Help Needed, Card Readers!

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James Robertson
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I am looking to purchase a decent card reader, this has to have SD Reader and CompactFlash reader. I have purchased 4 or 5 and they all seem to give up the ghost after being used only a couple of time. I mainly have a problem with the contacts on the SD reader, and the pins on the CF Reader being really thin and too easy to bend! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
Also been using a Lexar Pro at home. Great bit of kit.

But I've also been using a Kingston fcr-hs4 for college, which was reviewed quite well and is a little cheaper. I've been using it to take students' cards to display images so it's taken SD and CF and is constantly getting plugged and unplugged. I've had it quite a while and once (if) my Lexar one gives up, I'll buy this for home. Robust and cheap.
 
+1 for the Lexar - just does the job!
 
But I've also been using a Kingston fcr-hs4 for college, which was reviewed quite well and is a little cheaper. I've been using it to take students' cards to display images so it's taken SD and CF and is constantly getting plugged and unplugged. I've had it quite a while and once (if) my Lexar one gives up, I'll buy this for home. Robust and cheap.

I've been using the Kingston FCR-HS4 also for God knows how many years and it's a fabulously reliable device.
 
You do need to take care with the CF card very fine pins.
A common annoyance is not making it easier to know which way is up.
 
I can't even remember when I bought my Lexar pro CR - but it's been years, and it's never let me down. Just used it earlier in fact, and it's still as nippy as the day I got it.
 
Just to chuck an alternative in, I have a Sandisk ImageMate card reader.
Put a card in and it reads it, not much more to say or expect from it
 
Thanks guys, I have opted for the Kingston fcr-hs4, see how it goes. Thanks again for your valued assistance.
 
Thanks guys, I have opted for the Kingston fcr-hs4, see how it goes. Thanks again for your valued assistance.
Thats also the one i swaer by. Very fast. I have mine working via a USBC 3.1 cable and get amazingly fast transfer speeds. Faster than when i used a USB3
 
Thought I'd tack on the back of this thread rather than start another one.

Now I've had a bit of a rationalisation of my cameras, all of them now use SDXC cards (UHS II). I have an old Lexar Professional USB 3.0 Dual Slot Car Reader that's about 8-10 years old, and I'm pretty sure doesn't support the additional speed of UHS-II cards, as the transfer rate from the card reader to the PC is about the same for all my cards (so Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mb/s (UHS I), Lexar Professional 1000 & 2000x (UHS II) and Sony M and G series (150mb/s and 300 mb/s UHS II).

I've seen from a bit of web searching that there might have been some firmware updates for this card reader, but the download section on Lexar's website is empty of any such downloads. So I'm thinking of buying a new card reader, but would really like to get one that leverages the very quickest transfer speeds from card to computer. As I say this would be SD card only, but not adverse to it being a dual format card reader like my current one say CF or XQD) for any future incompatibilities.

Anyone have any ideas please ?
 
The Kingston one mentioned by me and others above is very fast. I also buy the fastest read speeds i can, even if the write speed is wasted in my devices, and this reader gets pretty much those speeds.
I do also have this one, although ive tested its speed out. Ill test it tonight against my Knigston. I use a 300MB/s read speed card so that will give a good indication of speeds.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-T...id=1550049967&sr=8-15&keywords=sd+card+reader

EDIT: Forgot to say, i too have that old Lexar card reader (not the newer one),and the Kingston is noticeably faster.
 
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