You may be on the market for a compact flash reader because you are a digital image editing hobbyist, a professional photographer, or simply are looking for an alternative to slower models of media storage.

Compact flash certainly fits the bill with many of your high end media needs. But here are some considerations before you go out and purchase a compact flash reader. You want make sure you have a clear idea of what you are looking for instead of saying "I want it all".

For example, does the reader work with all standards of compact flash or just for a few? You should anticipate whether or not you may be using a flash media standard now or in the future that may not be compatible with a flash reader you are looking at.

If you do not care too much about that, then just get a compact flash reader that works with the format you use the most for example some may work with SmartMedia flash, while others could read Microdrive flash standards, but not both. And ignore the other features.

If you are looking at a USB 2 reader, it should be reverse or backwards compatible with the 1.1 ports in both directions. The reader needs to automatically detect whether the card is a USB 2 or USB 1.1 port either by reviewing the built-in software in the card, or by checking the number of pins on the card.

That really is all there is to it. Make sure you get faster speeds, i.e. USB 2, with fast read and write speeds if you use larger more bandwidth heavy media such as high resolution film and photography. A good flash reader will last you at least a few years depending on your needs.