At the request of a valued customer we ran a test recently of the practical speed of various firewire card readers. This was not a brand comparison or a full-blown test. We compared the three card readers we had on hand as a reference point created for a specific customer and shared here for anyone interested. In brief, here are the results:
Items Tested
- Maximum-brand USB 9-in-one card reader [retail: approx. $25]
- Lexar FireWire CompactFlash Reader (firewire 400) [retail: approx. $49.99]
- SanDisk Extreme Firewire 800 Reader [retail: $79.99, bundles with cards available]
- “FW400” used a firewire-800-to-firewire-400 cable
- “FW800” used a firewire-800-to-firewire-800 cable
Test Setup
- SanDisk Extreme IV Compact Flash card [2.0 gb]
- Filled the CF card by shooting 74 Raw Files using a P45
- “Finder Copy” was a drag-and-drop from the card reader into a folder on the desktop
- “CO Import” was using Capture One 3.7.8 to import the card with “generate previews” and “rename captures”
- Computer used was a Mac Pro 3.0 ghz 8-core with 7 gigs of ram
- All other applications were closed prior to beginning the test
- Timing was done manually using a stopwatch and is only accurate within a few seconds
Results
Notes
There was no meaningful difference between connecting the SanDisk Firewire 800 card reader using the firewire-800-to-firewire-800 cable or a firewire-800-to-firewire-400 cable. In both cases the Activity Monitor showed sustained and consistent read speeds of 35-36 MB/sec. Using an Intel Mac Mini with a firewire-800-to-firewire-400 cable (the mini only has firewire 400 ports) a finder copy took 1:07 compared to the 0:56 for the equivalent Mac Pro test.
A preliminary comparison of Capture One 3.7.8 with Capture One 4.0 favored the import speed of Capture One 4.0, but the difference was minor. Further tests may be done in the future after Capture One 4.0 Pro is released.
On computers with multiple firewire ports it is often the case that one firewire hub (a.k.a internal bus) controls data being sent from and received through several firewire ports. Therefore using multiple firewire devices (e.g. external hard drives) alongside a firewire card reader, though often unavoidable, may degrade performance.
Theoretical Maximum Speeds
Capture Integration is far more concerned with pratical results than theoretical specifications, however for reference:
- The SanDisk Extreme III series is rated at 20 MB/sec
- The SanDisk Extreme IV series is rated at 40 MB/sec
- The theoretical maximum of firewire 400 is 50 MB/sec
- The theoretical maximum of firewire 800 is 100 MB/sec
- USB 2.0 has a 60 MB/sec spec, but is not as efficient as firewire at sustained transfers