CompactFlash Adapter
This simple and cheap accessory has saved me hundreds of hours
when transferring pictures from the camera to my computer.
Its purpose is to make the (small) CompactFlash card appear to
be the same size physically as a standard ATA Flash memory card.
What that means is that you can then plug the adapter (carrying
the CompactFlash card) into a standard PC Card (or PCMCIA) slot
on your computer. I just so happen to do most of my work on a Toshiba
laptop PC, and it has 2 of these PC Card slots. Once plugged in,
Windows 95 ensures that the images on the CompactFlash card appear
as normal files on an extra disk drive. Itīs then childīs play to
transfer the images onto my hard disk by using drag and drop
in Windows Explorer or by using a piece of software called Picture
Information Extractor (PIE for short). See my Software
section for more details of the excellent PIE.
The transfer happens in seconds and imposes no drain whatsoever
on the cameraīs power source.
What if your computer doesnīt already have a PC Card slot? Well you can do one of 2 things:
- buy a CompactFlash card reader which plugs into the printer (parallel) port or USB port of your computer
- buy a PC Card reader which will plug into your computerīs interface bus and will give you 2 or more PC Card slots.
The first of these is relatively cheap and gives vastly better transfer times than with a straight serial connection. It is, however, restricted to
CompactFlash devices. The second doesnīt have this restriction meaning you can use it with other PC Card devices, such as modems and network cards. |
