advice needed on Compact Flash CF
- Thread starter Kho King
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ivor
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I personally would not recommend MicroDrive for the below reasons...
1. The 'safety' of the pictures taken are very important... Mishandling or accidentally dropped the MD would render the MD faulty... thus lost all your pictures...
2. MD has known to be unreliable... (Of course, within the 1 year of warranty period, you are safe, but what are you going to do on the 367 days of usage and it failed...
The est price are ,
256MB CF - around $140
512MB CF - around $285
1. The 'safety' of the pictures taken are very important... Mishandling or accidentally dropped the MD would render the MD faulty... thus lost all your pictures...
2. MD has known to be unreliable... (Of course, within the 1 year of warranty period, you are safe, but what are you going to do on the 367 days of usage and it failed...
The est price are ,
256MB CF - around $140
512MB CF - around $285
"How about microdrive"
It depends on how much memory you want viz-a-viz your budget. For me I take all my pics in RAW, hence I have to balance my budget with the risk involved - I be more careful when using microdrive, that's all.
Because I shoot in RAW (80 pics/gb), I use about 3 gb for each outing - I just snap without any concern and can experiment with all sorts of settings - no good just dump it later. Already with 2 micro dirve and 2 x 256mb CF and 1 x 512 mb CF, it cost more than a thousand $. (1 MD abt $380, another MD $280 - bought 2nd hand, 512 CF $285. 2 x 256mb CF $150) - imagine if it is all CF??? cannot afford leh.
Of course MD has its inherent risks - there is a penalty - if luck runs out - so far touch wood, its holding out ok for me ;p (penny wise pound foolish - I dunno ??)
Cheers
It depends on how much memory you want viz-a-viz your budget. For me I take all my pics in RAW, hence I have to balance my budget with the risk involved - I be more careful when using microdrive, that's all.
Because I shoot in RAW (80 pics/gb), I use about 3 gb for each outing - I just snap without any concern and can experiment with all sorts of settings - no good just dump it later. Already with 2 micro dirve and 2 x 256mb CF and 1 x 512 mb CF, it cost more than a thousand $. (1 MD abt $380, another MD $280 - bought 2nd hand, 512 CF $285. 2 x 256mb CF $150) - imagine if it is all CF??? cannot afford leh.
Of course MD has its inherent risks - there is a penalty - if luck runs out - so far touch wood, its holding out ok for me ;p (penny wise pound foolish - I dunno ??)
Cheers
Not all CF are the same. They come in different speeds like 4x, 16x, 20x, 25x, 30x. Reputable brands include Ridata & Transcend.
For the MicroDrive, you've seen the pros & cons as stated above. Another down-side to MDs is that they consume more power than CFs because of the internal motor.
Alan Photo at SLS is one of the good shops to buy CF but must bargain a bit to get the best deal sometimes also. Prices as above.
If I don't drop the MD, it won't exactly spoil rite? But will it spoil if I keep it in my camera and shake the camera alot? etc running shots, chasing after subjects etc etc.. will it risk crashing the MD?
What about cold weather? will MD function in cold weather? assuming the camera's working in cold weather.
What about cold weather? will MD function in cold weather? assuming the camera's working in cold weather.
Q
qhelix
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FYI, I bought a 256 Ridata CF card at AP for $135
One minor comment, if your camera is not a DSLR like D60, D100, EOS1D, F1Dx, your won't appreciate the different speed in taking pictures. So prosumer cams like G2/3 will be pretty maxed out on writing before maxing out the CF write capability.
Data reading to your computer will have a greater influence by the speed.
looks like you missed the later part of the post.The MD is acutally very reliable. It stays in my D60 nearly all the time. Transfers to PC are done by digital cable. This way actually improves reliability considerably.
The only way to damage the MD is to drop the camera. I have never hear nor seen anyone who has dropped a camera and killed an MD before.
The only way to damage the MD is to drop the camera. I have never hear nor seen anyone who has dropped a camera and killed an MD before.
it does matter for some prosumer cameras like Fuji S602Z... http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/F602/F62A7.HTM
This really calls for a separate section all its own, as the results were so varied, and therefore interesting. As I mentioned above, the S602 Zoom is definitely a camera that can take advantage of fast memory cards.
Sorry, but it's a myth that you have to drop an MD to ruin it. Your 3.5" HDD in your PC can develop bad sectors just sitting there. Anything that has moving parts in it can fail at anytime. I for one have had an MD fail without dropping the camera, or the MD. Within the space of 5 minutes use without my subjecting it to any abuse. And I know people who have had similar experiences and have given up on MDs. Once burnt, twice shy. Of course if it's never happened to you then it's fine.
I don't know what camera chngpe01 has, but it's obviously an expensive camera to get only 80 pics on a 1Gb drive (12Mb approx each). In which case, if you're going to fork out all that money for such an expensive camera, then you should go sort yourself out flash cards as well. While the analogy isn't perfect, it's like buying an EOS 1v and only ever shooting brand x ISO 100 cheap film before you can't afford anything better.
Prices of flash cards have dropped to an extent where they are only about 20-30% more expensive. They are also faster than MDs, and it's always wiser to split your cards up anyway.
I don't know what camera chngpe01 has, but it's obviously an expensive camera to get only 80 pics on a 1Gb drive (12Mb approx each). In which case, if you're going to fork out all that money for such an expensive camera, then you should go sort yourself out flash cards as well. While the analogy isn't perfect, it's like buying an EOS 1v and only ever shooting brand x ISO 100 cheap film before you can't afford anything better.
Prices of flash cards have dropped to an extent where they are only about 20-30% more expensive. They are also faster than MDs, and it's always wiser to split your cards up anyway.
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