Why buy a Micro Drive over a Flash card?

[CyberDyneSystems]

I'm using a 10D with a 256 Compact flash right now.

Obviously I want MORE!

I can get a 1 gig Microdrive for about $220.00, but I can get a Sandisk 1 gig compact flash for the same price.

If Flash cards are available for the same cost,. Why do people buy the Microdrives which I have to assume are more prone to damage???

Is there any advantage to a Micro Drive?

Thanks :)

[Arnie]

Because, BEFORE, a 1GB capacity CFs is more expensive compared to the cost of a 1GB Microdrive. In terms of performance, there's not much difference between the two. The only thing you have to do is to handle microdrive with extra care. I have a friend who installs his microdrive into his S2 near the floor :)

Now, the latest generation CFs are getting bigger and faster, the cost of the earlier CFs are going down to the point that they are even.

Now that the cost factor is eliminated, I'll go for the sandisk 1GB CFs. CFs are more sturdier since it is purely electronics and circuitries and involves no moving mechanical parts. If switching CFs not an issue to you, buy several CFs instead of 1 large capacity CFs, at least if it fails, u have several backup CFs.

[CyberDyneSystems]

arnie wrote:
If switching CFs not an issue to you, buy several CFs instead of 1 large capacity CFs, at least if it fails, u have several backup CFs.



Excellent point! I may get two 512s then If they price out the same as the one 1 gig.

Thanks for the info on the microdrives. I guess that IBM didn't feel it was enough of a market to keep competing,. thus there isn't a 10gig Micro drive yet,.... :)

[mikeg]

Hi,

I aggree with Arnie. CF are sturdier. I personally own a microdrive. I bought it 1.5 years ago. When it cost 3 times the price it costs now. There were no equivalent at that time.Microdrive write speed is excellent. According to dpreview, the write speed of CFs are (far) behind. But I aggree microdrive is very fragile. On top of that, I got problems with the microdrive I never had with CFs: files weren't written totally! It seems that it didn't write correctly the end of the file. It looks like you have the beginning of the picture till the middle and after that: nothing! (and the thumbnail was ok)
It happened with my D30 and D60. A friend of mine had the same problem with an Olympus E20.

2*512Mb should be a wise choice.

For info, the next generation of IBM microdrives (now HGST: Hitachi) will be 2 and 4 Gb (fall 2003).

[defordphoto]

You need to do more searching around. You can pickup an MD for about $170.

[hurry]

... and also a 1 gb CF for 185 $

CF has much more advantages, MD is something for peoples from 2000/2001

[mwind13]

I don't know about the 10D...I have the D60.

I've tried various sizes, speeds, etc for compact flash/microdrives. Here are my conclusions:

1. Microdrives, despite their large capacities, are not a good deal. They are slowwwwwwwww!!

2. 256MB is the best size for performance/speed. The idea of 2 512s might seem like a good one until you compare the speeds vs 256. I have a 24X 256 and a 24X 512 (and 16X speeds of each capacity). On the 512s, the speed is NOT constantly fast. Several shots will be fast and then a number of shots will be slow. The more shots on the card, the slower the pictures willl become. (I noticed that lexar has come out with 40X speeds, which may make this argument moot.)

3. If speed and capacity is what you want, get a handful of 256 cards (16x, 24x, etc) speeds and something like a mindstor (a portable harddrive) to dump pictures after shooting (assuming you're gonna be away from a computer for a while).

[CyberDyneSystems]

I ended with one 512MB Viking to add to my Sandisk 256MB card. The Viking will be $85.00 after a $50.00 rebate! Not bad.

I've said this in other threads so I hate to sound like a broken record,. but 10D seems to be totally impartial where card speed is concerned. DPreview seems to agree with this. Its internal buffer and cacheing algorithms seem to render the card speed issue nearly moot. Perhaps after the 9 shot buffer fills there is a noticable lag to next shot,. but I have never filled the 9 shot buffer while shooting, and in my buffer tests,. it flushes the buffer pretty darn fast!

[hugodrax]

microdrives also sap battery power. Good luck with the rebate if you even get it.

the best value for dollar is the Transcend 30x 512's at www.robgalbrath.com I went and compared flashcards on the 10D and the Transcend rated on the top 4 in read/write and pc download and it was only 119 dollars.