DELKIN expresscard34 or LEXAR FW800 for CF download?

[George A.]

Hi!

Again a question about back-up on set, specifically about downloading the CF cards through a laptop to an external mobile drive - in my case, a MacBook Pro Intel 17'.

What is the best overall solution between these two options?

- the Lexar Firewire 800 UDMA Card Reader: http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/ProductDetail.jsp?LISTID=80000267-1186149598

- the Delkin ExpressCard35 adapter (CF to eSATA): http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Delkin/DDEXP34CF1/

Which one is the fastest and/or more secure? I understand there are obvious differences between the two, but I'm curious to hear what people who already use them have to say, so I can make an informed decision.

Thanks.

[Brent J. Craig]

The Lexar 800 is almost twice as fast - about 4-5 minutes for a full 8G Red card.

The Delkin reader takes more like 8-9 minutes. I still carry one as a backup, and it is more convenient on planes and stuff than something you have to connect with wires.

Here's a thought: WHY doesn't Red make a super-fast CF reader? They have already proven that they can fill an 8G CF card in 3.5 minutes, so they should be able to read that same data even quicker! Using a similar module to what's in the camera, I would expect download times around the 3 minute mark. Whaddya say, Red Team?!?

[George A.]

Such a big difference?... The Lexar FW800 seems the way to go, then. Heving a Delkin as a back-up is a good idea, though.

I was hoping for the Delkin to match the speed of the Lexar FW800. I need the firewire 800 port on the laptop for a bus-powered mobile drive (to dump the card contents on), such as the Lacie rugged fw800 drive.

[ATF]

I bought the Lexar FW800. Works great!

ATF

[Alex Carr]

It should be faster than the FW800, I'll test tomorrow which is faster. I also need the FW800 for better uses.

I actually dont think they are faster than each other they should be the exact same. The bottleneck is from the CF card, not the firewire or the Expresscard.

If you would like you can use e-sata drives over a expresscard adapter, and transfer using the Fw800 CF reader. Then you can have two drives hooked up on e-sata at full speeds, instead of FW800 daisy chained drives.

[Brent J. Craig]

It should be faster than the FW800, I'll test tomorrow which is faster.


What is "it"?

The Delkin Expresscard CF reader is definitely not using the entire bandwidth of the Expresscard bus. I suspect it is using an optimized algorithm with the USB 2.0 portion of the spec.

[George A.]

Any mobile eSATA drives out there? Can they take power directly from the laptop?

How about the Delkin eSATA adapter to two firewire 800 ports?

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apiotek/EC002B/

Can it provide bus power?

[Chris Parker]

you could try the sonnet fusion drives for what you are looking for.

[Caleb Heymann]

none of the expresscard adapters provide power. this unfortunate fact is leading me to buy a newer macbook pro, as the latop i have has no fw800 and the lack of bus power through expresscard adpaters means you can't run a CF reader like the lexar 800. unfortunately the belkin expresscard-cf adapter is only 20MB/s.

[Ken Willinger]

I have the Expresscard34 and have loaded the driver onto my Macbook Pro, following the directions given with the Expresscard. But I have not been able to get the device to show up on the desktop. Has anyone else had this issue? I've tried to contact Delkin both through phone and email and they have not responded (very poor customer service). This is making me crazy. Any help would be appreciated.