated card reader

Are you sure about that? All the reviews of the 5D (and 5DmkII) that I've seen say it takes CF cards.

OP, what speed cards are you using?

er just ignore my comment....wasn't reading the post properly...sorry if I've caused any confusion but what I said holds true for SD and SDHC cards used by other cameras....honest...

[PeterLanky]

The fastest method will be using a modern USB2 or Firewire CF card reader. If your existing reader is USB1 it will take considerably longer. How long is it taking to download 8gb of data?

2gb of data took about 12 minutes with my card reader. The other methods were even slower.

[Norman]

Just tried about 2.2gb of photo files to and from a Sandisk Extreme III CF card.

Copied 2.2gb of data to the card via the card reader built into my Dell monitor - about 18 minutes
Copied the same data back off the card via the card reader built into my Dell XPS workstation - 5 minutes

I would think that means that the monitor slots are USB1 and the Workstation slots are USB2. This doesn't take into account whether the writing/reading speeds of the CF card are different, which I'm sure is the case.

[LargeFormat]

The fastest downloads you will get would be with UDMA cards in a UDMA reader connected to the computer with Firewire 800. As not many computers have Firewire 800 interfaces you would also probably have to buy a card to go in your computer.

[Bettina]

With USB 2, 8 GB should take something about 16 mins.

[PeterLanky]

Looks like I'll have to make do with the speed I have. btw I'm using 8GB Kingston Elite Pro 133x cards.

Since posting this I took delivery of a single CF card reader (looks like a pen drive) and it wouldn't even read my 8GB cards, though it would read my 2GB cards. Reader sent back to supplier.