Steve'sDigicams

allenhuffman · Jul 13, 2005, 11:27 AM

For my old Sony, I used a PCMCIA Memory Stick adapter to download photos. It worked fine for the three 64MB cards I had back then. For some reason, I also bought a Lexar thumb drive that could accept the Memory Stick, but I think that was just in case I needed to download photos away from my laptop.

My next camera was a Casio that used SD, and I was pleased to find that my Lexar USB reader also supported SD, so I kept using it. I also bought a 3-n-1 PCMCIA card reader, but I found out that it was much slower than the USB device.

I then ended up with another Sony, and bought a 1GB Memory Stick Pro card. This Pro card did not even show up in the PCMCIA reader, so I've been using the USB gadget ever since.

I just bought a Fuji F10, and now need an xD reader. Best Buy has a PCMCIA reader that would support pretty much all the formats I run into, and I like just sticking the memory in my laptop without having to dig out a dongle first.

But... Is PCMCIA slower by design (versus USB or USB 2.0), or was my PCMCIA reader just cheap and slow?

What is faster? A USB reader, or a PCMCIA reader?

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Jul 13, 2005, 11:27 AM	#1
allenhuffman Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 33	For my old Sony, I used a PCMCIA Memory Stick adapter to download photos. It worked fine for the three 64MB cards I had back then. For some reason, I also bought a Lexar thumb drive that could accept the Memory Stick, but I think that was just in case I needed to download photos away from my laptop. My next camera was a Casio that used SD, and I was pleased to find that my Lexar USB reader also supported SD, so I kept using it. I also bought a 3-n-1 PCMCIA card reader, but I found out that it was much slower than the USB device. I then ended up with another Sony, and bought a 1GB Memory Stick Pro card. This Pro card did not even show up in the PCMCIA reader, so I've been using the USB gadget ever since. I just bought a Fuji F10, and now need an xD reader. Best Buy has a PCMCIA reader that would support pretty much all the formats I run into, and I like just sticking the memory in my laptop without having to dig out a dongle first. But... Is PCMCIA slower by design (versus USB or USB 2.0), or was my PCMCIA reader just cheap and slow? What is faster? A USB reader, or a PCMCIA reader?