Flash Memory Readers - Get those still images and video out of your camera and into your computer.

by Mark Shapiro

How do you transfer your still images and captured video from your digital camera or multifunction digital video camcorder? Some people use the proprietary, serial or USB cables to transfer the image files from the camera to there compute hard disk. A more effective way is to use a card reader. Remove the card form the camera and just stick it in the reader. It is usually a lot faster, and more convenient to use the card reader, than to go through the camera itself. Plus. many cameras require you to use a proprietary software program to facilitate the transfer. By using a card reader, you can opt to use whatever programs you like - of just drag and drop them from the card directly to your hard drive.

Card readers come in all shapes, sizes and formats. Some just read a certain type of memory card, while others can read up to a dozen or more. I have tried out and used various types of readers and cards with my gear and have come to prefer using the larger and sturdier Compact Flash cards. I have experienced a few failures with other types of cards, and have heard about many others.

Of course you may not have much of a choice when you buy a specific digital camera or camcorder. You get whatever the unit is designed for. Personally I have had very good luck with SanDisk Flash Memory cards. I have used them in various sizes. For example, I have a 1 gig Flash Memory card in my digital still camera. With my picture quality and image size set to good, each individual file comes out to about 700 kb in size. This means I can get over a thousand images onto a single card before I have to transfer the images to my computer or burn them to a CD.

(Of course, as I am a bit paranoid, I do copy them much more often than that. You never know. My camera may get hit by lightening, it could get stolen along with all my shots on the memory card).

By the way, you can get really big cards now.  Capacity for the new SanDisk compact flash cards now go up to 8 GB for Type 1 and 16 GB for Type II. With a 16 GB card, you could shoot everyday for a year and never have to worry about filling up the card. 

I have lots of friends who come to me with their digital cameras and saved images for help with transferring their files and and cleaning them up. up.

 I never know what kind of card they may be using so having a reader that can handle multiple types of cards is essential. I have been using a 8 in 1 reader from SanDisk and have been very impressed by how easy it was to install and how reliably it works. I just plugged it in to my USB port, the Windows XP computer recognized it and opened up all potential drive sites. Of course, until I actually insert a card into it, the drives are empty.

No software was needed; no fancy install routine or configuration. By the way, these units work with both Mac and Windows computers. All you need is a USB slot - either new USB 2.0 or older, legacy USB 1.1. Power is supplied via the USB cable which means that no ugly power blister is required.

By the way, not only will the SanDisk ImageMate reader read from a variety of flash card types, it will also write to them. This means you can use the flash cards as a good form of temporary memory for transferring data from one location to another. You can copy and transfer files, images, movies, applications, whatever will fit onto the cards. It's all just digital data and the card really doesn't care. Who needs CDs or floppies when you got a big memory card and fast readers?

The San Disk ImageMate 8 in 1 reader can read CompactFlash types I and II, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Smart Media, xD Picture Card, MultiMedia Card and SD Card.

The new SanDisk ImageMate 12 in 1 reader now adds Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo, MiniSD and RS-MMC.

  c 2005 Mark Shapiro