Customer Reviews

SanDisk 2 GB Extreme IV CompactFlash Card with FireWire Reader ( SDCFRX4-2048-901 )

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

 

 

The card is great. It clears the buffer on my Rebel XT really fast, so I know I can take bunches of shots without filling up the buffer. The card reader is really fast. But, I've had trouble with it being recognized by the PC. Sometimes, I can unplug it and plug it back in, and then it works. But, it is frustrating to have to play around with it each time I need to upload some pics to my PC. This may not be the reader's fault. It could be the PC's fault. But, nonetheless, this has been a frustration. Also, for those who don't know, there are several types of Firewire connections. The reader comes with two of them. But, if you only have one type of Firewire connection on your PC, there is a chance it won't accommodate this reader. I'd check to make sure.

Update 01/20/08: The problem was with the card reader. Sandisk customer support replaced the reader with no cost to me (even for shipping). The new reader has thus far been flawless. The speed of this reader with a fast Extreme IV 2GB CF card (and now 8GB CF card used with a Canon 40D camera) is intoxicating. I highly recommend this bundle, and am very pleased with Sandisk customer service. I would change my rating to 4 stars if the edit function allowed it.

I used to move RAW images from a one Gb SanDisk memory card using a USB 2.0 reader. A full card took at least 25 minutes to move from the card to a folder on my hard drive.

This card plus firewire? 2-3 minutes. What a time saver. Card and reader work as described, and the speed difference is remarkable.

Baby, this is what I'm talking about when I say "fast". I started shooting in RAW because I thought it would be cool. But a couple 2GB cards were easily filed in a single afternoon shoot. Then came the huge wait to download. This card reader must be at least 80% faster with the same cards.

I've been using this card/reader for 10 months now, with at least 7,500 images and no hiccups, farts or unexplained freezes. Haven't lost a single image.

Very highly rated.

Very fast. Works perfectly. Plug-in your card, it turns on, un-plug your card it turns off.
Other firewire card readers have problems connecting and disconnecting.

The previous reviewer should have done his homework. The card reader is for use with desktops, not laptops. If you want the card to work with your laptop, then buy an inexpensive compact flash pc cardbus adaptor, and it will work fine. The flashcard itself is lightning fast, and the card reader a boon if your depstop doesn't have a CF card slot.

I originally purchased this and used it on an XP machine for a few months and found it to work very well as described. I switched to a Dell XPS Vista machine and although the SanDisk site says Vista includes drivers for the device, Vista does not want to play well. Hmmmm? It refuses to detect the device. Nevertheless, it is a good reader and I no longer had to go get a sandwich while uploading.

I recently purchased both this item and a SIIG Hi-Speed ExpressCard CF reader. The SanDisk device comes with both FW800 and FW400 cables, which I needed for a legacy laptop that only has FW400 and no ExpressCard slot.

I could not find speed comparisons online, so I ran some comparisons myself between the ExpressCard device and the Sandisk reader using FW800. Using a Lexar Professional 8GB CF card (233x speed), both devices transferred a single 1.3 GB video file to my MacBook Pro (late 2008) in just under 35 seconds.

I find support for Firewire-based devices to be much more mature in OS X and I've never crashed my MacBook with a firewire device. The SanDisk reader is very compact, and if you're like me and already carry a FW800 cable for other peripherals, there's really no advantage to the ExpressCard reader.

The ExpressCard device is very fast, on par with a FW800 device. However, the support for the ExpressCard device within Leopard is finicky at best, and on a few occasions inserting the device with a card already installed caused a kernel panic as described by the previous reviewer. User beware, and always save your work before inserting the device.

Although it's a bit more expensive (about $30), I'd recommend this device over the ExpressCard reader.

2 Gig card: 1 hour download via usb, 3 minutes w/ this firewire reader!

Just what I was looking for. Very fast and a great companion for my Nikon D200.

The reader works great on my desktop but I mainly use my laptop for all of my photo editing as I do a lot of pics in the field. This reader will not work with my laptops 4 pin firewire connection. It comes with a 6 pin and 9 pin connection cord but no 4 pin. I went out and purchased a 6 pin to 4 pin adapter only to find out it will not work beeacuse the reader does not provide its own power. This is a definate problem with me as I use my laptop about 90% of the time for photos.