Firewire PCMCIA Card - Experience/Recommendation
 

I want to purchase one to have an additional input on my laptop to do a 2 camera shoot via DV Rack? Prices seem to range from $25 to $80. Any experience? Don't mind spending $80 if that's what it takes, but don't want to spend any more than I have to to get a good result. Thanks.

i have 2 of em ... bought over at cool drive web site ..
1 is the 1394b ( 2 1394b & 1 1394a i/o) .. the other 3 1394a i/o ..
think 1394b was $49 and other was $20 ...
they both work excellent .. after seeing a couple of friends 1394 pcmcia cards i think they are the same cards -just different names on them .
the more expensive 1394b cards come with a driver because microsoft pretty much has the breaks on firewire 800 speeds reduced to 400 speeds with Xp SP2 drivers .. the drivers that come with the more expensive 1394b cards are approx between 400-800 speeds ..from my experience 1394b with XP SP1 is the fastest but many programs need SP2 .... the 1394a cards work with standard XP drivers (TX driver) ...
note if you do install 3rd party 1394b drivers on your laptop ALL 1394 A & B i/o will have the new 1394b driver - it does NOT control camera/decks - you'll need to go into device manager and chnage to the XP Tx instrument driver for the built in 1394a i/o on laptop so it can operate camera/decks ...