Customer Reviews

Viking PC Card CompactFlash Adapter (CF-ADAPT)

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just baught the Canon digital s100 camera and needed this adapter to transfer pictures to my laptop (which runs Win NT 4.0 and won't recognize USB).

The card works great, even with different types of CompactFlash memory.

If you're like me and have a digital camera that uses compact flash and a laptop that always has a free PCMCIA slot, this is an excellent value. Leave it in your slot all the time, it won't have an effect on your system when the CF card isn't in, but it will permanently add a CF slot to your system.

This means that you can dispense with the camera-to-computer cable and just plug the card into the slot. When you do, it will be recognized as a removable disk, kind of like a Syquest or Zip disk, and show up in your "My Computer" view or Mac desktop, and maybe (this is how Nikon View works anyway) pop up your digicam software.

This really is by far the most convenient way to deal with a digital camera if you use a laptop.

I plugged this adapter into my new Dell Laptop and it brought up my CompactFlash card as an additional hard drive in Windows 2000, no software or additional drivers required.

I was then able to browse and even edit pictures on the card as if it were a disk drive. Truly amazing. All peripherals should be this easy to install and intuitive to use.

This is a great little piece of hardware. I have used mine in both a Dell Latitude running WinXP and an Apple Ti800 running Mac OS X. It is the only way I transfer pictures now. Much easier to carry than a USB cable, plus it is faster, does not use up the batteries on the camera, and just flat out works perfectly.

Here is how I use it :
I take my picutres (duh ;-), remove the CF card from the camera and insert it into this adapter. Then I insert it into the laptop. Under both Windows and Mac, the CF card appears as a removable drive on the computer.

Under Windows, I navigate through a couple of folders to where the pictures are stored and copy them to a folder on my hard drive. On the Mac, iPhoto automatically opens up (because I have told iPhoto to startup automatically when a camera is connected) and it gets ready to transfer the pictures. I can then tell it to copy the pictures to my Photo library, and delete the originals. It does just that. Then on the Mac and PC, I tell the operating system to eject the drive/device, then I can pop the adapter out of the computer. Of course you can pop it out whenever you want, but you will definitely risk something bad, better to eject it the proper way. I can transfer a full 128 MB flash card to my computer is a minute or so. Fast enough that I haven't timed it.

So, I would highly recommend this to anyone who uses CF media with a laptop. It is the way to go!

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This device works MUCH faster than connecting your camera directly to the laptop. For that reason alone its worth the price, but there's more...

I use this to allow me to take unlimited pictures when I'm on a trip. Fill up my CF card, copy all the images to the laptop, delete all the images from the CF card and start taking pictures again. When the card is full, I repeat the process - unlimited pictures! Why buy a larger capacity CF card when you can get this adapter for much less?

Another thing: Images from a camera are just computer files. I've used this adapter to turn my 32 MB compact flash card into a "disk drive". Once you put this CF card and adapter into the laptop's card slot, it shows up just like any other "disk drive".

So you can put the CF card/adapter in your home or offece desktop computer's card reader, use Windows Explorer to copy files (Word documents, spreadsheets, image files, or whatever) to the card, take the CF card out and move it over to the laptop - using this adapter. It makes the compact flash card act just like a high capacity disk drive! You can bring files home from work the same way, and the CF card fits in your wallet...
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I use this as a bridge between my digital camera's CF card and my laptop. Its much faster than using the USB link that came with the camera and I don't have to fool with an external reader. Also, the internal adapter is cheaper than any external reader I have seen.

Only downside is that it can sometimes be slightly awkward popping the adapter out of the PC Card slot. This has been a very minor point for me.

Came well packaged (but with NIL documentation) in static proof sleave. Placed the reader into the PC card slot (NEC Versa LXi)and slipped in the CF card-the reader and card were instantly recognised in WIN98SE. Great plug and play functionality-the only downside is that you have to remove the reader to remove the CF card-but no great inconvenience when compared to the reader's ease of use and the doing away with the cables of the usual USB CF reader.

Highly recommended product...

I got this to transfer files from my Nikon 5400. It works well and the fit and finish is very good. I am using a Dell latitude D610 laptop with XP on it. No complaints with this especially for the price.

Pros:
-If you just put the adapter in the PC slot the computer does not recognize it. I like this b/c if I want to take it out then I don't have to deal with disconnecting it in XP. (Once you add the CF card XP recognizes it.)
-The CF card together with the adapter, while inserted in the computer are flush with the side computer. This prevents me from being a klutz when I leave it in the computer and breaking it off.


Cons:
- The CF when inserted is flush with the side of the computer. I like this (see above), but it means that you have to eject the whole adapter to get the CF card out.

This is a fabulous device for transferring large volume of data from my handheld (Jornada 548) to my laptop, and vice-versa.

It does what is says it does, the only downside I can think of is, that it does not have an eject button for the CF Card, so when the card fits tight, you have to remove the PCMCIA Card to actually get the CF card out.