Why Does Fujifilm recommend against using a USB hub?

[Steve533]

I have been using hubs for data transfer for a while. Does anyone know why the recommendation to not use a USB hub?

[jlmphotos]

IT's a "suggestion". Have you tried it?  If it doesn't work, it could be a power issue.

 

[jerryy]

There is the issue of power, some hubs have a "brick" power supply and others are powered by the host port which will quickly drain a camera battery since the camera usb host port would be required to give each port on the hub enough power to meet the USB specs -- the camera battery does not stand a chance.

Also there is the bandwidth issue, each port on the hub is given data speeds that are a portion of the total the camera port can deliver. According to the USB specs, depending on the device you are trying to attach to the hub port, that portion may be even further restricted so that the main port is not overwhelmed trying to handle the possible data transfer requests. In a manner of speaking, you could starve a program you are trying to feed stills and / or video data to from the camera, if you pass the data through a hub instead of directly.

Edited April 13, 2021 by jerryy

[Steve533]

On 4/12/2021 at 7:19 PM, jlmphotos said:

IT's a "suggestion". Have you tried it?  If it doesn't work, it could be a power issue.

 

I haven’t even got the camera yet. I’m trying to understand as much as possible about the idiosyncratic things that aren’t obvious.

I’m hesitant to connect something Fujifilm recommends against. I thought it was electrical as well. Guess I’ll find out...

[Steve533]

On 4/12/2021 at 7:51 PM, jerryy said:

There is the issue of power, some hubs have a "brick" power supply and others are powered by the host port which will quickly drain a camera battery since the camera usb host port would be required to give each port on the hub enough power to meet the USB specs -- the camera battery does not stand a chance.

Also there is the bandwidth issue, each port on the hub is given data speeds that are a portion of the total the camera port can deliver. According to the USB specs, depending on the device you are trying to attach to the hub port, that portion may be even further restricted so that the main port is not overwhelmed trying to handle the possible data transfer requests. In a manner of speaking, you could starve a program you are trying to feed stills and / or video data to from the camera, if you pass the data through a hub instead of directly.

Thanks for the input Jerry.I’ll make sure of the bandwidth for the connection before disappointment.

BTW, have you used the Bluetooth/WiFi to transfer image files?

[jerryy]

3 hours ago, Steve533 said:

Thanks for the input Jerry.I’ll make sure of the bandwidth for the connection before disappointment.

BTW, have you used the Bluetooth/WiFi to transfer image files?

i tried it to make sure the thing worked. For me, using a usb / thunderbolt card reader works better and is a lot faster at moving the image data over to the computer.

[VictorM]

On 4/14/2021 at 10:35 PM, Steve533 said:

I haven’t even got the camera yet. I’m trying to understand as much as possible about the idiosyncratic things that aren’t obvious.

I’m hesitant to connect something Fujifilm recommends against. I thought it was electrical as well. Guess I’ll find out...

USB is USB. you don't need Fuji-approved cable. I use cable microUSB from my old mobile phone (which is a rarity now, more modern phones use USB-C connector)

Edited May 21, 2021 by VictorM
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