DIY Multi-Card Reader for Photographers
I personally use everything linked in this article, however they are affiliate links! 🙂
DIY: Create Your Own Multi-Card Reader | Photography Education
After each wedding or shoot, my upload and backup process begins as soon as I get home. No ifs, ands or buts… it is #1 priority.
Before I let myself even think about going to bed, all cards are uploaded and have begun both the local and cloud backup process. When uploading 4-6 cards though, this process can take for-freaking-ever. To speed up this painfully slow process, I invested in a Lexar Workflow Hub plus a reader for each of it’s 4 bays. This cost me about $200 which was pretty painful for a card reader, but it worked and I was on my way.
Fast forward to about a year and a half later – this card reader started to intermittently fail on uploads. I spent some time troubleshooting all possible issues: computer, hard drive, memory cards, card reader. It turned out that the problem was the reader, so I invested in a replacement device. To make a long story short, it worked for a while then began failing again. I was pretty fed up when my third replacement died. I decided that it was time to figure out something different, so off to Amazon I went! At first, I thought that this would be a temporary solution. To my surprise though, this set up has been 100% reliable, compact and way cheaper!
Here’s what you need to create your own SD card tower:
One Anker 4-Port Portable Aluminum Hub
Four Kingston Digital SD USB Card Reader
Total Cost: $58.23
Thats it! Ta-Da! Now you can upload those multiple cards like a pro!
I hope this DIY solution serves you as well as it has served me! Keep on hustling photog friend!
that is so helpful Dawn! Gosh you always have the best ideas :)!!