# Importing from memory card directly as good as importing from camera?



## dtbain (Jan 13, 2013)

Am I right that there is no reason not to import by plugging my camera's memory card into the card reader on my laptop, as compared with connecting my camera (with memory card in) to the computer?

Sometimes there are problems when I import from the camera (e.g. the camera turns itself off mid-import) so I thought I might as well take the card out and import from that directly.  But, again, I just want to check that there is no difficulty in so doing, e.g. no important data will be left out?

I am importing and converting to dng raw pics taken with a Canon 450d.

Many thanks in advance

David


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## Denis de Gannes (Jan 13, 2013)

Its a better to use a card reader, this is the advice on this and many other forums.


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## dtbain (Jan 13, 2013)

Thanks Denis.  And I take it a slot on my laptop that I can plug the card into counts as a card reader, or is a card reader something else?

Thanks

d


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## Hal P Anderson (Jan 13, 2013)

David,

That counts. 

Hal


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## Jimmsp (Jan 13, 2013)

Denis de Gannes said:


> Its a better to use a card reader, this is the advice on this and many other forums.



Perhaps. 
But every time you take your card in and out of the camera, you have a chance of damaging the connection pins. They are not as robust as most of the mini usb connectors.
My brother thought the same thing until he bent a pin putting a card back in.

I continue to plug my camera in directly, and have never had a problem.


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## Tony Jay (Jan 13, 2013)

Jimmsp said:


> Perhaps.
> I continue to plug my camera in directly, and have never had a problem.



You may be lucky so far but I disagree with this approach on principle.
Use a card reader - there is much less chance of corrupting images on import using a card reader.

So, I am with Dennis here.

Tony Jay


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## Jimmsp (Jan 13, 2013)

Tony Jay said:


> ... there is much less chance of corrupting images on import using a card reader.



And why is this? 
I'll admit to not having studied this, but I'm curious as to what tests have been done to show this.

What I do know is that less you plug and unplug electronic cards, the better it is on the connectors.


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## TheFantasticG (Jan 14, 2013)

Jimmsp said:


> I continue to plug my camera in directly, and have never had a problem.



Yup, same here. I've been doing that for two years with NO problems because I always have a charged battery in and don't do it during lightning storms.


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## Replytoken (Jan 14, 2013)

Jimmsp said:


> Perhaps.
> But every time you take your card in and out of the camera, you have a chance of damaging the connection pins. They are not as robust as most of the mini usb connectors.
> My brother thought the same thing until he bent a pin putting a card back in.



Doesn't this advice really only apply to CF cards?  I use both CF cards and SD cards, and I cannot see how an SD card could easily get damaged from being inserted/removed from a camera or card reader?  With CF cards, OTOH, you do have to be careful about bending pins in the device.

--Ken


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## Jimmsp (Jan 14, 2013)

Replytoken said:


> Doesn't this advice really only apply to CF cards?  I use both CF cards and SD cards, and I cannot see how an SD card could easily get damaged from being inserted/removed from a camera or card reader?  With CF cards, OTOH, you do have to be careful about bending pins in the device.
> 
> --Ken


True, my brother was using a cf card; and one of my cameras uses one as well. My other camera uses a sd card, where the contacts are not exactly pins. I connect both to a pc.
While the sd connectors are more robust, the worry you might have is static electricity, which where I live in the winter time, is an issue.
I tend  to want to handle cards, memory chips, etc, as little as possible without being grounded.


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## Replytoken (Jan 14, 2013)

Jimmsp said:


> True, my brother was using a cf card; and one of my cameras uses one as well. My other camera uses a sd card, where the contacts are not exactly pins. I connect both to a pc.
> While the sd connectors are more robust, the worry you might have is static electricity, which where I live in the winter time, is an issue.
> I tend  to want to handle cards, memory chips, etc, as little as possible without being grounded.



I can understand the concern about static electricity, as it is often an issue in our house in winter, especially when I am wearing fleece.  I guess that I have conditioned myself to "discharge" before handling anything that might be damaged by a shock.  While I choose to use card readers, I think there is some merit to both sides of this discussion, and that this is one of those personal decisions, not unlike the use of protective filters.

--Ken


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## Tony Jay (Jan 14, 2013)

Jimmsp said:


> And why is this?
> I'll admit to not having studied this, but I'm curious as to what tests have been done to show this.
> 
> What I do know is that less you plug and unplug electronic cards, the better it is on the connectors.



It is all to do with the fact that your camera needs power to do the image transfer - eventually you will be doing a transfer when your camera battery goes flat.
The likely result is a corrupted card with all images lost.

Although a card reader itself does need its own power source - it gets its power from the computer - a power failure while importing could do the same thing.

Either is possible.
A dud battery is just more likely.

