can be much faster too

Card speed (read or write) is not an issue for me but reliability is. I use SanDisk Extreme III cards and they have never failed me.

One piece of advice: get them from a reliable vendor. Avoid cheapo no-brand cards sold on eBay. I've heard that most of the ones on eBay are counterfeit but I don't have the link to where I read that. In fact, during the years I was a Student Advisor, I always gave students this simple piece of advice when buying anything: don't shop price; shop reliable vendor. I've lost count of the number of horror stories from students who went with the cheapest seller.

Camera-download vs card reader? I opt for a card reader. Often faster, especially if the camera is an older model.

Richard

I use the SanDisk Extreme IV cards, as my camera specifically supports the faster speed UDMA cards. I believe someone else already said this, but if your camera only supports, say, 15MB/s transfer rate, then buying a faster card is going to cost you extra money for no real gain.

I've never had a problem with the SanDisk cards.

I have! A few years ago, I had three cards that suddenly (and for no reason I could fathom) stopped being recognized by my camera (Canon 5D). I kept them for quite a while, hoping for a resurrection event. It didn't happen. When that 5D was stolen and I replaced it, the new 5D didn't recognize these cards either. So I threw them out.

I still have a couple Sandiscs but am buying Lexars now.

I handle my stuff the same way as Robert, because after reading manuals, books, and taking the pro photography course that is the general consensus. As far as why not down load from the camera, my camera cost more than my computer, and a digital camera is a computer of sorts, so I wouldn't want to needlessly risk my computer damaging my camera. That's just my opinion. On the other hand, I am considering light room for the ability to live view on my monitor, and I plug into strobes, and remotes without worry! I guess I'm also Leary as I could inadvertently change setting in the camera too.

In addition to all that have been said, if you use your camera to transfer the images to your computer and the camera battery dies, all the images in the card can get corrupted

[quote="Dana S"]I . I am considering light room for the ability to live view on my monitor, and I plug into strobes, and remotes without worry! quote]

So if I were to buy Light room I would be able to see my subject as I do a photo shoot? I have wondered how this was done. Please tell me that i am understanding this correctly.

What he is referring to is called tethered shooting, where your camera is connected to the computer via a USB or Firewire cable and the pictures automatically transfer from the camera to the computer as you shoot. You don't necessarily have to use LR, but you will need some additional S/W in addition to your photo processing program. Here is an article on Peachpit by Matt K. on how to shoot tethered with LR.

I have tested quite a few cards and am now working with Extreme Pro (90mb/sec) by Sandisk. I have tried several other cards with fast speed, but have noticed lag time. I do HDRI (high dynamic range imaging) and do 3-7 bracketed shots for each image. I fire them at the highest speed available to avoid movement when there is wind or people in my shots. I recently tried a Transcent 600x CF UDMA card. It should have been plenty fast, but there was lag time during my shots (lag in reading to the card).
If you don't do sports or some other specialized need for speed, you probably can use a much slower card. It also depends on the output speed of your camera and the size of files that are being produced. SanDisk IV and Lexar 300x have served me well in the past, but the newer faster cards work better for my current needs. I have a 1D M4 and 5D M2 both of which have video output and large file sizes. Since I shoot in RAW for HDRI, I notice a lag with slower cards.
If you don't need the speed, don't waste the money on the high speed cards. Many cameras can't take advantage of the higher speed.
I always use a card reader to download my images. I have a Lexar Professional which works for both CF and SD cards. Previous card readers that I have purchased keep breaking on me. This is the first card reader that has lasted for some time for me.

Deri

Gene, thanks for the link. Very interesting. Does anyone know where i get the kind of stand that holds the camera and the computer. I have seen them, i just don't know where to get one.