6 replies to this topic

[Nikonite]

Last February I built a new PC around an ASUS Z87 Deluxe Dual motherboard and an Intel core I7 4770k processor (Haswell). It has all the latest features. AC wireless, SATA 6 gig p/s, 4k monitor, on and on with the most important being USB 3.0. Until last week I put off upgrading all my USB 2.0 legacy stuff. Big mistake! The difference between USB 2.0 and 3.0 is huge in terms of speed. If you're working with RAW files in excess of 30 megabytes don't wait to upgrade to USB 3.0! With my camera's memory card being 95 megabytes per second I can actually achieve that throughput with USB 3.0. With USB 2.0 the max I could get from my 95 megabyte per second memory card was 5 megabytes per second. Copying 50, 30 megabyte raw files went from 5 minutes with USB 2.0 to 20 seconds with USB 3.0. If I knew there would be that much difference I would have switched months ago!!! I'm USB 3.0's newest fan!

[Afterimage]

Funny, I recently built a new system using the Asus Z87 Pro board myself and was blown away with the 3.0's speed. I also like the WiFi Direct and Bluetooth connectivity of that board. Makes the transferring of files from all media sources sooooo easy.

[Nikonite]

Yes "easy" as well as FAST! I'm going to Alaska for 12 days in September. I was dreading downloading 12 days of images when I got back. But now that I have USB 3.0 that won't take any time at all.

[TBonz]

If you can, take a laptop and a couple of external drives so you can download (and backup) while you are there...worst case, make sure you have LOTS of cards so you don't run out of space...Since it would probably be one of those "once in a lifetime" trips for me, I'd probably do all of the above.  Something like:  Dump images to laptop at the end of each day, copy from laptop to two external drives, leave images on cards.  And I'd probably ship at least one of those separately just in case! 

[Nikonite]

WOW! With all these new luggage and carry on rules I'm not sure you can do all that anymore. Just kidding. I'm taking a laptop that has a blu ray burner and I'll be backing up and burning everyday. I did this every day on my NYC trip and it worked well. Even so if I didn't download, backup and burn at the end of the day I don't think I would have exceeded my 32GB memory cards in the camera. Even the card dedicated to RAW. The main reason for "zeroing" the memory cards at the end of the day is Wi-Fi transfer. I share a lot of pics with my wife's cell phone. If there are 8 days of pics on the camera's mem cards  it takes too long to transfer. You can't transfer just the photos you want you have to transfer all the contents of the memory card. Nikon really needs to fix that!   

[TBonz]

It isn't just Nikon...same goes with the EyeFi card...but, I am sure it is possible to fix...

[Nikonite]

Sure! I can choose only what I want to keep after transferring everything. So just make it the other way. Let me choose only what I want to transfer to begin with!