Tony Jay


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 14, 2013)

At the end of the day it becomes a personal choice, largely governed by one's attitude to risk and convenience. I have heard the 'bent pin' concern several times, though not the static electricity one.....though my own thoughts are that when importing directly from camera the risk of accidentally catching the trailing camera cable and bringing my very expensive camera and lens combination crashing to the floor is much greater that the risk of a bent pin. So I usually import from card reader, but there are other factors as well:

1. Convenience....no need to go searching for the cable, just remove card and insert into card reader, Lightroom launches at the Import dialog (can't do the latter if importing from camera).
2. Speed.....using a USB3 card reader will likely be faster than using a USB2 camera connection, especially with the faster 90MB/s cards.
3. I have no doubt that LR4 especially has some issues with direct camera connection....there have been many reports of "previews not found" when doing this, and the problem is always resolved with a card reader.

Just my 2 cents....nothing wrong with folks doing what they're most comfortable with.


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 14, 2013)

Camera drivers tend to be a little less reliable than card readers, at least as far as LR goes.  For example, when you hear reports of no thumbnails showing in the import dialog, it's usually a camera cable.  Card readers can also be faster than camera connection.

The other reason often given is you're far more likely to knock the camera off the table than you are to damage the pins in the camera.

It really is one of those decisions that you have to make yourself, having weighed all the pros and cons.  Personally I usually use a card reader.


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## racehorsephotos (Jan 14, 2013)

Card readers saves the battery. 
Most card readers are quicker, you can import as many cards at once as you want, I shoot 3 cameras and need to import all cards at once with PM


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## RikkFlohr (Jan 14, 2013)

I have fixed many a LR user's problems by switching them to a card reader. I have never fixed a problem by switching them to direct camera connect...


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## SRFolino (Jan 14, 2013)

When I get back from a shoot, most times, we've filled multiple CF and SD cards with images.  We use a third-party application to manage the downloads and to merge the GPS info from our GPS recorder into the EXIF data of the image. We the use Lightroom to import the images from where the third-party app placed them.  Most of my cards have been inserted and removed dozens of times with no problems.

On a shoot I carry   4x16 CF   4x12 CF  4x8 CF  4x16 SD.  My camera accepts both.  When one fills, it switches over to the other till I get a chance to replace it.


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## Bryan Conner (Jan 14, 2013)

I started using CF cards in 1999 and have never had a bent pin in a card reader.  How do you manage to bend a pin?  Is there too much space around the card therefore allowing a person to force the card in at an angle?  Or to force it in backwards?


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## Replytoken (Jan 14, 2013)

Bryan Conner said:


> I started using CF cards in 1999 and have never had a bent pin in a card reader. How do you manage to bend a pin? Is there too much space around the card therefore allowing a person to force the card in at an angle? Or to force it in backwards?



I have been using CF cards since 2002 and have not had any issues myself, but I can see how they can happen.  If the rails that guide the CF card are a bit off or loose, I can see that a card would not be lined up with the respective pins and could damage a pin that did not fit into its slot.  And, I can see if you jam a card into a camera or card reader in a hurry, you could run the risk of bending a pin.  So, even in the midst of a quick card change, I move carefully when inserting a CF card into a camera.

--Ken


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## Jimmsp (Jan 14, 2013)

Bryan Conner said:


> I started using CF cards in 1999 and have never had a bent pin in a card reader.  How do you manage to bend a pin?  Is there too much space around the card therefore allowing a person to force the card in at an angle?  Or to force it in backwards?



Good question. He bent it when he inserted back into the camera, leading to an expensive camera repair. He was told that it was not a rare occurrence.
Personally, I never bent one, and I used a card reader for years. Likewise with the camera with an sd card I have never had a problem directly hooking the camera to the pc.
I suppose if I filled multiple cards during a shoot, I'd unload via a reader as well.


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## Denis de Gannes (Jan 14, 2013)

Maybe it might be a good idea to request a fixed memory module of 32 or 64 GB from your camera manufacturer. (like an iPad. why not)


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## Duncanh (Jan 14, 2013)

Replytoken said:


> Doesn't this advice really only apply to CF cards?  I use both CF cards and SD cards, and I cannot see how an SD card could easily get damaged from being inserted/removed from a camera or card reader?  With CF cards, OTOH, you do have to be careful about bending pins in the device.
> 
> --Ken



I'm an event photographer and can be transferring thousands of images in a day from various cameras, downloading from 40/50 CF cards using readers and probably only had a couple of bent pins in the last 7 years and those were in the card reader.

Good practice is to spread images across a number of cards when out shooting, in case of corrupt indexing in card therefore you would need to put them back in the camera to download - better to put in a card reader, far cheaper to replace the reader compared to the camera if pins do get bent.

Also more likely to catch the cable connecting the camera knocking it to the floor compared to damaging the pins (certainly in the mad house conditions we are often working in). I've done that with my wife's point and shot but it bounced well and still worked, I didn't tell her !!


