Can anyone recommend a USB CF card reader that will work in my Macbook Pro Retina? My USB card readers for CF cards do not work

Question

At present, the only way I can load photos from a CF card to my new Macbook Pro Retina is by loading them onto an external hard drive via an old PC that can accept either of my USB card readers, then plugging the external hard drive into my MBP. Neither the USB card reader or the cable that comes with the Canon HDSLR camera will transfer photos directly to my MBP. I find it unbelievable that I have to go to a PC to load photos because I can't do it with my new MBP.
Has anyone found a reliable USB CF card reader, or one that connects via thunderbolt or HDMI, at any price, that will work directly with the new MBP Retina?

Answer 1

This is what we need:
Location photoshoot - we use the Canon EOS 5D  Mk II still camera & the Canon FX100 pro camcorder.
CF cards are: SanDisk Extreme UDMA & SanDisk Extreme Pro UDMA 6 for video (I think they are both Type II) My Mac recognises them both as FAT 32 format
My MBPRetina is on the latest version of Mountain Lion OSX 10.83
the files from the camcorder will transfer to my MacBook Pro Retina directly via the camera's cable but it is quite slow & it means I cannot continue to film while downloading files but this we can live with.
the files from the still camera Canon EOS 5D  Mk II will not transfer directly via the camera's cable - have yet to get the Canon software to download, but via the camera's cable will not help anyway as we need to have the still camera free to keep shooting.
We need to be able to take out the CF card from the first part of the shoot & download the still shots while just on the Macbook's battery power, while we insert a fresh CF card back into the still camera to continue with the next part of the shoot simultaneously (while the first card is downloading.)
The files from the first part of the shoot will be both in RAW (.CR2) & Jpeg format. We just need to quickly transfer the jpegs, then I do a quick sort, batch the best ones as black/white images, & use these in a client slideshow immediately after part 2 of the shoot.
Obviously we need fast data transfer speeds, & rely on the MBP's battery power while on a location shoot.
The card readers I have tried are an older specific CF card reader branded as Palm, & a USB 2 multi card reader branded as Travel Flash. With both readers, the lights on the readers flash on & off, & the MBP recognises the card & the files will even appear both in Finder & in i-Photo, so it starts importing, then aborts with an error message saying:
'The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)'
& another message saying:
'the disk was not ejected properly'.
So it appears the MBP does read the CF cards but the card readers don't stay connected, no matter what angle I put them on or however many times I re-connect them.
Yes, they are probably cheap & I want to buy a decent one.
So, in summary:
the card reader needs to work when the MBPR is only on battery power (I read in some forums that some USB card readers aren't so reliable on the laptop's battery power)
the card reader needs to be quite fast. I have read the USB 3 readers won't read CF cards at higher than USB 2 speeds. Is this true? Are the firewire connected ones faster, & if so, are they still reliable on the MBP's battery power?
From research, it appears my problem is associated with my specific model of Mac & platform, being MacBook Retina on Mountain Lion OSX Version 10.83. If any of the recommended card readers have been successful with this, plese let me know.
Thanks heaps for the suggestions so far.