Product Reviews

Announced at Photokina way back in 2004, but only recently available, Lexar's Professional CompactFlash Reader is a compelling alternative to the hordes of card readers on the market. What's unique about this device is its ability to stack and connect up to a maximum of four units, allowing concurrent downloading of CompactFlash (CF) cards. Available as either separate FireWire or USB 2 devices, the former can be daisy-chained, while the latter require an optional four-port USB 2 hub.

Naturally, the new reader supports Lexar Professional Write Accelerated cards, but also proprietary LockTight (LT) memory card data security technology in combination with certain Nikon pro digital cameras (D2x, D2Hs & D200 only). Furthermore, the Pro CF reader is also planned to be a fundamental component for Lexar's forthcoming ActiveMemory System. That will allow programmable content to be swapped from camera to camera and is eagerly anticipated.

We were sent the USB 2 hub and a pair of USB readers, rather than the FireWire alternatives. But, it's a handy combination for today's iBooks or PowerBooks as it frees the arguably more valuable FireWire port for simultaneous backing up to an external hard drive.

Usefully, Lexar supplies all the USB cables necessary plus a universal travel kit complete with power adaptor and plugs for the USB hub, although it can be powered directly from most recent iBooks and PowerBooks. Each device weighs 90.6g, so for four readers plus the hub, cables and power adaptor you're looking at close to

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0.5kg, but they look and feel more durable than most other types we've seen.

When you attach the complete set-up to your Mac each reader mounts to the desktop only when a card is inserted. But, how much benefit you derive from it depends on the software used to import images. A demo version of the underrated but pricey $150 Photo Mechanic browser is bundled for downloading from each card in turn. Adobe Lightroom, Image Capture and iPhoto only import from one card at a time, though, and there isn't a compatible action in Automator, but a script could be written to action this.

Using Photo Mechanic 4.4.1.1, we downloaded 514 images, a 1.7 GB mixture of Raw and Jpeg's from one 2GB and 1GB Kingston Elite Pro (50x) high-speed CF cards in just five minutes. That's an average rate of 6MB/s. Simply dragging and dropping a single 809MB folder into the Pictures folder averaged 8MB/s, which is over 3.5 times faster than our previously preferred SanDisk USB 2 ImageMate 8-in-1 reader using the same criteria.

Knowing you can load up to four CF cards or Microdrives and download each to your Mac in a single operation may be a great comfort, but it's expensive considering the number of alternatives available. However, for those that work in pressured environments, Lexar's Pro CF reader will become an essential item.

Kevin Carter

We were also sent a Lexar 80x 512MB LockTight card and after a somewhat fiddly set-up, necessitating a download of the latest version (1.0.1) of the LT Admin software before the Nikon D200 could be recognized, we were impressed with the security features on offer. Password protected admission allows an administrator to assign users to cards and compatible cameras preventing opportunistic access to sensitive images, though it will be of little interest or use to home users.

Of more universal appeal, Lexar also bundles the excellent proprietary Image Rescue (2.0.5) utility. Providing they haven't been overwritten, most Jpegs and Tiffs are easily recovered, and it does well with various Raw file formats, something that many disaster recovery programs fail to achieve.