Sandisk Extreme FireWire Reader
by SanDisk
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Sandisk Extreme FireWire Reader
Customer Review: Very fast but I encountered a major issue
Summary: 3 Stars
I used this with my Canon 5d MkII and a Transcend 32 GB Compact Flash Card 400X to capture 1080p video. The performance was great and I was very happy to begin with.
On the third day of shooting I had a big scare - a bunch of video clips that had I had just reviewed in the camera, disappeared when I put the memory card into the reader and tried to transfer to my MacBook Pro 15". I had about 50 clips in total, of which 30 were lost and 20 remained. It was not possible to attribute it to a user mistake such as formatting the card. If anyone is interested in more details about this issue, I'd be more than happy to provide them.
Note 1: I don't know if the problem was caused by the memory card, the card reader or the computer/OS; they all appear to be potential culprits. Given the gravity of the problem, I wanted to share it anyway. I am posting the same review for all products.
Note 2: I was able to recover 29/30 clips using a 3rd party software called "RescuePro". But at that point I had already gone back and re-shot those scenes :(
Customer Review: SuperFast
Summary: 5 Stars
After getting sick of the SLOW transfer times of the digital images from my camera's CompactFlash card to my computer, I decided to step up to a firewire card reader. Here's my comparison of my "old" USB 2.0 unit to the new SanDisk Firewire Extreme card reader...
For testing purposes, I used 24 files (RAW camera images - Nikon D70) totaling 123.3MB, which were stored on a SanDisk Extreme 1GB CompactFlash card. Using a "Stor" USB-HUB Combo card reader (USB-2.0), it took 2-minutes & 14-seconds to transfer the images to the hard drive. Using the SanDisk FireWire Extreme Reader, I compared transfer times (using the same 24-image files) using both Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 on a Mac Pro (Intel). In this situation of comparing the two different firewire types, the transfer times were identical at 10-seconds. Comparing to the USB 2.0 unit, the SanDisk Extreme Firewire Reader was 134-times faster! Definitely worth the $65 bucks for the unit!!!
This is my first review - had to write something up since I love it so much:-)
Customer Review: Do not buy any product from Sandisk!
Summary: 1 Stars
This will be my last Sandisk product. This reader works unreliably on XP and not at all on Vista 64. With XP I have to same problem as everyone one else, sometimes you see your card other times you do not. I called Sandisk about the fact that the reader does not work with Vista 64. I was told that they have never tested the card reader with a Vista 64 machine because they do not have one. I tested the reader on two separate Vista 64 machines and it does not work. I explained to them that I bought the card to use with my Vista 64 machine and that I have no other use for it. They said that I could not return the reader because it works (not reliably) with XP. I am listing the reader on eBay two days after receiving it. Sandisk will not refund my money and they will not help in any way, they said that I could always call Microsoft and talk to them, I think they should be the one calling Microsoft and figuring out how to make their product work. This is not the first time I have had a problem with a Sandisk product and no help from them.Customer Review: Horrible customer service
Summary: 1 Stars
I had a problem with this Sandisk Extreme firewire card reader about 2 months ago. After receiving an RMA from Sandisk I returned the unit, and got confirmation that they received it. I never received the replacement. When I called after a month to find out what happened I was told that they switched their customer support software and there were delays in getting these types of problems resolved. They issued a case number and told me they would contact me in 24-48 hours. They did not. I called several days later and they told me they would escalate the issue and get back to me again. Still they didn't get back to me. Another phone call and they tell me my replacement will be in my hands by August 20. Guess what? No card reader. I call again, and they tell me their computer systems are down, could I call back...
This is infuriating - I've been without this card reader since June! Is this how this company normally operates, or am I just unlucky? After this experience I can't recommend this product to anyone -
Customer Review: Good product, but not as fast as I thought
Summary: 4 Stars
I wish there was an option to give this 3.5/5 stars, but there's not so I gave it 4.
The product works well, and connects just fine to Firewire 800. I have had no issues with it and its definitely made downloading 100s of 8MP photos very easy and fast for me.
PROS
- Super fast downloads
- Easy to use, corrects to FireWire 800.
- Small footprint.
CONS
- Expensive vs. the actual performance increase. I guess I was expecting faster downloads vs. USB 2.0, but I guess just looking at the bandwidth you kind of expect this thing to not blow USB 2.0 devices out of the water.
- Only compact flash, no other devices.
- If you daisy chain this to another FireWire 800 device and are doing read/write to it, bandwidth (speed) is decreased.
Nonetheless, if you want a speed increase, this will do it, but you will pay a little more for it. Highly recommended if you are willing to spend a little extra crash for it.