I have been using a Sandisk Extreme Pro 90 MB/s UDMA 6 card in my D4. It's at the shop. I bought a D800 while its there and used the same card in the new camera. Last week, I ordered two Lexar 1000x UDMA 7 cards and used one of them for the first time today.

I tried importing the files from the 1000x cards into Lightroom via my old USB3 card reader. The first couple of files loaded fine, then the transfers slowed down to a snail's pace. The files were copied to a USB3 External 3 TB drive via a USB3 card added to my 64 Bit Windows system.

I did a few tests.
When I connected an XQD reader directly to the USB 3 adapter and copied a bunch of files to the C drive, it copied at a rate of around 78 mb/s. The USB3 CF card reader transferred the files from the Sandisk Extreme Pro at around 35 MB/s at a consistent speed. When connected to either the internal C drive or the external USB 3 drive, the USB3 CF card reader the Lexar 1000x card started out at around 30 MG/s, then quickly slowed to around 12 MB/s. I stopped the transfers after it slowed to only 4.9 MB/s and only around 15 files. That makes me think I need a new Lexar USB3 CF card reader with the updated drivers to read USMA 7. I have no idea why it would slow down so drastically.

I also tried connecting the D800 directly to the computer via the USB3 adapter. While sending files to either the internal C drive or the external USB 3 drive, files transferred at a consistent speed throughout the transfer. Windows didn't display the speed in the dialog box, so I don't know exactly how fast they were transferring. It looked like around 2 seconds per 74,776k file...maybe 3 seconds.

The XQD file transfer confirmed the USB3 adapter card is working properly at USB3 speeds of around 75 MB/s. The old combo USB3 card reader is made by AdvanCED (purchased through Amazon) and has worked fine on the UDMA 6 cards.

Did everyone here buy a Lexar card reader with the updated firmware if they bought the Lexar 1000x cards?

Lastly, my old laptop is a Windows Vista machine. It only has a USB2 port. Would I need a new version of the Lexar CF card reader to copy files from the UDMA 7 cards at USB2 speed?

M. Jackson
Jackson Hole, WY

Sounds like it could be the card reader if the XQD card reader can read faster on the same USB3.0 port. I bought the USB3.0 Lexar CF/SD card reader as I didn't have a CF card reader when I bought the D800E. I haven't tested my Sandisk Extreme Pro's with the reader as I usually just import through LR4.3 so it doesn't show me the speed... Also Lexar has a firmware update you can load onto the reader if you get the older one that is only rated to UDMA6, the firmware updates it to support UDMA7:

http://www.lexar.com/downloads

Now for the older laptop, USB3.0 is backward compatible and will default back to USB2.0 speeds (~20-25mb/s). Just plug the new reader in, load any drivers needed, should be plug and play, and away you go.

Chris

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Hi Chris,
Thanks for the response. Just to be sure, I plan on ordering one or two of the Lexar Dual Card readers today.

Yes, I understand USB3 is backward compatible with USB2 devices, but the question is whether I still need the second Lexar Dual Card Reader to be able to read the UDMA 7 cards, even at USB2 speeds. My current card readers don't seem to like them.

At least until I get the new readers, I will download directly from the camera using the USB3 cable. There was a time when I wasn't positive my system was recognizing the USB3 adapter card, but with the XQD card and reader working at full speed, I know that's not the problem. I also eliminated the four port USB3 hub and connected direct to the adapter card in the tests.

Files from my XQD card and reader seem to fly onto the system, but I know the D4 files are much smaller. However, Windows lets me click on the Details drop down and I can see the actual transfer speed when coming off the card readers. I am not sure why the same Details drop down is not available when reading directly from the camera.

M. Jackson
Jackson Hole, WY

I got 2 of the Lexar USB3.0 card readers (1 for my PC, one for my laptop) after purchasing the Lexar 1000x CF card, because Lexar confirmed that their USB 2.0 card readers wouldn't read UDMA7 cards. I've been very impressed with the USB3.0 card reader - my laptop has USB3.0 capability but my PC doesn't, but to be quite honest I haven't seen a lot of difference in performance - the USB3.0 card reader is much faster than my old USB2.0 reader (which my husband now uses as he shoots exclusively JPEGS mainly for Ebay and for an online car club where he buys and sells lots of car stuff). I'd recommend the Lexar reader if you're having trouble with your old reader.

D800, D700, D300

It ain't so much the things we don't know that get us in trouble. It's the things we know that just ain't so.

Why is this thus? What is the reason of this thusness?

- Artemus Ward

Hi Mike,

Sorry I didn't answer your question fully... But it does seem to me that you will need either two new CF card readers or move one back and forth between systems, which may not be practical for you.

I did do some testing last night and found I hadn't updated the firmware in my USB3.0 Lexar card reader (link I posted earlier has the latest) to the UDMA7 supported version. But I have two of the 32gb Extreme Pro CF cards (90mb/s). One is UDMA6 and the other is marked UDMA7 and found with the test software I was using showed them to be about equal in speed, even after updating card reader's firmware. (44mb/s read and 74mb/s write). Now I also have a 32gb Extreme Pro SD card (95mb/s) and tested that card and was getting 71mb/s read and 72mb/s write speeds. So I'm thinking the Lexar dual card USB3.0 card reader is faster with the SD cards for some reason.... I was going to try the same tests with the cards in the D800 body to see if I get different results... What I'm wondering is how the 1000x cards would test with the same software..... Some food for thought....

Chris

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

True to form, B&H got my package to me in a short period of time.

I bought two new Lexar Dual Card Readers and connected one to the computer just now. I still had the same 32 Gig Lexar UDMA 7 CF card I used in the first tests.

I connected the reader to the computer's USB3 adapter direct with a USB3 cable and then copied a pile of photos into a folder on the internal C SATA drive. The first few files copied at a speed of around 99 to 100 MB/s, then started slowing some. But the time it had copied around 100 files, the speed had dropped to around 68 MB/s, but then leveled off for the remaining 150 files.

After that test, I made a directory on an external USB3 Seagate drive and copied the same files into it. After a few files, it settled into copying at a rate of 50 to 53 MB/s.

This is a definite improvement over the previous AdvanCED card reader. I can live with this speed, but it is apparent the QXD card and reader are still faster on the uploads.

I haven't had the laptop out in a while, but still plan on using the newer Lexar Card Reader with it when I need to offload files on the road. The next time I upgrade my laptop computer, I hope to find one with at least two USB3 ports.

Thanks for all the responses. Maybe some of this will help others.

My D4 came back from Nikon Service today. The few test shots seem to indicate it is functioning well and focusing fine. I originally thought I might switch the primary slot to the new Lexar 1000x cards and let the QXD card be the seconary slot, but I think I will leave it as I originally had it set up.

M. Jackson
Jackson Hole, WY

Good to hear the new card readers solved your issue and the D4 lives to shoot again....

I also just tried a similar test with copying a bunch of pics from the D800 to and from my Sandisk Extreme Pro CF UDMA7 90mb/s card and was getting writes to the card, from my SSD internal hard drive, at about 59mb/s and copying from CF to SSD at about 51mb/s. So the data looks like this:

Lexar 1000x:

Write speed: ~68mb/s
Read speed: ~52mb/s

Sandisk Extreme Pro:

Write Speed: ~59mb/s
Read speed: ~51mb/s

Very unscientific test, but it does show the 1000x cards to be just a little faster which would explain results that I see from this site:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/camera_wb_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-12451


Chris

Visit my Nikonians gallery.