Sandisk Extreme Reader and Extreme IV's

[Nathan Rodger]

Hi everyone,
So I did search and found some related topics - however nothing specifically on these. I must say that whilst $100 is a lot of money for a reader - it is the second best investment in I've made in my workflow ever. (the first being Lightroom).

The Extreme Reader in combination with the Extreme IV cards are a force to be reckoned with in terms of speed of download to your system. Even on FW400/1394a the read speed is phenomenal. As an example - on FW400 I transferred 3.21Gb of images from one of the Extreme IV cards from my last wedding - in 1min 54sec. Approx 3120mb/114sec in total = 28mb/sec.... On Firewire 400 NOT FW800... In my books that is FAST...

I could not recommend them more highly- I picked up 4x 4Gb Extreme IV's and the Extreme Reader all from Stu at Quality Camera, paid for the cards on thrusday at 5pm Sydney time - had them in my hot little hands the very next day at 8am Sydney time (from Perth). No I don't get referrals, discounts or commission - but that type of service is excellent.

Anyway - I'm wrapped with my latest $1000 investment in my business, great stuff.

Cheers, Nathan.

[Glen]

Thanks Nathan for the review

[Mr Darcy]

I bought a firewire reader, but had very different results.
Yes it works great on a 6 (FW400) or 9 (FW800) pin firewire port, but if , as I do, you have a 4 pin firewire port, they don't work at all.

I did the research after I bought the item ,
but it turns out that the 4 pin firewire is a FW400 port MINUS the power wires in the cable. As the reader is an unpowered device, of course it doesn't work.

As part of my belated FW research, I discovered tht a lot of Mac notebooks also have 4 pin FW slots. I suspect these won't work either.

[DaveB]

As part of my belated FW research, I discovered tht a lot of Mac notebooks also have 4 pin FW slots. I suspect these won't work either.

Huh? No Apple device uses the 4-pin version of the FW port: they all have 6-pin ports with power.
Most non-Apple laptops with FW only have the 4-pin version (which Sony calls i-Link).

Devices such as video cameras which supply their own power often use the 4-pin version to save on space, but card readers and external 2.5" drives typically don't have their own power. Some of those have extra cables to steal 5V power from a spare USB port.

[Mr Darcy]

As part of my belated FW research, I discovered that a lot of Mac notebooks also have 4 pin FW slots. I suspect these won't work either.

Huh? No Apple device uses the 4-pin version of the FW port: they all have 6-pin ports with power.

Damn I seem to have got that wrong.
I was looking at a lot of notebooks the other day, and thought I was looking at Macs when I noticed some were 4 pin. I went back to the same site & checked again. Either I misread Firewire 400 as 4 pin, or I was looking at some other brand thinking they were Macs.

My apologies to the Mac world.

When I go to Boston in a couple of weeks, I may well buy a new notebook there rather than lug my current desktop replacement. I will be at or over the 20Kg limit on the way over as I will be carrying more than 10Kg in tools.

[foonji]

ay, macbook has 6pin