Customer Reviews

ATP ProMAX USB 2.0 Flash Memory Card Reader AF-CRMBK-MV1

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

It took some time for this reader to be in stock at amazon.com, but it was worth the wait. The ATP ProMax card reader is a great and inexpensive solution for most needs. It reads CompactFlash I and II (including UDMA), SD, SDHC -- a lot of older readers, be they built into computers or external, still aren't compatible with this faster SD card --, micro and miniSD, MMC and MMCplus/HC, MMCmicro and MS/MS Pro Duo.

Since my older laptop and my desktop don't read SDHC cards, and since they don't have CompactFlash slots, I thought I'd give this reader a try. The first thing I liked about it was how small it is: 2.6 inches (6.6 cm) long, 1.5 in. (3.8 cm) wide and 0.5 in. (1.3 cm) thick. It weighs next to nothing. The USB 2.0 connector is built into the reader and swivels out freely, meaning no extra cables and also that the connector is protected when not in use. All this makes the ATP card reader a very good traveling companion.

There are no instructions with the reader, but its use is intuitive:
1. Swivel the USB connector out and plug it into an available USB port in your computer or USB hub.
2. Windows, both XP and Vista, will recognize it (the "Found new hardware" message, which is only displayed the first time you connect the reader to a machine). It installs each of the reader's card slots as a separate removable drive.
3. Insert the card you want to read into the corresponding slot. The different slots in the reader are clearly identified. Once a card is inserted, a purple light goes on in the reader. If there is no card or if it isn't properly inserted, the light will shine red.
4. If you don't use a program to read or import card content (my photo software recognizes and imports images automatically), go to Windows Explorer and find the drive which corresponds to the kind of card you have inserted into the reader. Then just do whatever you want to do -- import image or sound files, transfer content to the card, etc.

File transfer speeds are very good and the whole process is fool-proof and hassle-free. The packaging states that the reader is also compatible with Mac OS 8.6/9 X+, Linux and older versions of Windows, and I don't see why it shouldn't be. I'll try the ATP reader with CF UDMA cards and will update this review if needed, but right now I'm very satisfied with it. Intelligent design, fair price and good performance go a long way with me.

This unit seems like a pretty nice little UDMA card reader, until you actually benchmark it. It says "UDMA READY" on the outside, and you certainly can read UDMA CF cards, just not at UDMA speeds. I benchmarked the unit with a 300x Lexar UDMA card, which should support 45 megabytes/second or better. I got 6.6 mb/sec. I ran this test doing raw reads directly from the hardware using Mac OS and Linux both. Don't fall for it, this reader does not support UDMA.

This card reader was HORRIBLE. It corrupted not one but two cards filled with pictures. The first filled card came up blank. Scratched my head, looked at the directory, and only some mysterious no picture files. Then I previewed the second card in the camera and it was filled with photos. Put it in the reader and put it in the mac... and nothing, no photos, just the mystery non-readable non-files. Wow! two cards blown out in succession. DO NOT BUY THIS CARD READER unless your precious photos mean nothing to you. Please, please do not buy this card.

It has worked great every time and is very convenient to have all the capabilities in one.

Best bang for your buck. Reads and write pretty much all the cards I got.

I bought this reader ~6 months ago, and during that time, it worked admirably - never having a problem. Then, all of a sudden, it stopped working, but not before it corrupted 2 of my CF cards. Definitely do not get this product - even if it works at first, it may just stop working and you don't know when that will be. Looking at the reviews since, seems I'm not the only one that has had this problem.

If you are unfortunate enough to have your memory cards corrupted by this device, I highly recommend you download PhotoRec ([...]) - it's free, and using a different, functional memory card reader, you should hopefully be able to recover your photos.

I ordered two of these from Amazon and the compact flash slots in each failed, most recently last week when I was in the middle of nowhere in California and needed to transfer images from my card to my netbook.

I've been using compact flash card readers for years and know that the pin system needs to be treated gingerly and that over a couple of years some wear out. These wore out within weeks of purchase, and relatively light use.

Otherwise, the reader works well enough, though it is not as fast as advertised. I'd stay completely away.

Worked nicely and transfered data with out a hitch. Light lets you know if you have the card in properly. Works with both of my memory cards.

This thing worked OK for a week or so. Occasional issues with mounting the card as a drive on my laptop, but not bad. Then, when loading in a 16GB memory card from a wedding shoot into the reader to back it up onto my laptop, it stopped working.

Worse yet though, a pin from the reader had broken off inside the CF card, shorting it out and destroying 800+ wedding pictures. If you want to know what angry looks like, tell a bride that she is missing most of the pictures from her wedding reception. Luckily, I got the ceremony OK and I didn't get sued. But if I ever get the phone number of the CEO who owns this company, I'll give it to the bride and let him explain what happened :-)

Ignore the fake glowing review posted here from the card's marketing department. Stick with name brand products, cheap cr@p just isn't worth taking a chance.

I got maybe a month of use out of this device before it quit working. I thought it was my card or laptop that was the culprit, but after trying several different cards, computers and operating systems, I was unable to get it working again. Do not buy this card reader.