Took the plunge into DSLR - two mac-specific questions

[mattwe]

Okay, I had posted awhile back about which DSLR to buy and went back and forth (mentally) between the D70 and the K10D. Santa (read: wife) solved the debate and bought me the K10D (I had decided on that one anyway so it worked out well).

Two questions to start:

1) have they fixed the problem with aperture and time machine? I was going to start my aperture demo, but use time machine about every other day on my laptop and don't want it messing things up.

2) I have not been able to find any good reviews on expresscard readers - every one I have read the review of points out some severe limitations (either Mac incompatibility or incompatibility with large [over 2gig] cards). Any suggestions? (I searched but didn't pull much up on the topic)

 

[robbieduncan]

1) No. The current recommendation is still to turn off Time Machine when using Aperture.

2) For what format? I have a reader for most formats apart from CF. Works perfectly, although I've not tried it with a >2Gb card.

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

I've got a handy little Sandisk card reader, it looks like a thumbdrive but you stick the card into the side of it. I've used 4 GB SDHC cards with it without troubles so I know it works for them.

Do you have a laptop? Even if you don't and want to use your camera tethered you can download Pentax remote assistant 3 for free from Pentax's website. Congratulations on a fantastic camera!

SLC

 

[zdobson]

I've seen some pretty fast FW800 card readers on bhphotovideo.com. The thing you have to check is the speed that your card will transfer because some readers can transfer faster than the card will go, so you would be limited by the speed of your card.

Edit: Links: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/492648-REG/Lexar_RW034_001_Professional_UDMA_FireWire_800.html
this FW800 reader has a transfer rate of 800 Mb/s! However, a 300x card has a transfer rate of 45 Mb/s, which is the fastest I found.

Another Edit: I just saw you were specifically talking about expresscard. Same thing with the FW800; even though expresscard transfer rates will go up to 400+Mb/s, you can't even begin to use that speed. Best bet is to get a USB2.0 reader that is equal to or greater than the speed of your card.

 

[Airforce]

Santa (read: wife) solved the debate .

Aren't wives great? Mine surprised me early with my DSLR this Christmas as well.

 

[mattwe]

2) For what format? I have a reader for most formats apart from CF. Works perfectly, although I've not tried it with a >2Gb card.

SD format - what kind do you have?

Thanks for the other recommendations, but I want something I can have in my laptop all the time (so I want something to fit flush in the Expresscard slot).

(and yes, wives are great)

 

[zdobson]

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/476196-REG/Belkin_F5U213_Multimedia_Reader_and_Writer.html

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

This one is advertised to be SDHC compatible and it fits into the PCI express slot!

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8564895&type=product&id=1188562136908

SLC

 

[robbieduncan]

SD format - what kind do you have?

Thanks for the other recommendations, but I want something I can have in my laptop all the time (so I want something to fit flush in the Expresscard slot).

(and yes, wives are great)

Mostly CF: the reader is for the nasty xD card from my Fuji F31 and anything anyone else gives me to read. The reader sits almost flush: I don't think anything would sit totally flush...

 

[Macerture]

I bought a handful of $3 USB card readers from a bargain bin. They read my SDHC cards and play equally nice with Mac and PC.. USB is all you need and they are dirt cheap.

Congrats on the K10D - You'll grow into it for sure! If you have any questions about it, just ask. I love mine

 

[ChrisA]

1) have they fixed the problem with aperture and time machine? ...

2) I have not been able to find any good reviews on expresscard readers ..

1) Just make sure Aperture is not running when you enable time machine

2) It is not so bad to simply plug the camera into the computer. Maybe it is not as fast as a FW card reader but it will be as fast as a USB reader. So it takes an extra few seconds but the up side is that you will have one less gadget to haul around with you.

 

[marclapierre13]

Wow, lucky!
Great choice in camera, you will have lots of fun with it! I am thinking of upgrading to the K10D, but lack of money after the holidays is an issue lol, especially since I just bought a new snowboard setup (merry xmas to myself)