virginia sustarsic , May 08, 2005; 07:37 p.m.
I have been using a USB card reader but it takes a very long time.
My son said get a firewire reader. My laptop has a small firewire
port, 4 pin I think. Are all firewire compact flash card readers 6
pin? What is the easiest solution? I have read some things about
this but they are confusing to me, so please be simple in your
explanation, if you have some information. Thank you, Virginia
Mike Levine , May 08, 2005; 08:06 p.m.
Virginia - You should be able to buy a 4 pin to 6 pin firewire cable. Or an adapter if the cable from the flash card reader is fixed and not removable.
-Mike
Edward Ingold 
, May 08, 2005; 08:09 p.m.
AFIK, all Firewire card readers are powered over the bus, which requires a 6-pin connector. For as little as $30, you can get a PCMCIA card with both FireWire and USB2 ports. Either would be much faster than your current USB, and USB2 card readers are much less expensive than FireWire readers. I have both, and don't see much difference.
Steve Bracci , May 09, 2005; 08:36 a.m.
Virginia-don't waste your money on the PCMCIA card with a six-pin firewire port-I've tried it and it doesn't work. The firewire card reader neads to be powered which is why it is six-pin and not four. I haven't found a four-pin firewire card reader-if they make one it would more than likely need to be AC powered. Your best bet is to use a USB 2.0 card reader, or if you're using CompactFlash Type II cards with your camera, you can get a 32-bit Cardbus adapter (B & H has them for $49.95: (link)) and transfer your images through a PCMCIA card slot in your laptop-I've found this way to be the fastest.
virginia sustarsic , May 09, 2005; 11:00 p.m.
Thank you all very much for your help. I've just ordered a pcmcia card with 4 usb 2 ports, so I can also plug in my cd/dvd burner and printer, and a usb 2 card reader. Thanks, Virginia
