Customer Reviews

ImageMateŽ Multi-Card USB 2.0 Reader

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

<Update 11/15/2011 - I just downgraded this review by 1 star. The quality is not high enough over the long run. We eventually stopped using this card reader and I am about to throw it away. My wife does not trust it. I have seen it more than once come up with a message "you will get faster speeds if you plug it into a USB 2.0 port" when I have nothing but USB 2.0 ports. AND with this latest SD card SanDisk Extreme SD 32 GB SDHC Flash Memory Card SDSDX-032G, I see no difference at all between the performance of this reader vs the lexar reader. Lexar Dual-Slot USB 2.0 Flash Memory Card Reader RW035-001 >

I recently purchased a Canon Vixia HF100 camcorder and knew the files would be HUGE, so I was looking for the fastest SD card download set up I could find.

I initially bought the Lexar Pro UDMA Dual-Slot Reader and a SanDisk 16GB Extreme III 30MB/s SDHC card hoping for at least 20MB/s performance.

Alas, the Lexar reader only gave me 10 to 18 MB/s performance on this SDHC card.

Then purchased the SanDisk All In One Reader (SDDR-189-A20) and I achieve 17MB/s, which is no where near the 30MB/s advertised.

According to robgalbraith.com:
Unlike the ImageMate Multi-Card reader, the ImageMate All-in-One doesn't include support for the proprietary data timing mode found in SanDisk's Extreme III 30MB/s Edition SDHC. This means it doesn't deliver an extra speed boost when paired with one of these specific cards.

So I then purchased this Multi-Card reader (SDDR-199-A20), which is basically a 1 slot version of the 3 slot SDDR189, which is supposed to have thi proprietary data timing mode.

On my Dell XPS600 with Windows XP SP3 with Norton IS2009 turned off, downloading a 1GB movie takes
55 seconds - 18MB/s - on the SDDR189 and the Lexar (close enough to rank together)
41 seconds - 24MB/s - on this SDDR199
43 seconds - 23MB/s - from my USB 2.0 hard drive
31 seconds - 31MB/s - from that same hard drive via firewire 400 ()
10 seconds - 95MB/s - from my external esata hard drive ()

Considering that a typical download is 2 to 5 GB, we are talking about saving several minutes here.

I am somewhat disappointed that Canon (and everyone else) seems to be moving away from the CF format to the SD format as we knew from day one that the CF specification allowed for a much faster data transfer and that files will only get bigger.

I've used and get good performance from a Sandisk Extreme USB 2.0 Reader that handles CF as well as SD and MS Pro Duo. This unit the Image Mate -199 is rated at 27 MB/sec write, but I never achieved close to this throughput with a SandDisk Extreme III 30 MB/sec-rated SD memory card. I got 17-MB/sec write speed on two computers, a Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz and a i7-920 OC'ed to 3.5-GHz. I got similar write speed with a Lexar 133X (20 MB/sec) SD card. Read speed for both cards was 19 MB/sec. These speeds were with 250-MB jpg files, not small 4-MB camera files which would show an even slower rate.

It's got a nice form-factor and looks good. However I purchased it for speed, reading 4- and 8-GB SD cards holding large video files. It is exasperating to purchase a product from a reputable manufacturer sold through a reputable vendor only to find it misses its specification by 40%. It's all about making money, apparently.

Don't purchase this reader for its speed. And in the future take any product specs from Sandisk as only claimed. Demo'ed and tested is something else, and this reader fails that standard.

Now I question the true speed of my Sandisk Extreme III SD card - it's a 30-MB/sec card only if I have a 30-MB/sec card reader or if someone has validated that speed. So it's speed rating is probably bogus as well.

I have about 1/2 dozen card readers, and this one is by far the best performance and most-compatible. I experienced no compatibility hick-ups. I got 20MB/s read/write (via ATTO) on a SanDisk Extreme III card rated for 20MB/s. On another reader, I only got about 5MB/s. On yet others, ATTO wouldn't even complete the tests without errors. So, functionally, I give it 5 stars. Note that I guess this test is sort of biased since I am using two SanDisk products.

Next, this is a lot smaller than you would expect: about 2-1/4" by 1-1/2" by maybe 1/4". It is rather tiny and uses a mini-USB connector on the back. Unfortunately, I feel SanDisk spent half the cost on a gimmicky stand, packaging, and a dorky USB cable. The USB cable that it comes with is cheap, black, and ugly and has a huge ferrite bead on it. Considering how small and light the reader is, the cable dwarfs it, and its stiffness knocks the stand over. Also, the stand is gorgeous -- nicely finished and well-made, but I knew I wouldn't like it because it is just one more thing vying for desktop space that is going to get in the way and collect dust. In comparison, the case of the reader is pure cheap. It is a glossy thin plastic which does not impress. It came with a lot of scratches and wear marks in the glossy finish just from rubbing around in the packaging. I wound up not using any of the accessories and just attaching the reader to the side of my monitor with double-stick tape. I think SanDisk should have invested in making the card-reader case a lot nicer and/or provide a thin, sleek USB cable that does not knock the unit over. So, I give it 2 stars for quality/feel/looks (not counting the stand).

