via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Card Reader...

therwol Loc: USA

I concur. That's the only way I transfer photos from my camera to computer. My phone is a different story, especially if the photos are in the internal memory, and those itty bitty cards are harder to deal with.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

I prefer my card reader, saves valuable drain on my camera battery.

Largobob

I guess anything is possible, but I find it curious that the manufacturers of cameras would provide the cables (and output port on their cameras) if this were a common issue. Additionally, I seem to read WAY more stories from people who break/bend pins on their cards moving them in and out of cameras/readers. I believe options 1 and 2 are both viable ways to move data files from camera to computer..... #1 being a faster transfer rate.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

While a card reader may be little faster the cable is easiest. Taking the cards in and out just creates the possibility of damaging pins. The old moving parts story. In addition my camera has two different cards and if i use both, I have to play with both. I like one stop shopping. BTW have a card reader and used maybe twice when i first got it.

#2

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

#1 is fastest.. However when I do my transfers on a laptop I transfer to a USB external drive so that my images are NOT eating up the limited drive space on the laptop and they can easily be transferred to my main Desktop computer. My laptop is just for traveling and impromptu evaluating images on something larger than the back of the camera and giving me a head start on developing. I will do a few if there is a time constraint or a customer waiting on 6 or 7 shots.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

WiFi—but it’s not Nikon’s which is a PITA. Personally, I hate the card readers and cords. No reason to use those with a competent, well-designed WiFi along with a decent app. But the OP is using a Nikon....

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

The question was about alternatives for transfer to the laptop. I transfer to the external drive not my laptop's drive. (Though it does go through my laptop) Later I backup to another external drive. The pictures are on my SD card which is in my camera not on it. I have never tried just laying the card on top of my camera to take pictures, but if that works for you, I am happy for you. After all MT you have more experience than I, so I will respect your wisdom. I will continue the manufacture's recommendation of putting the card in my camera.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Absolutely!!
Mark

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

Actually, Wi-Fi is an option with Nikon... but my with D7100 shooting RAW the image sizes tend to be 2mb or larger apiece and I typically shoot between 100 and 300 shots on each shooting trip... so Wi-Fi (even at 20mb per second are considerably slower than my fast USB card reader. The usb on the camera is extremely slow and the Wi-Fi adapter is primarily a 1to1 to a cell phone or limited to the computer. Also, good USB3 card readers are about $15-20 at Best Buy and the (not as reliable and requiring a lot more futzing) Wi-Fi (yes I have one but rarely use it) adapter is not really worth the effort. (and yes... I have a network with 6 desktop computers and or servers running fiber Ethernet, 3 Wi-Fi switches (2 D-link and one Netgear) one highspeed, Cisco Catalyst 4500 switch/router). It is overkill but I am a CNA and CCAr (thank you Hartford Financial, LOL). For me, and on my network, while Wi-Fi is heavily used by my laptops, my cell phones, etc. Everything else, (including my laptops if I am doing "heavy" work) are wired to the network (and internet through my two firewalls). And I have one computer that sits in the deadman's area between the two firewalls analyzing IP addresses and tracking attacks (mostly from China, with a few from Africa, India, Europe and a few of the island and rarely from Japan).

My point is that while Wi-Fi is a great solution for cameras with the ability, (and Nikon has several Wi-Fi solutions that start at about $50 for the plug-in Wi-Fi adapter to the WT4A wireless transmitter), removing the SD Card and putting it in a good, high speed card reader works best for me.. Part of this is because I tend to shoot multiple cameras and use multiple cards on shoots.. so uploading everything via Wi-Fi is an issue.
While one solution works best for you, and another works best for me, everyone needs to adapt their uploading and processing processes to what fits their needs best. With my card reader scenario, I can (and do) have a USB3 card reader on 3 of my computers and could upload 3 cards at a time. The issue here is that I don't have the Lightrooms accessing the same main folder on the server in order to keep them straight and not have to copies of Lightroom trying to edit the same photo.

Mr. SONY Loc: LI, NY

Does your laptop have a built-in SD card reader? Most do.
Even my ancient 12 year old Lenovo has one.

I should add that WD sells a portable HD with a built-in SD card reader and runs off it's internal battery or AC power.
You can even plug in a second drive for an additional storage device for extra safety measure.
And it's WI-FI enabled. No need to use a cable for use on your laptop.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

The question VERY SPECIFICALLY asked about transferring pictures from a CAMERA to a LAPTOP. Your response clearly stated you don't use any of the accepted methods. Not a valid response to the OP at all, and you never presented an alternative way to get those pictures from his camera.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Please read the full thread. Several have mentioned the use of an external instead of transferring to the laptop. Using an external as an intermediary is an alternative.

MT, please don't turn into a troll.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

No, I read YOUR post and it had nothing to do with the OP nor anything preceeding your post and its your first oist that ckearly smacks of trolling. If you must pist to a thread at least make that post relevant.

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

Agreed. I have been using a flash reader since my first 1mb camera and have never had a problem. It reduces/eliminates using the camera as a disk drive and reseats the card when it is reinserted in the camera.