Compact flash question

[colinb]

Hi - I am a new G2 owner.
I wanted to know what was the largest size of compact flash I could use.
The instruction manual only mentions sizes up to 128mb.
Thanks for your help.

[Eric F.]

Colinb,

Welcome to the wonderful world of G2 ownership.:)

I have been using 256mb cards in my G2 and G1 before that. Maybe the manual was written before the bigger cards were made. It is my understanding that there is no reason why the 500mb or the upcoming 1gig cards would not work well.

Personally, I like the 256mb and 128mb cards as they are a manageable number of images when downloading.

They are getting cheaper all the time. 50 dollars for the 128mb cards is average now.

[gerry]

something to consider with large size cards is failure of the card, or loss, before downloading, means loss of all images.

Can you imagine shooting with a 100 exposure roll of film? And the lab messes it up?, or worse, you lose or misplace it?

I use and 340 microdrive, but still think folks should be aware of the potential problems with having all those images on an easy-to-lose device. Be sure to take good care of it.

[hhorwitz]

I attended a Canon-sponsored G2 class not too long ago. The Canon rep was asked which CF cards are compatible. The Canon rep said that all CF cards are compatible and that the manual's reference to the contrary is there only to avoid liability.

The rep also volunteered that digital zoom is a joke and should be turned off, and that the red eye reduction feature does not really work. Apparently these "features" are included and advertised only because if Canon doesn't include or mention them, competitors will cite this as a supposed Canon flaw.