Hi. I am a newbie and would like to know the best way to upload from a compact flash card onto a computer.I have had conflicting opinions,one being via a card reader,and the other direct from the camera via the digital lead. Any help gratefully recieved. Canon eos10D.
I use a card reader simply for convenience. I don't think there is any significant difference in the two. Connect a card reader to a USB2 port, insert card, and the computer sees the reader as another drive. If you connect the camera to a USB2 port, the computer sees the camera as a drive. I use the reader because sometimes I'm doing more than one card and because my computer desk is usually so cluttered there isn't room for my camera.
The biggest issues I have with connecting the camera to the computer are: 1) the camera is the worlds costliest card reader. 2) If the battery fails during download, you will most likely corrupt 1 or more files. 3) Your camera is tied up while downloading, can't take pictures that way.
In order of speed. slowest to fastest and lowest cost to highest: - Cable from camera to PC (I hate it... a small power surge could damage the camera) - USB 1.0 card reader - USB 2.0 card reader - Firewire card reader Having a fast card makes a big difference here.
