Counter problem with microdrive

[RikWriter]

I just bought a 6GB Hitachi microdrive for my 20D and when I switch it to the full-auto modes, the counter won't go over 999. Is that as high as the counter will go? I know it will hold more pics than that because after taking about 50 pics it's still at 999. On the creative modes, it holds about 670 pics and they count down normally.
Anyone else notice this?

[robertwgross]

I just bought a 6GB Hitachi microdrive for my 20D and when I switch it to the full-auto modes, the counter won't go over 999. Is that as high as the counter will go? I know it will hold more pics than that because after taking about 50 pics it's still at 999. On the creative modes, it holds about 670 pics and they count down normally.
Anyone else notice this?

Yes, 999 is the highest number that can be displayed.

It doesn't have to do so much with the exposure mode you are in, but whether you are shooting RAW or JPEG. Creative Zone modes allow RAW, and others don't, and RAW files tend to be much larger than JPEG.

Yes, roughly 110 RAW files per GB is about right, varying with ISO.

---Bob Gross---

[badrotation]

Quick question....

How fast is that microdrive on the camera.. I have been thinking of picking one up, but I dont want something that will take forever to write to.

[badrotation]

Oh, and yes, the counter stuck at 999 is normal. that is the highest possible number the LCD can display, since there are only three digits in the counter portion of the LCD

[CorruptedPhotographer]

badroationp, if im not incorrect, the MD is faster than the fastest CF produced so far. I read this on some forums and reviews but I am sure this is what the person @ BestBuy (USA) said.

[RikWriter]

The MD seemed fairly fast when I was testing it in sports mode, full-auto. And yes, I neglected to mention, I do have my creative zone modes set to RAW.

[chemicalbro]

Quick question....

How fast is that microdrive on the camera.. I have been thinking of picking one up, but I dont want something that will take forever to write to.


I just did some test shots using a 1gb (hitachi) microdrive and a 256mb (sandisk) CF card..

there wasn't any noticable difference in write times

both previews were on the lcd by the time i took my eye from the viewfinder

i also tried both "cards" in continuous shooting............. Again no noticable difference..

tbh i find that weird as the microdrive has moving parts whereas the cf card is solid state (in thoery the cf card should be quicker) but it's not :cool:

all tests were shot in manual mode and RAW.....

[CorruptedPhotographer]

Chemicalbro said:
...in theory the cf card should be quicker...



In which theory lol?

i'd like to learn more about this theory.

[chemicalbro]

the theory that states solid state ram is faster than a hard drive......
at the end of the day a digital camera is just a mini computer........

is your hard drive in your PC faster than your ram?

[Salleke]

I just did some test shots using a 1gb (hitachi) microdrive and a 256mb (sandisk) CF card..

there wasn't any noticable difference in write times

both previews were on the lcd by the time i took my eye from the viewfinder

i also tried both "cards" in continuous shooting............. Again no noticable difference..

tbh i find that weird as the microdrive has moving parts whereas the cf card is solid state (in thoery the cf card should be quicker) but it's not :cool:

all tests were shot in manual mode and RAW.....

Chemicalbro - CF cards are allways faster than your Microdrive. The problem is your camera that does not support the faster CF cards wright speed.
But newer cameramodels wil support the faster cards in the future. Then you wil notice the difference in writing to your MD or CF cards.
Even the slowest CF cards are allways faster then a Microdrive. Theoreticly ... ;)

[chemicalbro]

isn't that what i said?

in theory a solid state "memory" card will be faster than a mini hard drive............

in reality it is not becasue the cameras ATA controller controls the speed at which data is written to the card/drive.........

[S230]

The MD seemed fairly fast when I was testing it in sports mode, full-auto. And yes, I neglected to mention, I do have my creative zone modes set to RAW.
For most Hard drives including Micro Drives, the fastest speed is achieved when during peak writing consitently to it. Hard drives does tend to have a large cache buffer space and sequential writing to the HD is more consistent than ram (Assuming freshly formatted). The thing that slows it down is start and stop which requires "seek times". Also, RPM and logical heads plays an important factor. These numbers can be located in technical manuals for the hard drives. I myself prefer CF cards because it can withstand more abuse than MD and also less power comsumption.

[WhiteFrog]

Here is my knowledge and experiance...
The microdrive is "capable" of being faster than compact flash memory. Solid State does not always mean fast. Dynamic RAM (like the RAM in your computer) is several hundred times faster than the fastest non volitile RAM in your CF card. The part of the CF that slows it down is the fact that it can keep the data without power, this requires a totally different write process than the RAM in your computer. The thing that is keeping your MD slow is the interface between the camera and the disk.

I had a 4gb microdrive and performed the following test. Using my USB2 card reader, I wrote a file about 100mb to the MD. I then wrote the same file to my old 4x lexar CF. The CF card wrote the file in about half the time as the MD (sorry I didn't time it). Now I admit, in the camera the difference was BARELY noticable.

The reason I got rid of the MD is because I started getting corrupt images. I only got 5 corrupt images out of the ~3000 shots I took with the MD, but one of them could have been the best I had ever taken. How will I ever know? Also, when I got to around 1600 images on the card the camera started locking up. I'm sure all this was caused by bad sectors on the drive or something, but I didn't want to deal with that during a shoot and miss shots (which I did). CF cards (being solid state) should not ever have this problem.

$.02

[ScottE]

Comparing my 2 gb Sandisk Extreme CF card and 4 gb Sony microdrive on my 20D shooting RAW, the first 6 or 7 shots in continuous drive seem to be at the same speed until the camera buffer is full. The next 2 shots are slower than the first 6 or 7 with both cameras and the time between them is about the same. After that lag time between shots is shorter with the CF card than the microdrive. It appears to take a little longer for the red light to go off when you stop taking pictures with the microdrive. With either drive the lag time between shots is so long after the buffer is full that it is almost useless for sports shooting so the lenght of delay is not very relevant.

[lancea]

WhiteFrog is absolutely correct. This type of memory started off being very slow but has got a lot quicker. Microdrives will be around for some time yet. Disc technology has advanced at least as fast as solid state technology. Every time someone says the limit on disc storage-density has been reached, someone finds a new way to store more data in the same physical space.