Customer Reviews

Camera Mate Flash Card Reader (USB)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I just received this product for xmas. Works great...fast transfer. As the person before me stated, the only tricky part is "you must install the drivers before plugging this into your USB", otherwise it will not work. Also make sure you insert the smart media in properly (gold metallic side facing up). Even if you inserted it in incorrectly, it will slide in, but when you try to access it, it will give you an error like "Drive Not Ready". I was fumbling through the box searching for a manual, but as it turned out, there's no paper manual...it's in the CD along with the driver. Another plus is you don't need a power adapter.

Bad news is you need Windows 98 or Windows 2000 to use this media reader. Product description should include this caveat. Good news is the media reader works reliably and very fast. Using my serial connection from my digital camera to my computer, it takes overnight to download my 128 MB card. Using this USB reader, the 128 MB card downloads immediately. It's like accessing local files. This product is so popular at the local digital camera store that it is often sold out.

I've had no trouble at all from this sharp looking well built little device. I've only used it for SmartMedia cards with my Windows 98 PC. I've used it for speeding upload of digital photos and for data and file storage as a better alternative to floppy disks. You must install the drivers before plugging this into your USB... but that's clear in the instructions. When I've visited family or work I've installed the drivers onto their computers so that I may quickly plug the drive into their USB port when I come to visit to share data files/pics. Just plug it in any-time and you will have immediate access to both the Compact Flash and SmartMedia slots -Windows recognizes it as if it were an additional Hard Drive. Although I don't use IBM micro-drive or Compact Flash, I like that I have the flexibility to painlessly use them if I move to that media. No moving parts... With no moving parts aside from the spring loaded ejection (manual) mechanism I expect this solid feeling drive to be with me as long as my camera will be. As for speed... I think my Hard Drive might be just slightly faster... slightly.

I bought one of these last July, and about pulled my hair out over the thing at first. I'm a dummy about computers, and literally spent about 12 hours messing around with the rascal before finally breaking down and calling the manufacturer. As I recall, the D and E "drive letters" showed up on the "My Computer" thingy, but as soon as I pointed the mouse gizmo at them the whole computer would lock up and need to be shut down by the more drastic method.

The tech support guy seemed knowledgeable, and I was able to get things working by following his instructions. It took a couple calls to get all the bugs out, but the guy was able to look back at his own records to see what we had tried so far.

I've only been using the SmartMedia slot, but I'm very satisfied with the way this reader works now. And by the way, it is actually more than just a "reader." I discovered that I can also fiddle around with the pictures on my computer and then put them back onto the card for safe keeping or whatever. Or even store other documents and stuff on there, if for some reason I wanted to.

Maybe everybody else already knew that.

I have one of these and it worked fine with W/2000. But I was quite unable to find an XP driver for it. General advice: Never try and use a pre-XP driver on XP. You can blue-screen yourself on startup.

I have a Win2K PC (Win2k Pro, SP1 - SP4) whose Windows Explorer has been
crashing randomly for several years but I could not figure out why. Until
recently.

I built a new PC (ASUS motherboard, P4 3.0GHz, 1 GB RAM etc.) and installed
Win2k plus SP1 through SP4. Then I installed software. I kept track of
everything I was installing, in case I needed to re-install. Everything
works hunky-dory until I installed the Microtech USB card reader stuff.
*THEN* Windows Explorer starts crashing randomly, just like on my other
Win2K PC.

Just as a test, I then installed the Microtech USB card reader stuff on
my home Win2K PC, which also has Win2k Pro, SP1 - SP4. Lo and behold,
its Windows Explorer starts crashing randonly too!

!@#$%^&*!


[UPDATE, Aug 22 2005:
A cure for the random crashing of Windows Explorer is to uninstall
the Microtech driver. Stupid poorly tested software!]

This product has been a nightmare. I bought it a year ago when I got my Olympus C2100UZ digital camera. Since then, I've had the following problems:
1. When windows says it's done copying files, i remove the card only to find a read-write error that it wasn't complete after all.
2. Copy errors(files not accessable) when copying data to my CF card for use in my Pocket PC.
3. EUSBMSD.SYS file (used for this card reader) would hard crash my system when playing games (Dark age of camelot) or using my cd-burning software (NERO).
4. Their "winXP certified drivers" don't do anything. It's the same problems.
5. Had two cards of holiday pictures. Inserted card A and copied all files off. Then deleted the pics off the card. Inserted card B, and found that there were no pictures! Inserted Card A again, and the pictures that I DELETED were still there! So now i'm out 148 pictures thanks to this defective product.

Avoid this at all costs, i'm sure there are better, more reliable readers out there.

I can't exaggerate the number of problems that I have been plagued with due to this reader. Through multiple OSs and a couple years it has managed to cause far more problems than any other hardware I've had. It's horrible delayed delete is already documented by others, so I won't bother repeating that. It's crashing systems is documented by others too. There's no support, that too is documented. Since the price is 11% of the MSRP that should speak for itself.

Cant recommend this product, broke after a month, cannot get support

This device just plain doesn't work with 5 of my 6 computers. It only works on my laptop. I downloaded the new drivers from Microtech's website but Windows ME enabled computer did not know the card was there. I am not willing to uninstall my other hardware to see which one works. Technical support is non-existent. Companies should not sell products that don't function with most systems. It is dishonest.

David Gardner M.D. Ph.D.