File transfer time from camera to computer issues

[all4meila]

I have in the past month upgraded from the Nikon D40 to the Nikon D300s and have noticed a significant increase of time it takes to transfer pics from my SD card to my computer. It used to take a few minutes and now it will take up to 30 minutes + for about 300 pics. Is this normal? Do you think my computer may need to have more "stuff" put into it to process faster? Is there another type of card that I can purchase that will speed it up? I'm also seeing some delays when I'm exporting files in Lightroom with these photos. Any insight or help would be appreciated as I don't know if I need to buy a special card to help or look to see if it's a computer issues handling the size of the files.

[Singletracklovr]

Welcome to the forum.
The simple answer, the D300s file sizes are larger.

What makes them larger...
The D300s has a larger sensor.
The D300s can record a photo in 14 bit depth
The D300s has 3 RAW compressions setting. which affect file size

Are you shooting RAW?
If so, what compression (if any) are you using and what bit depth (12 or14)

IS your USB and a USB 2? That will increase down load speed.


hth

[Franglais]

Switch over to UDMA Compact Flash cards.

I get 23.5 MB/sec reading my UDMA CF cards and only 10 MB/sec reading Class 6 SDHC cards. However I have a computer configuation to match:

- quad core CPU with 4GB of RAM
- three hard drives with nothing else happening on the drive the files are going to
- USB2 interface (I could get more throughput with a Firewire reader but it's expensive)

You need a card reader that is compatible with UDMA, like this one:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._Slot_USB.html

If you're using a low performance configuration (example Netbook with just one hard drive) then having a UDMA card might not make much difference.

[all4meila]

Thank you both. I wasn't sure if this was the norm but after your posts I do believe it's time to make some changes and upgrade the computer as well as try the compact flash cards. Thanks again.

[mjs1973]

Are you using a card reader, or attaching your camera to the computer? Attaching the camera to the computer is painfully slow. Using a card reader will really increase your transfer speeds even if you have old/slow cards. Faster cards will speed things up as well.

[Singletracklovr]

Are you using a card reader, or attaching your camera to the computer? Attaching the camera to the computer is painfully slow. Using a card reader will really increase your transfer speeds even if you have old/slow cards. Faster cards will speed things up as well.

Hi Mike,
Is this true even if you use USB2 connected to the cameras USB port?
I don't have a card reader so I can't run a comparison.

[mjs1973]

Hi Mike,
Is this true even if you use USB2 connected to the cameras USB port?
I don't have a card reader so I can't run a comparison.

Yup, from what I have seen, even with 2.0 a card reader is faster. Card readers are pretty inexpensive and are a huge time saver.

[Franglais]

Yup, from what I have seen, even with 2.0 a card reader is faster. Card readers are pretty inexpensive and are a huge time saver.

I compared the D300 and my $13 Hama 35-in-1 UDMA USB2 card reader. Time to transfer 334MB of files from a 8GB UDMA card:

D300 = 45s
Hama reader = 19s

[gryphonslair99]

Camera's are for taking photos. Card readers are for transferring data. Get a card reader and save a lot of grief and time.

[Singletracklovr]

I compared the D300 and my $13 Hama 35-in-1 UDMA USB2 card reader. Time to transfer 334MB of files from a 8GB UDMA card:

D300 = 45s
Hama reader = 19s

My experiment did not go as well.
When I bought my Sandisk 8GB SDHC cards they gave me a free SD/MMC/RS-MMC USB2 card reader. It's a small clear blue thingy.

Plugged it into my USB 2 PCMCIA interface and using Nikon Transfer started down loading 220 RAW photos in 14bit lost-less compression, about 19mb each.

100 photos had downloaded when I received an error message the computer lost connection with the device.
The red access light in the card reader continued to blink for 20 minute. But nothing was really happening.
The computer would not allow me to eject the USB drive. Finely just pulled it out.

Plugged it back in and got the same error only after 6 photos. Gave up.
Put the SDHC card back in the camera and finished downloading the remaining photos.

my USB 2 PCMCIA interface card is kinda old I probably need to up date the driver or something.