compactflash???

[ian h]

hiya...
im about to buy a d60 and am wondering about compactflash cards........ive been using a G2 with sandisk cards, which have given me no problems ( as long as i reformat regularly)

i am told lexar are "the best" but obviously expensive....i see there are cheaper options like ridata, sandisk and kingston....can anyone advise me on this? and does write speed of the card make much difference to the performance of the camera? are 512mb cards any good?

also how big are raw files and how many can i fit on a 256mb card..?
cheers.......ian

[EugeneK]

Ian,
Raw files range from about 5.5 to 6.5 Meg each on the D60. I use a 1Gig hd (IBM) and have about 144 shots on it. I leave the HD in the camera and download via USB (slow), but I never have to pull the HD out or worry about the contacts or dropping it. I have no experience with the "Ram" cards. BTW I love the D60.
-Eugene

[Longwatcher]

I use a pair of 256 CF cards and a 340MB microdrive. I get about 30 images per card in RAW format and about 120 in Jpeg large-fine, a little bit more on the microdrive. I have had no problems with either card (memorex and Lexor) to date, including using one I had loaded with music files still on it when I grabbed it. I actually bought all three to go with my iPaq pocket PC and I can move them to the camera with no problem, catch is I can't view the images on the iPaq due to file size.

[Morden]

I use two 1GB Microdrives, yielding (usually) a little over 800 pictures total when using Large/Fine JPEG mode (my default). Microdrives are great value, not nearly as 'slow' as some CF card manufacturers claim, and are pretty reliable; after using Microdrives heavily for over two years (and I use USB CF card readers, so I frequently move my Microdrives between my cameras and my PCs), I have NEVER encountered a problem with either 1GB drive.

I like those Microdrives!

Neil D.

[petiot]

I apologise in advance to the microdrive fan ;), but i am part of the percentage of people who had problems with microdrive (512 MB): lost of the complete content once, and many time lost of one picture (the last one shot).

In addition i found that Microdrive drain much more battery, and make the time the camera need to be ready a bit longer (not important ok). I also had the impression that loading image in review mode was slower, but it is in comparison with a 256 ridat cf card, so maybe size matters here.

Also, i have a cf card reader (sandik) which is fine to read microdrive (Thought I/o errors occurs sometime) but it is simply impossible to write on it. So it is worthy to check the CF card reader compatibility first.

But 1 gig for this price, it is good.

Dan

[Morden]

I am sorry that you have had problems when using Microdrives, petiot. Perhaps I have been lucky so far!

Neil D.

[petiot]

Dont worry. Microdrive problems are not real problems!! ;) thank you though

[Paul Smith]

I'm looking at buying a D60 and want to get a full list of good and bad points of CF vs Microdrive.

I know that MD gives a slower startup from Off (drive has to spin up) and I imagine that it drains more power (constantly spinning a mechanical disk versus writing data to memory when required).

I read on a website selling MDs that the IBM 1gb MD gave 4mbyte/sec transfer rate, and it seemed to indicate that CF cards are slower. Is this correct? What transfer rate are CF cards? Do different sizes of CF card make a difference to transfer rate or does it just depend on different makes?

Thanks!

[Kevin H]

I use 1mb IBM and they have performed 100% of the time.

[Kevin H]

To my last reply, I meant to say 1GB card.

[EugeneK]

I have had a 1G MD in my D60 for a couple months and have had no problems. I shoot RAW files only and need the extra space.
I have used a MD in a casio CV-3000 digital camera for about 2-3 years I think and have had no problems except when I turned off the camera in the middle of a write (DUH!).
-Eugene

[gsrossano]

The specs I have seen show that the microdrive is slower than most compact flash cards (about 3/4 the data transfer rate of the fastest cards). You also get different data transfer rates in a D30/60 vs. 1D depending on the CF card (varies with the controller used in the cards). The Lexar cards are best for a 1D but are slower in a D30/60. The Kingston cards are among the fastest for the D30/60 but are slower in the 1D. I use both Lexar and Kingston and the difference between them is obvious in a D30 or D60 when you are waiting for the buffer to write to disk.

[marqui]

Again, Using Microdrives so far we have had 100% success and as was mentioned, apart from speed, no problems. We never take the card out and we always download using the USB lead.

We DID however have a slight problem on a previous Microdrive were shots were taken and my wife turned the D60 off before the images could load to cache and we lost the last one of each shoot and were not able to download that specific image each time. Since she got a chewing NOT to do this we have not had any problems since.

Regards

Mark