# Upgrade my cable?



## NostraHistoria (Apr 4, 2014)

I have ordered a Mac Pro. I am wondering if I should upgrade the cable I use to upload pics to it since it has thunderbolt and USB 3.0 slots. If you know the fastest option, let me know. I saw that this lightning to USB adapt is for iPads. http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD821ZM/A/lightning-to-usb-camera-adapter?fnode=5b3abcc454654c56a0e1d775d3d6376db8041083c9ce7e2898d21e1eb184a3ad08b295a0f90c525399dc4295859b551fedf4e344b215f60796dcecee09fa49a6

I do not want to get a lighting to sd reader, since I will upgrade to a better camera in the future.


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## dcm (Apr 4, 2014)

Uploads are only as fast as the slowest thing in the path, which is probably your camera. Lightning and USB 3.0 on the Mac Pro won't matter if your camera only has a USB 2.0 out port. It can't send any faster, even if the Mac Pro could read it faster.

The fastest option is probably to remove the SD card and place it in the built-in SD reader of the Mac Pro. No cables required, shortest possible path. 

If you move to a body with a CF card, then you might consider a USB 3.0 CF reader which is still likely faster than uploading directly from the camera.


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## NostraHistoria (Apr 4, 2014)

Thank you for your insight. I did not know that my T3i has a 2.0 port.


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## dcm (Apr 4, 2014)

NostraHistoria said:


> Thank you for your insight. I did not know that my T3i has a 2.0 port.



I'm not aware of any EOS cameras with support beyond USB 2.0 Hi Speed which is still used by the most recent introductions. I have some older cameras where were only USB 1.1 - that was painful. The effective transfer rates for most devices are often much less than the theoretical maximum of the bus. 

This is similar to the different rates you see with SD cards and the rates the cameras support writing to the SD card. Putting a slow SD card into a camera can slow the transfer to the card, but putting a faster card in the camera will not make it transfer faster than the camera is designed.


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## brett b (Apr 5, 2014)

Don't upload from your camera...if you are. Take the card out and upload through a card reader.
I have the new MacBook Pro and use the Lexar Pro 3.0 card reader. The USB 3.0 is very fast. 
I haven't purchased any Thunderbolt devices yet. I would love to hear from people who have first hand knowledge of the speed of Thunderbolt vs. USB 3.0.


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## Seanlucky (Apr 5, 2014)

brett b said:


> Don't upload from your camera...if you are. Take the card out and upload through a card reader.
> I have the new MacBook Pro and use the Lexar Pro 3.0 card reader. The USB 3.0 is very fast.
> I haven't purchased any Thunderbolt devices yet. I would love to hear from people who have first hand knowledge of the speed of Thunderbolt vs. USB 3.0.



I MOSTLY agree with this. Never plug your camera directly into the computer, it's just silly... I also use the same Lexar USB 3.0 and love it. It's worth noting that the most recent Macbook Pro with Retina Display finally has routed the built in SD card reader through the USB3 Bus (previous generations were still going through USB2). Therefore, if you have the newest Macbook Pro, then I wouldn't worry about using a card reader.

On the topic of thunderbolt, dont' worry about it. I don't think there's any memory card with a read speed that exceeds the transfer speeds of USB 3.


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## dcm (Apr 5, 2014)

Did a quick test on my 6D, M, and Mac Mini (current generation), uploading 197 photos (raw+jpg - about 5.6Gb) from a SanDisk Extreme 64Gb (45Mb/sec) SD card. Cameras are obviously USB 2.0 devices, Mac Mini has USB 3.0 ports and thunderbolt. I normally use the Mac Mini's internal SD slot when uploading since its most convenient and should be the fastest. 

2:22 via internal SD slot (Memory Card Utility)
5:13 via cheap external USB 2.0 card reader plugged into USB 3.0 port (Memory Card Utility)
5:59 via USB cable from M plugged into USB 3.0 port (EOS Utility)
6:12 via USB cable from 6D plugged into USB 3.0 port (EOS Utility) 
?:?? via wireless from camera to Mac (EOS Utility) - it was taking about a minute an image so I gave up rather than wait 3+ hours. I might rerun this again sometime - there was possible interference.

No surprises. I don't have a USB 3.0 card reader, but I would be surprised if it did any better than the internal SD slot. The M & 6D did well via the USB cable - Canon has a pretty good file transfer utility. Wireless performance disappoints - definitely do not use wireless if you have any other choice.


