RE: OT Compact flash or smart media

["Phil Harris" <phillip.harris1@xxxxxxx>]

> > Still thinking of a digital camera,
>
> You and me both then :-)

Don't think - jump!

> > which is best either Smart media or compact flash and why
>
> I want one that takes CF but that's mainly because I already have some
in
my
> Epod (48meg) and I bought a 340meg IBM Micro-Drive for my iPAQ on the
> Tottenham Court road when I was in London.   £129 + VAT for 340 meg is
> pretty good.  You can get a 1 gig version too (Phil had one in his E10
at
> the meeting).  I don't think you can get anything like these sizes in
smart
> media.

Toshiba have just announced a 512Mb CF 1 format Compact Flash card (priced
stupidly high no doubt) by Digital Depot quoted me £280 for a 256Mb CF
card.
The MicroDrives are (usually) about £200 for a 340Mb unit and £400 for a
1Gb
unit.

Smart Media is available in up to 128Mb.

You'll pay about a pound a meg for either format (on the whole) although SM
is slightly cheaper at Digital Depot (where I get mine from). The 340Mb
Microdrives by the way seem to be less fussy about having a solid current
supply than the 1Gb drives ... I borrowed a 340Mb from Li to try in my E10
for a week or two and it worked *FAULTLESSLY* but the 1Gb is very sensitive
to the batteries in teh E10 going off top form ... this is a common finding
with the E10 as it has such a high startup current itself - close on 2amps!

> Being able to interchange one standard media type between 3 devices
has
> obvious advantages.  Be aware that the micro-drive is a Type 2 CF card
and
> even then some cameras that accept type 2 solid state CF won't work
with
> micro-drives.
>
> No experience of SM except for the one I saw in Des's camera and it's
VERY
> thin.

OK ... here's your killer reason why you should use CF instad of SM.

Buy a camera with a SM card slot today and it will be able to use 64Mb SM
cards ... it might be able to use 128's (my E10 can) but when (if?) 2565Mb
cards come out then no chance - the memory controller is built into the
device rather than the card. That's one of the reasons they're so thin. (Of
course this also applies to things like card readers, flashpath (floppy
disc
drive) adaptors, SM PCMCIA adaptors and the like.)

Buy a camera with a CF1 or CF2 slot and it will take any forseable CF card
... if IBM do a 5Gb Microdrive then my E10 will take it and make use of it.
(Put a 256Mb SM card in it and it'll only see 128Mb of it.) The CF cards
have the memory controller in the card.

Phil




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