4 GB compactflash cards

[Walter Moss]

Who cares what tomorrow's cameras use - unless you're living in the future and not today. Which would make you, what, a ghost?

[Mr. Pickles]

Maybe this is why a lot of the cards are being sold off cheap?

http://www.lexar.com/digfilm/cf_pro.html

[Walter Moss]

Originally Posted by dc2

Offer them up on the freebie thread .

You should offer that 1DSII on the freebie thread. Wonder what you could get in return?

Never mind. Don't answer that.

[Walter Moss]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pickles

Maybe this is why a lot of the cards are being sold off cheap?

http://www.lexar.com/digfilm/cf_pro.html

Ah, who cares? 133x speed? What is that in real life? A few milliseconds faster?

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I'll take the cheap cards.

[Mr. Pickles]

Wake up and read this:

Using a Lexar Professional USB 2.0 CF reader connected to a Dual-Core 2.5GHz Power-Mac G5, we transferred 100MB of images from a 133x 1GB Lexar Professional CF card to the computer in just 10 seconds. That's four seconds faster than the 14 seconds it took with an 80x 512MB Lexar Professional CF card and nine seconds better than it took a 4x 128MB Lexar CF card to move the same files.

The difference between the cards was much more apparent while writing files to the cards, when the Write Acceleration technology included in the two Professional cards helped speed things along. The same 100MB batch of images took 53 sec. to write to the 4x card, 18 sec. to write to the 80x card, and 16 sec. to write to the new 133x card.

Doesn't sound like milliseconds to me

[Walter Moss]

Okay, okay.

I've had two compact flash cards die on me in my lifetime. Both were Lexars.

I'll take the cheap cards and a scotch on the rocks. Bartender!?

[JKSeidel]

Originally Posted by Paul

I like your thoughts of cameras with built in storage. I can't see it being too difficult for a DSLR to have a built in flash memory/microdrive - say 4GB. So long as there was also the option of external storage then it would be a useful selling point.

It was mentioned a few months ago on Luminous Landscape as a possible future storage route for DSLRs. Most people responding (including my worthless self) didn't care much for the idea. Drives of that nature and size are just too sensitive to various environmental issues (temperature, vibration, shock, etc.). No one wants to lose a whole shoot due to a drive going south. If the drive goes bad, then you also lose the camera for the repair process. They are also limiting in that they would probably be the sole form of storage in-camera. Once a drive is full, you're done shooting unless you carry a laptop or portable HD to offload the shots. This is impractical in many situations. I suppose you could offload to a similar sized CF/stick on the fly ... but then there's no real point to having an internal drive in that case. Internal drives combined within wireless enabled consumer/prosumer grade P&S would be about the extent this concept. I can't see many pros wanting a set-up like that.

I also can't see manufacturers going with the idea of an internal drive combined with an auxillary externally accessible storage unit (whether CF or stick). Just too clunky a design and increased power usage. Pros already complain that camera bodies like the 1DsMk2 are too big (yet they complain in the same breath about the 300D/350D being too small). That is why I am thinking that pro/prosumer DSLR designs might switch to memory sticks. They are smaller than CF cards and thus require a smaller 'bay' on the camera. This would allow a shrinkage in the overall body size. Admittedly it wouldn't be much, but any space savings is significant to those buying $8k or more bodies.

Just have to wait and see what PMA brings.

[dc2]

Originally Posted by Walter Moss

You should offer that 1DSII on the freebie thread. Wonder what you could get in return?

Never mind. Don't answer that.

I did they offered me 50 Olys

[scoundrel1728]

Originally Posted by JKSeidel

Pros already complain that camera bodies like the 1DsMk2 are too big (yet they complain in the same breath about the 300D/350D being too small). That is why I am thinking that pro/prosumer DSLR designs might switch to memory sticks. They are smaller than CF cards and thus require a smaller 'bay' on the camera. This would allow a shrinkage in the overall body size. Admittedly it wouldn't be much, but any space savings is significant to those buying $8k or more bodies.

I might believe that manufacturers might go to something smaller like the Secure Digital card, as the Nikon D50 already does; but I don't see any of them, with the possible exception of Konica-Minolta, going with a competitor's proprietary memory like Memory Sticks any time soon. Even Sony's DSC-R1 takes CF cards in addition to Memory Sticks.

[JKSeidel]

Originally Posted by scoundrel1728

I might believe that manufacturers might go to something smaller like the Secure Digital card, as the Nikon D50 already does; but I don't see any of them, with the possible exception of Konica-Minolta, going with a competitor's proprietary memory like Memory Sticks any time soon. Even Sony's DSC-R1 takes CF cards in addition to Memory Sticks.

I guess Sandisk produces these http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__SanDi...xtreme+sandisk under licensing from Sony. I concede to your excellent point.

[Jose]

I recently got a 8 GB Seagate microdrive for @ $160. It gives me approximately 400 images capacity when used in the EOS 1Ds MK2. That is aproximately 11 rolls of 36 exposures film.

Why would anyone want built-in storage in the camera? If in the field and the memory in the camera gets full, , one would have to download and clear it before continuing to shoot. What would be neat is a camera that sends the images wireless to a storage device that one would carry in a pocket or belt...it is feasible today. See who markets this first... :

[mikej]

Jose, they already have the wireless downloads for a couple of brands. I think Nikon was first, but I believe it's available for Canon as well.

Jared, no, I don't really worry about it. I could lose my whole CF card wallet too, even as careful as I am. At least with a corrupted CF card, there is software available that you have a chance to recover the files on there. But I've sent CF cards though the washer and drier and they still work great. Try that with a microdrive.

I can understand why some people would want to seperate out their shots... when I shoot a very important event, I will dump my CF cards to a 40 gig Image Tank as backup while I"m shooting. I keep it in my camera bag and I can take out the CF card from the camera, pop it into the CF slot of the Image Tank, turn it on and hit enter and it will start downloading. I can put it back in my bag and forget about it as it will shut itself off when done. I use to be able to get a whole day's shooting into it with a single charge when I used my 10D. I found out that because of the bigger file size of my 1DMKII my Image Tank internal battery runs out at about 10 gigs of transfer. So I need to carry it's external battery now.

But most of the time, being able to shoot without having to swap CF cards every 100 shots is more important to me.

Mike

[Mr. Pickles]

I worry about having one whole "shoot" on a 4gb-er, and it croak. But maybe more so because I have had two 1 gb ones croak...?

I think for a wedding that I might do someday, a 4gb one would be good, but if it croaks, good buy reputation. But I agree that during a wedding, having to swap a card every 100-125 shots might be a bit much.

It is a big trade-off, and I can see why some can go either way with it. Bauerman, you're gonna do a wedding soon. Are you going with the several 1gb idea?

[Mr. Pickles]

Best Buy had 1gb Sandisk Ultra II CF's YESTERDAY for $59 , which is lower than their website:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1081512624613

[Jose]

Mike: I regards to your reply, I was aware of wireless attachments for the Nikon cameras but these are for linking to a computer or a FTS server. What I had in mind was a small device that you can carry in the field about the side of an Image Tank or Ipod. I am sure that the same wireless transmitter available now could be used with the type of device I have in mind. Imagine, you could even carry two and have an instant back-up copy of all photographs.


Jose

[Walter Moss]

BHphoto is now selling the sandisk ultra II 4 gb for $170-something.

[Nikonfreak]

Clubmac is another good source. I've ordered from them a number of times. The 8 Gig Sandisk Ultra II is $365 right now. The 4 Gig is about $165 or so.

www.clubmac.com

Julio