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## Jamesy (Apr 5, 2014)

USB 3.0 (or beyond) is something I am hoping Canon introduce going forward, Nikon has it in the D800 and possibly others. I shoot tethered in the studio doing product shots and it takes a long time to get the image into the computer.

I have a 5D3, USB 2 and 3 readers and I shoot mirrored to two CF SanDisk 90MB/s card and a SD SanDisk 95MB/s cards. I always take the SD card out of the camera and place it in the computer to transfer files and I just did a quick test on my computer with the internal reader with the SD card and got 78MB/s transfer speed and it took 12 sec to transfer 827MB.

Canon also crippled the SD slot on the 5D3 which limits shooting speed but that is the topic of countless existing threads on this forum.

I bought the Transcend (RDF8) USB 3.0 card reader from B+H and it is super fast and was only $14.95.


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## gordonkelliher (Apr 5, 2014)

dcm said:


> Uploads are only as fast as the slowest thing in the path, which is probably your camera. Lightning and USB 3.0 on the Mac Pro won't matter if your camera only has a USB 2.0 out port. It can't send any faster, even if the Mac Pro could read it faster.
> 
> The fastest option is probably to remove the SD card and place it in the built-in SD reader of the Mac Pro. No cables required, shortest possible path.
> 
> If you move to a body with a CF card, then you might consider a USB 3.0 CF reader which is still likely faster than uploading directly from the camera.


The new Mac Pro doesn't have an SD card slot. So, you'll have to go with something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Super-Multi-Card-Reader-TS-RDF8K/dp/B0056TYRMW


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## dcm (Apr 5, 2014)

gordonkelliher said:


> dcm said:
> 
> 
> > Uploads are only as fast as the slowest thing in the path, which is probably your camera. Lightning and USB 3.0 on the Mac Pro won't matter if your camera only has a USB 2.0 out port. It can't send any faster, even if the Mac Pro could read it faster.
> ...




I was thinking Macbook Pro. Forgot about the new "tower".


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## Northstar (Apr 6, 2014)

NostraHistoria said:


> I have ordered a Mac Pro. I am wondering if I should upgrade the cable I use to upload pics to it since it has thunderbolt and USB 3.0 slots. If you know the fastest option, let me know. I saw that this lightning to USB adapt is for iPads. http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD821ZM/A/lightning-to-usb-camera-adapter?fnode=5b3abcc454654c56a0e1d775d3d6376db8041083c9ce7e2898d21e1eb184a3ad08b295a0f90c525399dc4295859b551fedf4e344b215f60796dcecee09fa49a6
> 
> I do not want to get a lighting to sd reader, since I will upgrade to a better camera in the future.



Buy the lexar or sandisk USB 3.0 dual card (cf and sd) reader. They are very fast, and as others have said, canon cameras don't have USB 3.0 output yet.

I have the lexar ($30) Here's what I do:

1. After shooting I pull the card (sd or cf) from the camera 
2. Place card in USB 3.0 card reader and connect to MacBook Pro.
3. Transfer images 
4. When done, keep images on card as a back up and place card in my camera bag 
5. Place a different card back in camera for the next time you shoot. (You should have at least two, but preferably three or more cards)


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## brett b (Apr 8, 2014)

Seanlucky said:


> brett b said:
> 
> 
> > Don't upload from your camera...if you are. Take the card out and upload through a card reader.
> ...



Great point about Thunderbold speed and memory card speed. Thanks!


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## dcm (Apr 9, 2014)

dcm said:


> Did a quick test on my 6D, M, and Mac Mini (current generation), uploading 197 photos (raw+jpg - about 5.6Gb) from a SanDisk Extreme 64Gb (45Mb/sec) SD card. Cameras are obviously USB 2.0 devices, Mac Mini has USB 3.0 ports and thunderbolt. I normally use the Mac Mini's internal SD slot when uploading since its most convenient and should be the fastest.
> 
> 2:22 via internal SD slot (Memory Card Utility)
> 5:13 via cheap external USB 2.0 card reader plugged into USB 3.0 port (Memory Card Utility)
> ...



Tried a couple of external USB 3.0 card readers. Similar results to the internal although I was surprised the Lexar performed slightly better.

2:02 Lexar Workflow SR1 (memory card utility)
2:20 plugable multi-card reader (memory card utility)


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