Firewire for a laptop?

[revaaron]

I'm looking to replace my desktop with a high-end laptop so I can take it mobile when I go to other towns to shoot.  I did the whole "bring desktop + all cables + 24" monitor" thing more than once and I'm not doing that again.  Anyhow, none of the laptops have firewire anymore let along the D shaped one that my Nikon Cool scan takes.  Anyone know of an adapter out there?

[regfran]

lots of laptops have the smaller connector. It 's 4 pin. the bigger one on the older digicams is a 6 pin.  I've bought from these guys and they are great and you can get long cables.

http://www.usbfirewire.com/fcable44.html

regfran

[Brian Hirschfeld]

I'm looking to replace my desktop with a high-end laptop so I can take it mobile when I go to other towns to shoot.  I did the whole "bring desktop + all cables + 24" monitor" thing more than once and I'm not doing that again.  Anyhow, none of the laptops have firewire anymore let along the D shaped one that my Nikon Cool scan takes.  Anyone know of an adapter out there?

My 17" Unibody MacBook's have firewire....

[Walter Schulz]

As written above: There are laptops around with 4-pin FW. If you want to have a 6-pin connector you have to use something like "Sonnet FireWire 800 Pro ExpressCard/34" if your laptop has an ExpressCard connector. There are other manufacturers for such items. Google for "Firewire Expresscard".

Ciao, Walter

[nik]

If you replace your high end PC with a Mac, I would rather go with a 4 to 6 pin firewire cable (I get mine from the same place regfran suggests) than a firewire expresscard adapter for a couple of reasons;

- Firewire is on it's way out and driver support will surely follow for 3rd party cards (expresscards)
- I've found the expresscards to be expensive and the locking mechanism to be flimsy

Simplify your future troubleshooting, just get a couple cables.

-N

[fotometria gr]

My 17" Unibody MacBook's have firewire....

...and he can keep his PC by splitting a part of the HD if he wishes! Regards, Theodoros. www.fotometria.gr

 But this post should move to Computers & Peripherals! What is it doing here? Somebody should mail to Mike.

[revaaron]

No way am I going MAC cause all my software (a lot of which I wrote myself) is on windows and I hate OSX UI. And if I was going to run windows, why would I spend twice as much for a slower machine? $2.4K for a I7-2760QM mac book pro when I can get the same processor or better in a Dell for $1.4K before I find any coupons. Plus, I'm waiting for the ivy bridge processors to be in laptops before I jump. How long before the macbooks get a i7-39xxQM?

I did just notice that my 8-month old work laptop has a 1394 4-pin port that I never saw.  I hope one of those cable converter so that the old firewire works. I guess I can try it out on my work laptop.

[MrSmith]

aren't most pc laptops firewire ports not powered unlike Macs? i know some people need the power for their digital backs and mobile hardrives.

[Don Libby]

Take a look at Dell Precision mobile workstation.  I've been using a M6400 for several years.

Don

[Jozef Zajaz]

A couple of the high end thinkpads has firewire.

Otherwise a siig firewire card would be your best option. Its a pc express 54 mm card.

My T420 has a firewire 4 pin. And uses a core i7 (4 cores) and i've put 16gb of ram and a 256gb ssd in it and it's blazing fast.

With the extra slice battery i get about 17hrs of computing.

https://secure.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=LET420I7&N=0&InitialSearch=yes

Says discontinued but its only at bh. Make sure your Thinkpad has firewire as some lacks it.

Good luck!

[Jack Varney]

I use a Lenovo W500 that has a four wire firewire port. I use the W model for its display characteristics but there may be other Lenovo models with firewire.

[mediumcool]

No way am I going MAC cause all my software (a lot of which I wrote myself) is on windows and I hate OSX UI. And if I was going to run windows, why would I spend twice as much for a slower machine? $2.4K for a I7-2760QM mac book pro when I can get the same processor or better in a Dell for $1.4K before I find any coupons. Plus, I'm waiting for the ivy bridge processors to be in laptops before I jump. How long before the macbooks get a i7-39xxQM?

I did just notice that my 8-month old work laptop has a 1394 4-pin port that I never saw.  I hope one of those cable converter so that the old firewire works. I guess I can try it out on my work laptop.

Correction: MAC is an acronym for Media Access Control. Perhaps you meant to say Macintosh?

Good to see you found a FireWire port! 

[Kerry L]

aren't most pc laptops firewire ports not powered unlike Macs? i know some people need the power for their digital backs and mobile hardrives.

Yes, this has been my experience. The small 4 pin is designed to connect to equipment like digi-cams that are self-powered. A straight 4 - 6 pin adapter didn't work for me in trying to use a CF card reader on a Sony PC.

[revaaron]

Correction: MAC is an acronym for Media Access Control. Perhaps you meant to say Macintosh?

Good to see you found a FireWire port! 

funny comment since in my 9-5, I write automation for switches and I deal mostly with L2.

I just reflashed my work laptop. I'm going to try to connect it to my Cool Scan 9000 and see if that works. I just need to buy one of those converter cables.