This affordable Memory Card Station offloads for multiple formats
The brand Pergear has released Pan’s Workflow Station, a memory card reading hub system that’s highly portable and compact.
The Workflow Station is also capable of offloading photos from several memory cards at the same time while being a cheaper alternative to many competitors.
One of the problems that many pro photographers and videographers in the field need to deal with is storing numerous memory cards loaded with images or videos.
Juggling among these and freeing up space for new work can easily become a problem for someone out working and away from their computer.
The Pan’s Workflow Station claims to help solve these problems by offering an affordable option for quickly emptying memory card content into a secure device so that users can get back to capturing more video or photo material.
Previous competitor devices that offered the same or similar functionality have included SanDisk’s Pro-Dock 4 memory storage tool. This however costs a hefty $500, though it offers high-end specs.
SanDisk’s Pro-Dock 4
Furthermore, the SanDisk Pro-Dock 4 requires you to separately buy additional modular card readers for its ports. Each of these costs between $80 and $200, on top of its base price of $500. That definitely ain’t cheap.
On the other hand, Pan’s Workflow Station by Pergear costs no more than $350 and includes four modular card readers as part of its package. This is a hugely cheaper price for the same basic functionality as what the SanDisk device offers.
This isn’t the first time in which Pergear has come up with much more affordable alternatives to crucial devices for photographers.
With the Pan’s Workflow Station, photographers and videographers can select from several different card reader modules and purchase options.
These include one for just the Card Reader Hub for $169.99; individual modules for microSD cards, USB, SD, CFB, and a partial package deal of Card Reader Hub with 3 custom-selected modules for $298. Or users can spend a full $350 for the reader plus 4 modules of their own choice.
The lower price of the Workflow Station does come with a couple of cost-cutting drawbacks. For one thing, it doesn’t use Thunderbolt connectivity as does SanDisk’s option.
Instead, it works with USB 3.2 Gen2 10Gbps connections. According to Pergear, these allow transfer speeds of 1GB in just a couple of seconds thanks to a 680 MB/s upload speed.
This speed is nonetheless enormous enough that most users won’t feel any blockage at all for shifting their valuable photo/video data to a hard drive quickly. If anything, it will be their memory cards that limit transfer, not the Pan’s Workflow Station.
With the Workflow Station, users can use all four hubs at the same time or can mix and match as needed. Because Pergear sells the whole device in multiple variations, users can buy the type of hubs and the quantity of them that they specifically need.
Each of the module options can also be used on its own in other contexts without owning the main hub unit itself.
The aluminum build of the hub is durable without being very heavy and is compatible with most mobile devices along with PC and Mac computers.
Pergear is selling the Pan’s Workflow Station in its different configurations along with individual module options here.
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Stephan Jukic is a technology and photography journalist and experimental photographer who spends his time living in both Canada and Mexico. He loves cross-cultural street photo exploration and creating fine art photo compositions.
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