Revisit: Microdrives vs. CF Cards

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OK, I bought a Lexar 1g and then took it back because it was just a bit too small for my needs, so now I'm faced with getting a 2g which will be fairly good, but not awesome (shooting in raw mode). I need a big stick since I'm getting a 20d very soon.

Last time I did research, which was about 5 months ago, CF cards were considered the "way to go" because of durability and speed. Is that still true, or have microdrives made advancement? 4g sure is attractive ;)
 
I remember reading CF cards have a nasty habit of losing the data now and then. Is that true? It's just that it has always popped into my head when reading about them since.

My digital uses Smartmedia. :oops:
 
Most prefer the solid state memory as opposed to the microdrive. Microdrives are too easily broken.
 
Whilst I was shooting yesterday I dropped one of my CF cards :shock:

It was perfectly OK but I'm not sure that a microdrive would have been.
 
Haven't done any real research on the topic, but i'm still an advocate of several CF cards. The 4g just seems too pricey for me and I'd much rather have all those photos on 8 512s just in case one fails, then I don't lose everything.
 
tr0gd0o0r said:
Haven't done any real research on the topic, but i'm still an advocate of several CF cards. The 4g just seems too pricey for me and I'd much rather have all those photos on 8 512s just in case one fails, then I don't lose everything.

That sounds like the best solution to me. I can't image what it would be like to loose 4G worth of images if it crapped out.

It's not like space or weight are an issue, just carry more cards.
 
Big Mike said:
tr0gd0o0r said:
Haven't done any real research on the topic, but i'm still an advocate of several CF cards. The 4g just seems too pricey for me and I'd much rather have all those photos on 8 512s just in case one fails, then I don't lose everything.

That sounds like the best solution to me. I can't image what it would be like to loose 4G worth of images if it crapped out.

It's not like space or weight are an issue, just carry more cards.

I'm not as worried about losing all the images because I would download them to my computer with roughly the same frequency I do now; but having no worries about space when shooting an event would be nice, and 4g should do that. I want to start shooting raw, but even with a 2g CF that could get used up fairly quickly with a 20d in raw.

As for having multiple CF cards you trade out, it's interesting becuase the only time I ever DID have a problem was when I traded out my cf card. With the 4g you'd never have to take it out.

BUT, the thing that worries me is speed. I checked the online resource where you put in your camera and it tells you what's fastest for THAT camera. It said the Hitachi 4g is about 4mb/sec and the Lexar 2g cf card is about 7mb/s. That's significant. I was hoping some new microdrives had come out by now, but all I can find is the same Hitachi one I saw months ago.

Thanks for the input. Still deciding.
 
Stay away from microdrives. I got a 340 Mb microdrive five years ago with a 3.3MP digital camera, and it shattered a week into my vacation. I was very angry. There was no way to recover the 150 pictures I had taken. :taped sh: Now, I use an SD cards in my new camera.

Can't you get 4GB CF cards, though? It would be terrible to accidentally drop the card or camera and lose all pics, let alone the card, even with back-ups. Here's a link about a 4GB cf, and CF in general: http://www.sandisk.com/retail/cf.asp. On the other hand, big CF cards are pretty expensive. If it was me, I would go for 4x 1GB CF cards.

I stay away from huge memory cards and prefer 2 or 3 with half the space(I have 2x 512MB, 1x256MB); then your pics are safer and not all is lost at the same time.
 
Sorry, misread your other post. Thought you were looking for 4GB :oops: But on sites like ecost.com, they are much cheaper. Could get 2GB for under $200 for sure!
 
from what I was told when micro drives first came out CF cards are better because they are solid state no moving parts and micro drives are exactly what the name says, a moving drive. I was told years ago by a nikon rep when they first came out with their digital cameras they didn't even make their cameras to use micro drives because of the moving disk caused problems because they could be damaged so they just stuck to CF cards. But I am sure that has changed in the last few years.
 
BernieSC said:
from what I was told when micro drives first came out CF cards are better because they are solid state no moving parts and micro drives are exactly what the name says, a moving drive. I was told years ago by a nikon rep when they first came out with their digital cameras they didn't even make their cameras to use micro drives because of the moving disk caused problems because they could be damaged so they just stuck to CF cards. But I am sure that has changed in the last few years.
It's still a microdrive and there are moving parts..
 
core_17 said:
You can get 4gb worth of Compact flash cards (two 2 gb) for $230 on Newegg.com

Core,

Coudln't find any 2g's on there. And I highly doubt for $230 that's the ultraii or lexar 80 which is the only thing I'd buy. A 4g of either is around $499.
 

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