Re: What card reader comes in the $2199 iMac?
- From: -hh <recscuba_google@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2008 10:07:54 -0700 (PDT)
ed <n...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
-hh <recscuba_goo...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thus, you're both right --AND-- both wrong, because both of you are
only looking at selective, discrete parts of the whole picture.
nope- the context (which you may not be aware of) was *specifically*
regarding attaching a camera directly to the computer with a usb cable
vs using a card reader (regardless of the connection type), and (as
shown by the links i posted of basically EVERY new dslr) connecting
directly to the camera with a usb cable is consistently slower.
I agreed with that yesterday: "...it would seem logical that "USB is
USB is USB" and that it
shouldn't matter if a memory card is hooked up through a reader or
through a cable to the camera, the unfortunate reality is that the
interface to the I/O protocol does make a measurable difference (IIRC,
as Ed said)"
alan's position was that since the cameras use a usb2 connection, a
card reader (of any kind) wouldn't be any faster...
Which is incorrect, as there are demonstrably "reader-to-
reader" (including the camera itself) variations in I/O
performance.
... as the specs of the usb connection are faster than
the specs of any memory cards out there.
Which is generally (~80%) true: the card is a bottleneck, just as the
I/O interface can be (and is) as well.
The most simplified and generalized picture is that if you want the
maximum I/O possible today, you have to use the fastest flash card
media (approx "300x") in the fastest {highest bandwidth} media card
reader, which generally is Firewire 800 or SATA, with ExpressCard
running a close third. As I said before, USB is in 4th place, with
its best performance running roughly 15-30% below the top three.
but usb's specs are faster than the memory card, so why's it matter
(was alan's argument)! :P
True, given a proverbially "good" USB interface, the bottleneck will
generally be the card's speed. The weakness in this argument is that
the USB interface of digital cameras appears to be spectacularly bad.
And didn't someone point out the question of "...and who's fault is
that?" (sic)?
FWIW, I don't know if (a) all digital cameras' USB interfaces are
'slow', nor do I know if (b) there's any particular technical reason
why they have to be 'slow'...we simply have no insight into the
"why": all we really know is that most of them are in general much
slower than they otherwise could be.
And considering that a simple <$10 card reader can generally be
expected to improve I/O, it is such a good 'bang for the buck',
there's not much reason to question why one shouldn't carry a small
reader in lieu of a conveniently long (and thus, effectively just as
bulky) USB camera-PC connection cable. FWIW, my 'travel' reader is
the size of a credit card, less than 1/4" thick and came with a <6"
connection cable ... as I've already mentioned (somewhere in CSMA
within the past week), it is roughly comparable to the cube/weight of
a spare battery for my dSLR. If I'm going to get obsessive about
minimizing weight/bulk, it is completely overshadowed by even the
smallest of my lenses.
-hh
.
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