Customer Reviews

5 in 1 Card Reader for iPad

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(78)

 

 

First some background. We own two iPad's, oldest since July of 2009. We were fortunate enough to receive the Apple Camera Connection kit on Christmas Day, and had great fun importing photo's that we'd just taken of our family festivities. Never really saw the utility as a necessary accessory before then.

This kit improves over the Apple kit in one important way. It's ONE device as opposed to TWO to carry around! You see the Apple Kit has a separate dongle for USB, and another for SD Cards. This merges them all into one kit.

The benefits of this are more compatibility with a broader array of input devices (including some USB keyboards, etc. that you will read about with the Apple Device). . . and 1/2 the chance of losing this important accessory.

Now, we have grown to use this kit during photoshoots, and it allows us to view comp's within seconds on the iPad screen, rather than removing the memory stick, uploading to the desktop computer, viewing, etc. etc.

Improves a photographer's workflow 1000%, and improves over the Apple kit by at least 100%.

Keep in mind our testing of the kit with the Micro-SD slot was limited, however the SD Card and USB slots work like a charm.

At first glance I was suspicious because the device felt flimsy and cheap, not at all like an Apple product.

After inserting an SD card LESS than 1GB, it didn't recognize it. I then tried the USB option and received an error message "not enough power" or something similar.

I returned the product...very disappointed. Days later I purchased the 2-device Apple product at Best Buy and it worked perfectly right out of the box. It was sturdy and met my expectations.

Its very rare that I would go out of my way to write a product review but after using this today with some time to spare, I decided why not give it a shot. I have an iPad on 4.2.1 and really wanted the connectivity kit but wasn't sure what was legitimate with all the fakes and incompatible devices everywhere. Fortunately after I stumbled on this one my guts just said go with it, and they were right.

- It is fully compatibe with my micro SD, and SD cards
- Can also utilize USB flash drives if you happen to be jailbroken
- Keyboard support (I am writing this on my iPad with my external Mac keyboard)

Summary:

I am very Pleased with this product and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone else who owns an iPad and is looking to enhance the experience.

When I plugged in the device along with the SD card from my canon digital camera, the photos and videos on the card all came up on my iPad 2 after about a second or two. I was able to start the "import all" function. Then a "this device is not supported" error message came up during the import along with buttons to acknowledge or "dismiss" the alert. I just clicked on "dismiss" and the import continued. The SD card slot and import function worked like a charm.
I haven't tried the USB port, but I bought the device primarily because I want to be able to move photos from my camera to my iPad 2 while on vacation. The fact that it can also move my videos over is a bonus for me. I'm happy with the product -- it was cheaper than the OEM version, and the functions that I need it for simply works.

Two things to consider when ordering this device. First, we tried 2 different external USB keyboards .. iPad2 gave a message "Not Compatible". Our error, we had assumed any keyboard would be compatible .. Makes more sense that it needs to be an Apple keyboard, we had tried a PC keyboard (duh). Second, tried 2 different Sandisk USB Flash Drives ... iPad2 gave a message "Connected USB device requires to much power".

Update 5/20 .. A self powered USB Hub will be necessary to use a Flash Drive to eliminate the "Connected USB device requires to much power" error message. Pix were uploaded to the iPad2 with no problem. Groovey-Pets cust service was great to work with!

Bought device to import photos from SD card into ipad2. At first got all the incompatible messages. Read some reviews for tips and someone mentioned the switch which I hadn't noticed. So far so good at least using this option.

This did not work with my IPad 1. The error message said that the device was not compatible. Tried it on the IPad 2, little better response, would read one SD Card, but the USB connection still does not work. Unfortunately cannot recommend.

Does not work for IPad2. It crashed my Ipad and I have to reboot it. Decide to return the product.

Will not work for storing movies like you would want it too. The picture transfers work SOMTIMES. Be prepared to spend a lot of time inserting and removing. Would be great it it could be recognized by the device. The only way to really get it to work is to jailbreak the device and load an older operating system like 4.0 or 4.2. Any upgrade after that probably won't work because Apple can be real butt heads about maintaining control on how you access their technology.
It's a great idea for a product but once again the corporate a---holes prevail

Just used this reader today with iPad2 and Canon camera smart card. Worked great. There is a switch on the side of the device, it's very small and easily overlooked. Got a few warnings that it wouldn't work with the iPad, but once the switch was in the correct position, it worked. Transferred photos and video perfectly. I was concerned that this was coming from Hong Kong and was scheduled for delivery several weeks away, but I received it in less than one week!