Customer Reviews

SanDisk SDDR-80-784 Firewire CF Reader

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

 

 

I have a two yr old computer with only the slow 1.x usb ports and firewire ports. I've just recently bought a Nikon D70 DSLR camera with some sandisk ultra II CF cards. My solution was to either buy this reader, or get a USB 2.0 PCI card and a new USB 2.0 reader. My USB port CF reader, the thumbnail images would take forever to load. With this new fireport reader, my images would appear on the screen right away, as if they were loading from my hard drive. I highly recommend this reader, if you don't want to get a USB 2.0 card and reader!

I wanted to get a Compact Flash card reader for my Mac and I wanted it to be firewire, for those who have not used firewire, or doubt its worth, you must see it to believe it. The firewire connection is ridiculously fast for loading pictures onto my computer. (Google "firewire vs usb" for a comparison)

I have an older G4 desktop mac and the plugs are in behind the tower, other Macs have more readily accessible firewire outlets. Having to move the computer is a minor annoyance, but nothing big.

Once correctly connected the card reader pops up on the desktop as a small disk icon, open it and there is a folder with all of the pictures taken with my camera. Copying the pictures takes a few seconds max, compared to many minutes for a similar USB device.

One small complaint I have is the plug-n-play aspect of this device, sometimes after connecting, it will not appear on the desktop, a quick un-plug and re-connect solves this problem.

Also, you have to be very very careful inserting the cards, as other reviewers have noted the small metal connectors are delicate, but if you treat it nicely it will work just fine.

Pros: Quick for transferring files, makes USB look like a snail. Works seamlessly with my CF cards full of digi-cam pics.

Cons: awkward plug-n-play, sometimes have to re-connect.

The SanDisk SDDR-80 has served me well. Never a glitch. I would like to buy another as it was a good product at a good price. Luckily I bought two and keep the second one in the package. I do documentary work and it has been through some rugged trials. It has been to Inner Mongolia twice since last November. Tens of thousands of down loaded files and never one corrupted file. Maybe I've had extremely good luck, but it has served me well. Even the guys who download with USB are amazed at the speed of this thing. I called SanDisk customer support, today, and was told that it is officially out of production and that SanDisk will no longer make any Firewire Card Readers.

The reader is fast. Example: I took 56-2MP images from my camera recently. I plugged this reader into my G4, plugged in the card, the card mounted, I dragged the images to my Pictures folder, and they copied immediately. No waiting. I was amazed, because with my [MIA] USB reader, it could take a while to transfer that many images, over a minute. A copy dialog didn't even pop up, because it transferred so fast. It doesn't hurt that it's a cutie too. 5 stars.

The idea is good. The tranfer speed is fast. But CompactFlash memory card by itself is not really designed for multiple plug-and-play. The alignment of CF card to the reader is always tricky. After using it for about two months, a connector pin inside the reader was bent and eventually broken, making the reader unusable. Otherwise it would have been a good product.

Although the CF card reader worked well the first time i plugged it into my Powerbook, that was the last time it functioned correctly. I had to return it within 7 days of its first use.

I would squirt a couple of drops of WD-40 on the pins, no harm's done as WD-40 is electrically-friendly and reduces friction a lot. This will reduce undue stress on the pins from constant pull 'n push and make the reader last longer.

In my case, the USB connection on my Nikon CoolPix 5K is more robust than most USB connectors on digital cameras. So I use it and leave the CF card inside the camera all the time unless I really need to swap out the 256 or 512 mb cards when it's full (which is seldom). Or to show off the card to prospective digital camera buyers.