This may be a dumb question but i need to know the difference between a 2Gb Microdrive card and a regular 2Gb Compact Flash card. Advantages and Disadvantages?
I'd say the difference is about $10 to $20 with the compact flash being cheaper. Compact flash has the advantage of being solid state (no moving parts) so it is less sensitive to physical shock.
I don't know which one writes faster because that isn't important to me.
From specs & my very limited experience microdrives are slower than "regular" CF cards. The main difference is the micro drive is just that, a miniature mechanical hard drive with all the associated problems. A standrad solid-state CF card uses a flash-ram IC that has no mechanical parts to fail. Micro drives also list an altitude limit as they depend on air bearings to operate; there are several FM members who have reported having no problems using their drive above this limit, but it would make me nervous.
IMHO the advantages of a solid-state CF card far outweigh any presented by a microdrive.
Price out the 4GB and 6GB microdrives and you'll see more a price difference. I picked up a 4GB microdrive for $149 recently. A 4 GB card from Lexar or Sandisk are about $400+ (for the high-end cards) and the cheap Sandisk card is about $250. I have only had CF failures. My microdrives have been flawless. The altitude limit is 10,000 ft I believe.
tomgiles wrote:
A 2 GB microdrive is cheaper than $95 (delivered)? Do you have a link?
My take on this is if you can get a 2 GB flash card for less than a hundred bucks why would you bother with a microdrive?
if you are referring to the magicstore drives do not equate them to microdrives from hitachi. they are the biggest hit/miss product out there. its a definate waste of money.
a friend of mine has used both and from my research it would seem that MDs are more fragile as there are moving parts, whereas CF are solid state and can take more abuse... i have read about people accidentally putting CF cards through the wash and still having them work afterwards... if you drop a MD you can damage it...
i ended up with CF instead.. i looked into MDs but as Arka mentioned above CF prices have closed the gap (up to 2GB sizes anyway...)
I'm referring to Kingston CompactFlash Elite Pro. And sorry, I was wrong on the price. It's only $93 (delivered after rebate).
And, despite the evidence, I think it's funny that people still talk about flash "closing the gap" with microdrives. Seems to me that when flash is cheaper than a microdrive it's done more than close the gap.
And yes, it's true that I'm guilty of talking only about the 2 GB size. But that is the size the OP asked about.
Ive personnally tested 16mb CF, and after dishwasher, car crushing, even 5 seconds microvave, the CF still works. microdrives arent that tough.
Just try to destroy a CF by trowing it down a wall several times, you will fail.
drop a microdrives a couple time on concrete and its dead
Id stick to CF if i was you.
I have 2-one Gigabit IBM microdrives collecting dust in my photo-cabinet. They write SLOW AS SIN on either of my Nikon Digitals.....go with the solid state cards!!! NO question about it. However I recommend you go with one of the mainstream manufacturers: Lexar, SanDisk, or others....STAY AWAY from the no-name brands. You can go look on http://www.robgalbraith.com and look up their compact flash data base to see which cards write fastest to your brand/model of camera. They keep the database VERY up-to-date and it will tell you the best ones to buy for your camera. GOOD LUCK!
I have 2-one Gigabit IBM microdrives collecting dust in my photo-cabinet. They write SLOW AS SIN on either of my Nikon Digitals.....
Those 1GB cards have long been discontinued and IBM doesn't even make microdrives any more (sold the business to Hitachi.) My old 4x CF cards are SLOW AS SIN also, but you can't buy 4x CF cards any longer either. RG's site is very good and Microdrives rate usually near the ten percent of cards (for Canon.) Your point about Nikons being slow is valid as microdrives are much faster on Canon than Nikon.
I've got a 6 GB Hitachi md and it writes like lightning. I've only taken 2 or 3000 shots with it however. I do prefer solid state, but l bought this for the same price as a 4GB cf card. ($249.00)
