As announced in another thread, my wife and I will be going to Israel in the near future. I bought a digital camera (Canon A20) so that I can take pictures and post them on the web for my family/friends/kids to see while we’re away… (In addition, I just needed an excuse to get a digital camera anyway ).
Anyway, the person with whom my wife and I will be staying has a computer. The computer, however, is on the older side and does not have a USB port. Since my camera only supports USB, I cannot directly connect it to the computer. I wanted to get a card reader, but am having trouble finding one that will connect to a serial port. I know that it will take longer to upload the pix with a serial connection rather than a USB, but that’s OK.
Does anyone here know of a card reader (CompactFlash) that I can use, or have some other solution?
You’re going to have a tough go of it as I’m not aware of any RS-232 card reader. I’ll check on Steve’s Digicams and see if anyone knows of one. There are floppy disk adapters for Smart Media but not CF AFAIK. In the long run CF is better media. If you know someone with a laptop that supports PC cards you can get a $10-15 adapter to read your CF cards. It doesn’t require a driver and the card appears as a removable disk.
Good little camera BTW. I’ve got an A10 an found it extremely flexible for a point and shoot. I’ve got the underwater housing for mine. More fun than you should be allowed at pool parties and hot tubs.
Also, try pawn shops and even “build” computer shops. Some may have trade ins or even old stock someplace. I have a Lexar Media card reader for parallel that I love. A friend of mine a couple years ago had a puter shop and he would go to auctions for outdated hardware/software just to have them in back for obsolete folks like me who always seem to be late in getting the new toys. He, like most, had to be asked for the stuff though cuz he didn’t have room to show it out front (and it looks bad if you are carrying a lot of old stuff instead of lots of new supertech stuff).
I’m considering getting a USB card until I spring for a new puter though because of the same problem. Everything seems to be USB only nowdays.
I have a SanDisk parallel port card reader because my old system didn’t support USB. It’s a little more expensive than the USB ones, but I still use it on my new computer and it works just fine.
If the computer has a PC slot, you can get a Compact Flash to PCMCIA (I think that’s right) adapter and just plug it straight in. That’s what I do with my old Powerbook.
If they have an open PCI slot and are running Win98se or later the gift of a dual USB card (approx $ 20) might benefit both of you and be a nice thank you to your host(ess).
Handy, the PC card adapters pulykamell is referring to are incredibly cheap. Best Buy carries the Sandisk for about $14-15 and that is the most you’ll pay for one. No software required.
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