It almost makes me wish I had a use for one The only consumer protocol faster than USB 3 is Thunderbolt, but nobody is going to make a Thunderbolt card reader.Ĭool. I have a compact cheap USB 3.0 SD only reader, but I would like to see a really compact USB 3.0 CF only reader. I don't care as much about expense as size, the readers you listed seemed like they would perform well but they sure look a lot more massive than the Lexar reader. The Lexar might perform better, I don't know. But USB 3 chipsets are such a cheap commodity that they have made cheap fast card readers possible and Lexar no longer has the stranglehold it once did.
#Apple compact flash reader mac
But from a price perspective, I'd have to see the death of 3 Transcend or 4 Monoprice card readers before I'll start to feel like I should have bought the Lexar.īack when FireWire was the fastest protocol, Mac users (like me and you) bought Lexar because they were one of the few companies that made FireWire Compact Flash readers. And if you load cards every single day, maybe the Lexar will hold up longer. Both have Compact Flash slots and both have been reliable so far.
I have two USB 3 readers, one for home and one for the travel bag. (My old Compact Flash card reader was FireWire 800 USB 3 is much faster than that too.) The only consumer protocol faster than USB 3 is Thunderbolt, but nobody is going to make a Thunderbolt card reader.
While FireWire 400 was great because it was faster than both USB 1 and USB 2, USB 3 is so much faster than any common version of FireWire that it's worth chucking FireWire out the window, which is why Apple did that when USB 3 came out.