On the weekend, I purchased a USB card reader by San.
It reads both SmartMedia & CompactFlash cards, although currently, I only have use for the SmartMedia reader. I purchased this for one reason.
To transfer 30-odd 640X480 pictures from my camera, over it’s included serial connection, it would take slighly more than an hour (an average of 2-3 minutes per picture).
This would eat through batteries like crazy, meaning that essentially, I motored through the 4 AA batteries the camera took during each transfer.
Which was getting pretty damn expensive.
I’d imagined that the card reader would be faster, which would save time (as additionally, I could not really use the computer during the serial transfer, or it would freeze, and I’d have to start all over again). I hadn’t counted on just how much faster: transfering 35 pictures took about 5 seconds.
It was so insane. I feel like I’ve leapt from the bronze age to modern society with this purchase.
The reader is also nice & compact and requires no drivers.
Which means that I can take it with me to Australia when I go with my dad, and simply dump photos on his laptop (as I’m sure I’ll take more photos than my camera can hold during my trip).