MicroDrives

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Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 19 total)
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  • #1016
    QuickSilver
    Participant

    Does anyone use a microdrive in lieu of a cf card? I am considering buying one for my Sigma but have not the slightest idea of how good they are, meaning how fast and trouble free they are. I would appreciate any and all coments and information regarding these devices.

    #11916
    sleeping
    Participant

    I have an old 1GB IBM one I keep in my bag as a backup for my D70. I haven’t had any problems with it, but it’s noticeably slower than my normal CF cards. Also, it won’t fit into some CF readers.

    #11917
    Curious
    Participant

    my minoltas use CF and i’ve never had problems with them. some are a bit slow but they were dirt cheap. did a bit of googleing on both high capacity CF and micro drives and it would seem you can get a lot more bang for your buck with CF. newegg has 8GB cards for $90 and the micro drive i found was 6GB for $190.

    your sigma is a 10MP camera isn’t it? what size files are you getting? and at what settings? if my loose extrapolation is right you should get roughly 80 shots on a 1GB card shooting xfine jpeg. i bought a 1GB toshiba CF card at sam’s saturday for $16. and it’s much faster on download than the kodak i have.

    #11918
    Analogy
    Participant

    I know they take more battery power because they have to spin a platter, but other than that I don’t have any experience with them.

    #11919
    Elsinore
    Keymaster

    I’ve not heard great things about them due to slow write speeds and battery usage. CF is definitely the way to go.

    #11920
    Curious
    Participant

    QuickSilver i came across this sale of kingston CF cards following a link from Storbist. the link went up yesterday so the prices should be good. based on price alone they beat the hell out of micro drives.

    #11921
    staplermofo
    Participant

    CF is supposedly a lot more reliable as well. I’ve never used a microdrive, but all hard drives die eventually.

    #11922
    monkeybort
    Participant

    re: cheap CF cards, i think it’s worth it to spend the extra $$ to get a Lexar or SanDisk – i bought a 4 gb no-name card before going on my honeymoon and lost about 50 pics or so (i’m guessing) due to a write error on the card. the few times i’ve used it since then i’ve always had one or two images get corrupted. I’ve never had any problem whatsoever with my Lexar cards, and actually there is a rebate going on through the end of June right now – i just got a 2 gb x133 write speed for $25 after the rebate. not too shabby!

    #11923
    Curious
    Participant

    while i agree with you in general monkeybort about getting what you pay for the cards i linked are kingston, not no name. here’s a page of them on http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010070068+50001183+1053107923&name=Compact+Flash+(CF) newegg and has reviews for most of them. and the ratings are mostly good. didn’t read the reviews. seems the 8GB are new and not rated/reviewed.

    having looked at the midwest site again they are a bit cheaper than newegg even w/o the $50 rebate.

    and yes i know you were not being snarky. i just wanted to make sure folks at least looked at the link before deciding. and no i have no vested interest in the site having just learned of it today. so when they don’t ship or sell your info don’t come looking for me 🙂

    and in the interests of full disclosure i have simple tech, lexar, toshiba and a lot of kodak. in the kodak a 32MBG (old), 5 512MB and one 1GB. the 512s and the 1GB were bought from wal-mart when they discontinued them. by the time the sale was over the 512 were $7.50 each. and yes i kept going back every time they dropped the price and getting refunds. turns out they weren’t supposed to be doing that. oh well. the kodak work fine but are slow speed which only matters when i download them to the computer. because my camera cache is so big they will keep up with continuous frame advance.

    #11924
    monkeybort
    Participant

    ya, i wasn’t meaning to badmouth kingston – i don’t personally have any experience/knowledge with them so am officially switzerland when it comes to Kingston CF cards.

    i’m just a Lexar whore, that’s all. 🙂

    #11925
    Curious
    Participant

    i’ve used kingston RAM on and off for years but not their CF. i tend to read and believe the reviews on newegg. they’ve worked out well over time. you get the folks pimping but they are offset by the haters. frankly i won’t have the kodak had it not been on sale. and i knew it would have some drawback as cheap as it was.

    #11926
    Elsinore
    Keymaster

    I’ve used Kingston and SanDisk and have had no problems with either. And of course Lexar’s reputation is excellent, though I haven’t used Lexar. Definitely wouldn’t go with no-name cards, though.

    #11927
    QuickSilver
    Participant

    your sigma is a 10MP camera isn’t it? what size files are you getting? and at what settings? if my loose extrapolation is right you should get roughly 80 shots on a 1GB card shooting xfine jpeg. i bought a 1GB toshiba CF card at sam’s saturday for $16. and it’s much faster on download than the kodak i have.

    Curious, the book says that the file sizes will vary and that in high res (actual 2268×1512) med res (1512×1008) and low res (1134×756) this is because of the different calculation method used by Sigma. The camera shoots an actual 3.35 actual pixels but the sensor has 10.05 mpxl because of the 3.35 mpxl per color in 3 layers. I have a 1 and 2 gig cf card SanDisk UltraII’s but was thinking ahead to my trip to the Bahamas later thsi year and looking to add some storage. I know that in a week I can run out of storage space.
    Thanks for your info and thoughts.

    #11928
    QuickSilver
    Participant

    CF is supposedly a lot more reliable as well. I’ve never used a microdrive, but all hard drives die eventually.

    This is true for sure, I have a stack of old hard drives that went bump in the night and will no longer function. I call them paper weights now.

    Thanks all for the good info and advice. I am definitely going to stay with the CF cards. I checked the Link Curious, and that looks good to me. Thanks for doing my research for me.

    Thanks again to all.

    #11929
    Curious
    Participant

    my pleasure QuickSilver. one of the better things about both here and the PSAEF is the community and it’s willingness to help each other. it was my turn since i’ve been the recipient more than once.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 19 total)
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