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## Replytoken (Jan 15, 2013)

Duncanh said:


> better to put in a card reader, far cheaper to replace the reader compared to the camera if pins do get bent.
> 
> Also more likely to catch the cable connecting the camera knocking it to the floor compared to damaging the pins (certainly in the mad house conditions we are often working in).



While I always remove my cards and use a card reader, do note that it is still possible to bend the pins in the camera when you replace the card.  And given the current state of my desktop, the probability of catching a cable certainly worries me more than bent pins.  but, as I mentioned earlier, YMMV.

--Ken


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## Bryan Conner (Jan 15, 2013)

I did a bit of research (Google) on the topic of bent pins.  Several people reported that the problem was a faulty CF card.  The pin holes in the card were malformed.  These were all new cards that damaged the camera on the first insertion.  So, I think that it would be a good idea to try all new cards out in a cheap/old card reader before putting it in a camera.  I know I will try to remember and do this the next time I buy a CF card.


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## Hankw (Jan 15, 2013)

I use SD cards and use a reader, never had a problem. Also I always format my cards in the camera. I have dedicated cards for each camera and try not to ever mix them.


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## dtbain (Jan 13, 2013)

Am I right that there is no reason not to import by plugging my camera's memory card into the card reader on my laptop, as compared with connecting my camera (with memory card in) to the computer?

Sometimes there are problems when I import from the camera (e.g. the camera turns itself off mid-import) so I thought I might as well take the card out and import from that directly.  But, again, I just want to check that there is no difficulty in so doing, e.g. no important data will be left out?

I am importing and converting to dng raw pics taken with a Canon 450d.

Many thanks in advance

David


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 15, 2013)

That's a handy tip Bryan, thanks

Good to see you posting Hankw, welcome to the forum!


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## Duncanh (Jan 15, 2013)

Yes Bryan, good tip never thought of that, will do in future when I buy new cards, thanks.


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## Allan Olesen (Jan 16, 2013)

Another issue which may count in favour of cable:
My camera has GPS. To speed up the GPS fix, there is a file on the card which contains aGPS data for one month. This file is automatically updated if I connect the camera with a cable. If I put the card in a card reader, I have to download the file manually from Sony's website and put it on the card. 

But despite this advantage to cable, I also prefer using a cardreader. Especially since I got this UHS-I SD reader which can sit permanently in the Express Card slot of the laptop and can read from my SD card with 70 MB/s:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Transcend-RDF1-ExpressCard-Reader-SDHC-UHS-I-SDXC-UHS-I-TS-RDF1-/121010554034?pt=UK_Computing_Other_Computing_Networking&hash=item1c2cca84b2


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## clee01l (Jan 17, 2013)

My D800 has both SDXC and CF card slots. I prefer the SD card over the CF card even though there are "experts" on the web that will tell you the CF card is superior/faster/more reliable etc. than the SD card.  I've never had an SD Card or CF card fail although that is probably my luck.  I did have a no name CF card that would not be recognized by my D800.  A few years back I di bend the pins in my HP Pronter CF card slot. Since then I have been skeptical of CF cards and thing the basic interface design is flawed.  The CF card fits into the slot and is assisted by two guide rails.  One guide rail is thicker than the other so that inserting the card upside down is not likely unless it is forced.  If the rail distance tolerances are good and the rail is long enough the CF card is well seated by the time it reaches the pins.  If the card reader is cheap, tolerances are off guide rails are too short, the card can enter without aligning properly with the pins. The guide rails on my D800 are ~25mm and the CF card is inserted the full 35mm length. I am comfortable that as long as I am careful I will not bend the pins in the expensive card reader called a D800. My USB3 Card Reader has rails that are ~5mm long and the CF card can only be inserted ~7mm of it's 35mm length.  IMO the possibility for a damaged pin in this card reader are great. There are better card readers out there with sufficient depth but I have not found any that are USB3.  
My CF card is used in my D800 for overflow when the SD cards fills up. In the event that my D800 CF card reader does get a bent pin, I still have the SD slot so I can continue to operate it without a CF card. Unfortunate is the photographer that has a camera with only a CF card drive.

Even with the risk of a bent pin, I will continue to recommend using a card reader, even a cheap card reader over the camera.  Li batteries are not cheap.  Mine are running about $50-$75USD.  I can buy a lot of cheap card readers for the price of one battery with a limited number of charge cycles.


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## dtbain (Jan 17, 2013)

Thanks all.  That is as always on this forum very helpful.  I used my laptop's card reader (since I had 8 cards full!) and it worked fine.

all best

d


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## dtbain (Jan 20, 2013)

Out of interest, why do you use both CF and SD.  Is that they have different virtues, or simply that your camera has one slot for CF and one for SD?

d


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 20, 2013)

In my case it's because the camera (5DIII) has slots for both, together with various options (fill one then start on the other, write Raw to one and Jpeg to the other, or duplicate whatever the shot selection is to both cards). The latter is what I now do, so If anything goes wrong with one of the cards, I have an instant backup.


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