Since nice looking but functionally useless products are not my bag, I give it 4 stars overall (with functionality more heavily weighted).

I purchased this item to transfer pictures (RAW/JPG) from my Nikon D90 to my computer. This reader has to be the best of the bunch so far, faster than the IOGear I used previously, especially with Sandisk 30mb/s cards. Transfers are quick and painless with both Nikon Transer and Windows 7 copy. The reader itself is nice and small, sitting on its stand unobtrusively. I have not tried it with other card types, and I find it easy to insert/remove SD/MMC based cards. Highly recommended.

This is for the SanDisk ImageMate Multi-Card USB 2.0 Reader (SDDR199).

I've used this reader on SD/SDHC, microSD, Memory Stick Pro, and xD. It is a great card reader, with a fast data transfer from an SDHC card (over 20 MB/s read). So far, I am very happy with it. It is paired with a Dell Precision 490 (running WinXP SP2 and Red Hat). I have not performed quantified testing of its actual speed and capabilities (see K Strong's review, which includes a very nice comparison of different card readers). I will run a separate set of tests, to determine the transfer speeds when connected to an XP Pro SP2 -vs- Mac OS 10.4. -vs- Linux. Stay tuned...

I don't use the magnetic base. It sits on top of my actual desktop (using velcro tape), so I appreciate the flat design. It is sitting next to my Lexar Dual-slot USB Reader (RW035-001), which I use to read mostly CF cards. Preliminary comparison of the two readers (SanDisk SDDR199 vs the Lexar dual-slot) shows that the SanDisk is faster with data transfer of a 2GB file on an 8GB SanDisk Extreme III Class 6 card. Will do further analysis of the two readers. I need the Lexar for CF cards, but I will use the SanDisk for SD/SDHC/Memory Stick Pro/xD.

I also found that this reader is faster than the CF version (All-in-1). Personally, I like CF cards better than SD/SDHC cards.

I highly recommend this card reader. It works.

Works exactly as I wanted. I've tried several readers NONE of which have worked with my SDHC card and older machine. So when I finally bought this and it actually worked, it was a major relief. Using with a 16 GB Sandisk SDHC card

I guess I can understand the dust complaint, it is pretty annoying... but that's very minor with my past experience with readers

No issues using Transcend 16GB SDHC card and Windows XP. It's reasonably fast when using this card, though perhaps not quite the speed demon it's believed to be with some other specific cards. I still give it 5 stars because it goes about as fast as my card can handle I think.

I've never seen any read errors or weird behavior after reading about 40 GB of data total from the card so far.

The stand is heavy enough to really hold it in place against torque from the USB cord. The mini-magnets are quite strong and spiffy.

Card insertion gives adequate tactile feedback, though not unusually great - slight chance of getting the card askew, but not if you're paying attention. The blue LED is a good indication of when "eject" is done.

I just received this reader and have given it a few tests. Using "ATTO Disk Benchmark", I tested its read and write speeds with two 8GB cards, one an "adata Class 6 SDHC card" and the other a "SanDisk Class 2 SDHC card". For comparison, I used each card in both my cheap generic reader and in this SanDisk one.

For the adata card in the generic reader I got an average read speed of 11968 KB/sec and an average write speed of 9543 KB/sec. For the adata card in the SanDisk reader I got an average read speed of 11031 KB/sec and an average write speed of 8668 KB/sec.

For the SanDisk card in the generic reader I got an average read speed of 8768 KB/sec and an average write speed of 5752 KB/sec. For the SanDisk card in the SanDisk reader I got an average read speed of 7333 KB/sec and an average write speed of 5131 KB/sec.


So it was about 10% slower in both read and write speeds than my generic card reader that cost about a quarter of the price.

Perhaps in real world performance it is faster but the benchmarks favour the generic reader.

It has good build quality (it is tiny but feels solid) and looks great. Overall, it is a good reader but I was expecting it to be much faster than the cheaper generic reader I was replacing.

one problem with this reader is not with speed but with the three-leg stand.
it is glued to the card reader.
the metal leg came off after a couple of days of using it.

i threw the stand away.
it will get in the way when storing it in my bag anyway.

this card reader has great read speed and I have no other problems.

I've been using this for a year or more. I appreciate that it's small, feather-light and fast. The stand works & is a rather clever design but seems totally superfluous--at least I've never seen the use for it but you'll have it if you want it.