Hey guys,
I was looking for a Compactflash Card reader and I figured why not ask the people of the photographer forum. They must know best. I prefer something firewire or usb, not the PMCIA stuff. Also, I do not mind having one that is a combo. Lastly, I want the card to really fast, but relatively cheap. I was downloading near 200-300 photos the other day, and it took around 20-30 minutes. That is a long time. Let me know what your solutions are.... Thanks... Really appreciate it!!!

what brand cards do you use?
i currently have Sandisk... and use the Firewire Sandisk CF Carde reader... here in Australia it retails around $199 tho... so not sure what price is "cheap" your side of the planet!

I actually have an internal card reader, but it is not a fast one. And I am not looking for something that pricey. Maybe in the $20-$40 range. I know that maybe cheap in your eyes, but I remember seeing Matt Antonino refer to one that was only $20, not sure which one though. That was a pretty long time ago, so I was hoping there would be something better for the price.

I use an internal one on my desktop, but I had to buy one for my laptop. I use a SanDisk Image Mate. It doesn't seem slow to me, but I've never used anything else. I think it was under $20 at Best Buy. Hope this helps.

Sandisk Image Mate was the one that Matt Antonino recommended ages ago. I bought 2 of them after Matt's post, and yup.... they're really fast (USB 2.0) They're around $20 to $30.... so the price is right!

I have an internal card reader on my PC, and I used to grow 1 grey hair for every card I downloaded. It was unbelievably slow!!! It used to have read errors all the time too. Never happens with the Image Mate ......

I really like buying and dealing with MyDigitalDiscount.com for memory and card readers. Fast service, never had a problem that wasn't addressed immediately and to my satisfaction and those problems are rare!

I have and love this firewire 800 CF reader.

You can get really fast cards just make sure that your camera can actually use all that speed. Sometimes it makes sense to buy the cheaper slightly slower cards because your camera can't write to the newest ones.

SanDisk ImageMate as suggested above.. ROCKS.. My second.. was using something else and she was complaining about an 30-45 minutes to download a 4GB card. She got what I have, the ImageMate (Model Number SDDR-92) and now those cards download in 4-5 minutes.

yeah

Price & speed = I still recommend this reader. This is what we use, x2. I can download a gig in about 75-80 seconds, full. 4 gig in 4 mins is about right.

I do not happen to see the imagemate available in my BestBuy and that is where I really want to buy it from because I have some gift cards. What do you guys think about this one?
Is it equivalent to the imagemate?

Technically it should be as fast - but technicals haven't seemed to matter in other readers I have had. There are only 1-2 readers at BestBuy so if you're going to get it there, just get this one. If you want the best reader, it's the ImageMate.

Alright Matt, Thank for your help... I am going to go to Best Buy to see if they have an imagemate. Again, thanks for your help and quick responses.

I just bought the ImageMate (which my Best Buy didn't have, btw...they only had some off brand) and oh my...I cry for the years I've wasted using a Sandisk PCMCIA reader in my laptop. SO.MUCH.FASTER.

If you don't find it at Best Buy try Staples or Adorama has it for $15.95

Well, I bought the one that I described to Matt from Best Buy because they did not have an imagemate. It was basically $18 after my discounts and stuff. So I tested it on my 4gb card filled with 2.67 gb of images. I was impressed. I downloaded the whole card of 821 images in 3 minutes and 1.78 seconds on to my macbook. Who knows it may be faster on my desktop... But still, that is a little less than a gb per minute. I am impressed and I am grateful for all of the help from you guys. Thanks!!!