DID YOU KNOW..........

[Daniel]

A memory chip is still somewhat different to a CPU. A Pentium 3 has always the same amount of transistors, no matter what speed it runs. It's just a question of build quality that decides the speed of the CPU. However, more memory needs more 'transistors' (not sure if transistors are used; but what ever they use they need more to make more memory).

 

[ksmattfish]

The guy I work with did show up with some mem cards that said 64mb on the label, but read 248mb in the camera. He did say that he has had his hacked cards fail on him, which makes it not worth it to me no matter what the savings.

 

[havoc]

I believe both ways. The Flash cards are all cut from the same wafer, It is very expensive to cut a wafer into many different sizes. One size cut is far cheaper then anything else. Also there is software that goes into memory, i.e. memory address controllers etc. So all the programmer has to do is limit the memory address total and you got a smaller memory card. add more and you got a bigger one. (up to its maximum capacity of course)

Be skeptical all you want, but this practice has been used in the semiconductor/wafer business for along time. I am certain this is what they do.

Different parts of the wafer have different levels of quality sometimes though, so there is a limit to how fast or much can be applied to pieces from that wafer, it is also possible that the 64mb are from the outer edges of the wafer were the quality is less, but i doubt that.

 

[Daniel]

Different parts of the wafer have different levels of quality sometimes though, so there is a limit to how fast or much can be applied to pieces from that wafer, it is also possible that the 64mb are from the outer edges of the wafer were the quality is less, but i doubt that.

Why would they sell the same amount memory for less when the quality is the same, so they could sell it as 256 instead of 64?

 

[ksmattfish]

Why would they sell the same amount memory for less when the quality is the same, so they could sell it as 256 instead of 64?

It's sales strategy. If it costs them $X to produce the card, then they can charge $X times 10 (or whatever) for the 64mb card, and $X times 40 (or 30, and let you think you are getting a deal) for the 256mb. There will always be some folks who would prefer to spend less money on a 64mb card.

The Canon Elan and the Rebel have the same shutter assembly, but the Elan has a flash sync of 1/125th, and the Rebel 1/90th. Canon spends a little more money crippling the Rebel shutter assembly so that they can create a reason for you to upgrade. It's not just this one feature, but many little things like this add up to create the incentive to go up to a more expensive camera.

I worked in camera sales for 3.5 years. I'm sure it's similar in other electronic sales, and almost anything. The "behind the scenes" info made me sick. Maybe that's why I prefer vintage cameras to the modern stuff. The Canon and Nikon sales reps were ruthless, didn't give a flying f*ck about photography or photographers. It was all about cash money. And dealing with the companies, that was horrible. If you were'nt selling millions of dollars of their gear a year, they really did not have time to help us or our customers.

It's all about money and profit, and they've figured out all sorts of ways to mess with the consumers' heads, and get them to spend more money than they intended.