fofa's Full Review: SmartDisk CameraMate DM-25800 Card Reader
Do you need a memory card reader? It is way more convenient than the camera transfer to the computer. Once you try this, you won't want to live without.
When I bought my last Digicam, it used SD cards. That left me with a camera that used CF and now SD cards. I figured I would I would try a card reader. So I bought one of those cheap ones off eBay for the SD card. If I judged usage of a card reader off of that one, I would still slowly uploading my pictures from the camera directly. I broke down and bought a ZIO Dazzle SD card reader, and it was like night and day. It worked like a charm.
I then bought a new Digicam, which it turns out uses xd memory cards. Now what a dilemma. I figured a multi-card reader was what I needed. Since the Dazzle worked so good, I looked to ZIO for the multi-card reader. I decided on this one. It can read more card formats than I even knew existed. I have only used CF, SD, memory Stick and of course xd cards in it. So far it has taken each one of those with no problems at all.
On my Windows XP machine, I just plug into a USB port, and the computer sees it. It creates one disk drive (as seen in My Computer), one for each “slot”. Now I have an older computer that only supports USB 1.1, this reader will support USB 2.0, but works fine in my USB 1.1 slots. Depending on the software you have loaded, you either have to use My Computer to find it, or the software that came with my camera opens it automagically. I can them transfer (copy, think files) from the created drive, to my hard drive. I can delete the pictures from the memory card, pop it out and plug back in the camera, ready for more, without even turning on the camera.
Speed – I find the speed pretty fast compared to camera to computer transfers. USB 2.0 even offers higher transfer speeds. You can use the memory card as a hard drive, copy files to or from. Mind you, I only use it with my Digicams, but any memory card it supports I think would work given it is computer compatible. My daughters friend used it with her MP3 player and it’s SD card to transfer something, it worked fine.
Looks – it has a silver metallic body, with a black plastic front. One green LED shows it is connected, and one when it is transferring data.
Size – 3 1/2 inches wide, 3/4 inch high and 2 1/2 inches deep. USB cable is about 3 feet, allow placement almost anywhere.
Usage – The slots have icons next to them so you which slot to use for which card. Unfortunately I can’t see them without my reading glasses (even thou they are white on black) and even with my reading glasses I have no idea what the pictures mean. Some of the cards go in “upside down” which means the contacts up and the label down (which seems upside down to me). When I have a new type of card, or one I haven't done in awhile, it is a little trial and error to figure the slot/orientation to get it work. Luckily I have never damaged a card through this trial and error. The instructions were pretty worthless, as I threw them away instead of keeping them like I usually do.
Your computer sees the card as a hard drive, so you can drag and drop files in exactly the way you're accustomed to doing Compact, durable design - bu...More at Amazon Marketplace
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