I currently use a Firewire reader for my CF cards and I have grown accustomed to that speed. Allegedly USB 3.0 is even faster. I'm surprised no one on this forum has tried a USB 3.0 card with the Sony XQD card reader. I'd think that the D4 shooters who are cranking off 10 FPS would be all over it

Don't worry too much about USB 3.0. I'm still running 2.0 without issues. Waiting for downloads isn't as bad as you might think. There are probably a lot of us in the same boat right now until we upgrade our computers. I certainly haven't swore at my computer waiting for things to happen.

FYI Sandisk does make a Firewire CF card reader. I use it to with Lightroom and its really nice.

Since the Sony XQD reader is USB 3.0 and the D800 is USB 3.0 it seems as if a USB 3.0 board for a Mac Pro is needed to get the most out of a D4 or a D800. ... Unfortunately I can't seem to find a USB 3.0 board that comes highly recommended.

How do we get there from here?

new MacBooks with usb3.0 do not work with the d800 yet, apple needs to kick out a software update. tried with a friends new macbook pro and took the camera in to a apple store to try on the retina macbook and they do not work. Spent over an hour on the phone with top level tech support guy at apple and he believes that its a software thing apple has to fix.

I'd say run as fast as you can to get it... USB 2.0 is 480Mbit/s, btw *not* megabytes. That gives you 60 MB/s, near half of which is protocol overhead, so you can realistically expect around 30MB/s of useable data. Doesn't seem much for a D800 to me..

I'm thinking about going into an Apple store and plugging my camera into one of the new MacBook Pro Retna computers with USB 3.0. Not sure if they'll let you do that or not, but maybe!!

-Andy

Wish I could have helped you but I am still on a microsoft 2006 dinosaur..That aside I know that with my crappy 2.0 I am getting 480MB per second compared to 4.8GB per second with a 3.0. 2.0 is using 4 lines while the 3.0 is getting 9 lines! Another handy thing with 3.0 is that you can simply just plug and go as opposed to plug and play with my 2.0. 3.0 has only been available for laptops since 2010 I beleive no? I am using a transcend 2.0 with sandisk 16, 32 GB cards at 90mb/s and its painful at times. I usually plug in and take a shower or make some breakfast and leave it alone for 10-15 minutes. Welcome to the wonderful world of D800/D800e haha

If its not too late I'd jump at the 3.0 if you still can.

Hi all
I have done my best to search the forum and can't seem to find an answer, so here's my question.

Has anyone used USB 3,0 with their D800 on a Mac Pro? It seems a lot of us have Mac Pros, and a lot of us have, or are waiting for, D800s. With the larger file sizes it seems as if it would really nice to have the USB 3.0 speed. Does anyone have any experience with USB 3.0 boards for the Mac Pro and the D800? Does it make sense to get a USB 3.0 board?