How to get started with downloading images

I have just purchased my first computer (IMac 20") and need some advice on downloading my images into my Mac.. I have a Canon 5D...what is the best/fastest method to download my images...directly from the Canon 5D or a card reader? If a card reader...which ones are the best?

Thank you for your time....

Van

Van, a card reader is much, much faster than using the cable provided with the camera. There are many inexpensive brands out there that do a great job for $15 to $20. Or you can go with a well-known brand name and pay about $30. You can buy one with either a USB or a firewire hookup. Firewire will be faster, though more expensive, but even the USB (which I use) is lightning compared with the cable.

It's way cheap for what you get out of it in saved time.

A card reader also lets your CF card act like an external hard drive, so you can drag things from your computer onto the card from time to time. Downloading and updating camera firmware is one example that comes to mind.

We've been using SanDisc's firewire readers alongside a USB unit on Macs. Don't know how they come up with the speed ratings for USB models, but firewire is at least twice as fast and usually faster than that. Worth the little bit of extra money to us, but not to everyone.

Also - USB 2.0 is "rated" at about the same speed as Firewire 400 (though Firewire, as noted, is typically faster in real world use on large amounts of data). But if your computer and reader can use Firewire 800 it would be almost twice as fast - I'm not sure how widespread FireWire 800 has become though. Just figured that since you have a new Mac, this might come into play (you might have a Firewire 800 port).

Thanks for all the info..I checked the ports of my iMac and it has two firewire ports (one firewire 400 and one firewire 800). Given that..can anyone give me some brands/models to look at?

SanDisk is tested and true. I use one of theirs for my Mac laptop traveling computer and really like it.

I use a SanDisk CF reader it works great. Be careful down loading direct from you camera if you can avoid it. A friend of mine (Nikon user) had a malfunction which placed his camera out of commision for repair. May have been a fluke but ever since I have always used a reader.

I use SanDisk also. Works great, no problems in over two years of heavy use (not as much as Hank, but probably more than average!). This with a Nikon system... Good luck. You're in for a lot of fun.