plug and play image card readers?

[vlad008]

Last year i took a trip to thailand and brought my digital camera with me. i took a ton of photos and was hoping to download them at local internet cafes. unfortunately, to download photos from my camera, i would need to install drivers etc onto the computer and most net cafes do not allow users to install drivers/programs on their machines.

next time i go traveling, i want to avoid these problems. to make things easier, i was thinking of buying an usb card reader (compact flash). does anyone know of any such card readers that are completely plug and play? i would want to be able to just plug the reader into a usb port, and download images *without* having to install software and/or drivers.

thanks in advance!

-v

[Sebastian]

Plug and play means that the drivers are installed automatically. There is no such thing as hardware that requires no drivers, and any reader will require driver installation, even with USB/Firewire. No intelligent internet cafe owner will let patrons install hardware or put files on their computers without a heavy-handed control system to prevent malicious attacks, and it's easier and more secure to not allow it altogether. Your best bet is to buy a laptop or find a place that can do it for you.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but your want is simply unrealistic.

[Peter_AUS]

Get an image tank to transfer your files over from the card, that would be even easier than getting a laptop. They really aren't that costly anymore. Here in Australia they start around $280 with a 20Gb drive in them. So if you are in the States, I would expect they wouldn't be higher than say around $200 upwards.

Look for things lIke Xdrive Pro VP300 or Xdrive 2, you will find them in Ebay as well. Don't quote me on the price in the US if that is where you are.

Only benefit with haveing a Laptop, is you can see the images on the screen and ensure they transfer properly. But there are image tanks now with little LCD screens on them as well, but cost about 2 1/2 times the price of those above.