Update: 4/18/10 After hundreds of uses I decided to buy another card reader when I gave this one away to a friend who had tried to download HC cards with a regular reader. I purchased the one linked below. I like it a lot better. It has a better feel for inserting and removing the reader into the computer and the SD card into the case. I recommend the Secure Digital over the Zeikos reader.
PQI USB 2.0 SecureDigital High-Speed (SDHC) Card Reader
I was a bit worried that it would be junk because of James review but I figured it was only $3, what the heck. I did not experience any of the problems that James did. My reader fit properly into the USB slot and performed properly. I like that you can put the cover over the back of the card reader and protect the SD card. I have used it with SD and SDHC cards without a problem.
If you have a question please leave a comment.
UPDATE: I have been watching the price of this card reader change by the day. At the time I wrote this review it was only $2.97. Now it is $4.97. I wish I ordered more.
12/20/09 Now it's $5.97. Still worth the price.
Update: 1/31/10 I am still using the reader almost daily and have not had any problems with it. I am concerned that I see so many bad reviews. Is it possible that I got a good reader and so many others got bad readers? My review is based on my experience. Please consider other reviews since the seem to be so many negative reviews now. Zeikos USB 2.0 SD/SDHC/MMC Flash Memory Card Reader ZE-SDR5
Great little reader for full-size SD/SDHC cards. Fast USB 2.0 high-speed reading and writing. I also like how the little LED on the reader will go out after you successfully "eject" the card, so you know it is safe to remove.
The dust cap over the card slot can be put back on with the card installed in the reader, making it look more like a "flash drive" than a card reader, and also avoids accidentally removing the card while reading/writing (the card is held in with just minimal friction).
I have tried this on a number of machines, with both SD and SDHC cards. A couple of laptops did require the use of the (included) extension cable because the reader would not otherwise fully insert into their recessed USB port.
Purchased several of these readers, none showed the problems with "the metal male end" reported by the other reviewer.
I was a little reluctant to buy this card reader after reading some of the reviews. However, for the price, the very small risk made the purchase well worth it. When reading through reviews, I try and read between the lines and filter out what I feel could be biased.
Anyway. I bought two of these, one to carry in my camera bag and one to keep handy at my desk. I simply insert my SDHC card in the reader, plug the reader into my USB port and my pictures instantly appear. No problems, no hassles and this reader operates at a totally respectable speed. Would I buy them again? You bet!
These were at such an unbeatable price when I ordered, that I decided to buy 3 as the reviews were good. I haven't been disappointed either! I do a lot of amateur photo and video, so I am constantly loading SDHC cards into my PC to transfer files. These card readers are fast and very reliable. I haven't had a single issue with them at all and they will even serve as a handy external USB "micro-hard-drive" one day when large capacity SDHC cards fall in price and I have upgraded.
Update 07-09-2010:
Well, the party couldn't last that long. One of the readers that I had bought has now mysteriously failed. It wasn't dropped or misused in any way, it just ceased to read any cards. I am now wondering about the quality of these. Hopefully it was just a freak occurance.
NOTE: I would give this a ZERO STAR RATING if I could
This chip worked 4 times. I was using a 16gb scandisk SD card.
On the 5th time, using the USB extension it opened to a folder on the desktop which was all in code.
Then it flashed the message that it was removed improperly which could cause problems etc.. except I had not removed it.
I ejected it and put it in without the usb extension and it said memory card could not be read.
I put the chip back in my camera and it said the same thing and would not allow me to reformat it.
It made the card unreadable to any reader OR my camera and I lost all photos and cannot reformat the card, which is basically now lost.
I put a new 2gb chip in my camera, took some photos. It downloaded them twice.
The third time it did the same thing as above, ruined another chip.
Two unusable chips later, I have thrown this out and will buy a more expensive reader with five stars.
I bought this for convenience so I don't have to connect the camera to the computer. It worked OK at first but was quirky, now it doesn't work at all. Its not worth returning because the price was so low. I guess I'll have to use the camera until I can find another one. - Sdhc - Sd Card Reader - Camera Accessories - Usb Card Reader'
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