Also, if you need a jump drive for moving files between computers, etc.
This is an awesome deal. Free ship. If you use "google checkout" for the first time it will only cost $3.00
Unfortunately, those cards are unacceptable today IMO. That's not for the Ultra II, but for the old blue cards that use "stone chisel" write speed. Don't think they're the answer for a new/current DSLR camera, but may be fine for a P&S that has limited write speed capabilities.
PS - I have some of the older cards, but I paid $10 each for them....
I think we're looking at the same thing, but it doesn't include the Ultra II SD cards and that was what I was talking about. Only the CF is Ultra II and $14.99, which is a very good price...
This looked like a pretty good deal, so I ordered a few on Monday morning. Since I was over $50.00, the site seemed to say that I qualified for free next day delivery. Great!
The next day, Tuesday, I checked the tracking function on their web site and my order had mysteriously changed, and was to be delivered the next day, Wednesday. No big deal, I thought.
Today, Wednesday, today, I checked the web site again, and it now show shows my order not being delivered until Monday, 26 Nov. Not great.
I called their toll free number. And was routed somewhere, probably in the third world, to a male voice with an accent so thick I had a very difficult time understanding him. After a fair amount of back and forth what I got, other than an unhelpful young man with a heavy accent, was the following.
They are claiming that the order wasn't "entered into the system" until around midnight Monday / early Tuesday (translation - apparently Office Depot only updates their system once a day). That the item I ordered was a "cross-doc" item (at least I think that is what he said), which apparently means that Office Depot isn't actually stocking the stuff, and they are getting it from some third party vendor. This in turn means that the item doesn't qualify for overnight delivery, it only qualifies for three-day delivery. Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and since they (I assume that the "they" here is the delivery guys) aren't working Friday either, this all means that my order will not be delivered until Monday the 26th.
A couple of observations seem apropos - first, even our pathetic excuse for a Post Office could get it here quicker than this. Second, the aggravation is not worth the few bucks I saved. Third, it will be a cold day in hell before I do business with Office Depot again.
And finally, since this "deal" is apparently still on offer today - I thought I'd put this Caveat Emptor out there so that if anybody else decides to buy these from Office Depot, they at least go in with their eyes open.
I'm an early riser by habit, gonna check out Staples at six in the morning.
Wondering if they'll sell me ten of the little buggers.
Gonna use them for storage, like negative files,of digial images as opposed to copying over to CD's and hoping. I figure the format will last longer than CD/DVD's and will be compatible for many, many decades into the future.
Thoughts, anybody, as to using them for a storage medium
BeeMan458 wrote:
I'm an early riser by habit, gonna check out Staples at six in the morning.
Wondering if they'll sell me ten of the little buggers.
Gonna use them for storage, like negative files,of digial images as opposed to copying over to CD's and hoping. I figure the format will last longer than CD/DVD's and will be compatible for many, many decades into the future.
Thoughts, anybody, as to using them for a storage medium
Am I understanding this correctly...you want to use 2 gb CF cards as an alternative storage option to CDs? Wowsa!!
I readily admit I'm not very good with math, but I think even a mathematically challenged person like me can figure out this is a terrible option.
Here's what I come up with (using DVDs, rather than CDs)...
The 2gb card at Staples costs $15.
A spindle of 25 blank DVDs at Best Browse costs $15.
Those 25 blank DVDs will hold 117.5gb of data.
It would take 59, 2gb CF cards to hold the same amount of data.
59 2gb cards at $15 each = $885
Change that scenario to something along the lines of a 500gb My Book external hard drive and the numbers are just nuts!! Makes no sense whatsoever. Hard drive space is so cheap, I'm not sure why someone would consider 2gb CF cards for long-term storage.
Now, if you're talking about a short-term storage solution, that's an entirely different matter altogether. I have several older (slower) CF cards that I'll drop files/folders into to move from one computer to another. But for long-term storage--which is what I'm assuming you're talking about since you mentioned "many decades into the future"--IMO, $15 2gb CF cards would be a really poor choice.
"I'm not sure why someone would consider 2gb CF cards for long-term storage."
Simple. Over the years.... I've come to not like HDD's or CD's as a storage solution.
Coming from a film background, considering the number of rolls of film (36/24exp) that I get on one two gig card, it's seems uber cheap for this mathematically challenged individual.
I've tried the CD method and don't like it. I have a pair of HDD's and don't like it as a dependable solution. I like the idea of dividing the images up amongst a bunch of two gig cards as opposed to the much cheaper CD/DVD solutions.
"To each his own, though. "
At fifteen bucks a card, it actually make sense to me.
I come from the day and age where three bucks for a meg of magnetic storage (3 ea, 5 1/4" disks) was an uber good deal. A hundred plus dollars bought you a meg of memory; nine chips, one for parity and coming from a film background (as are most), I'm use to buying and paying for the development of roll film. A 10D holds what, some three hundred and sixty plus images or ten plus rolls of thirty-six per two gig CF card?. What's it run for a roll of 36, plus processing? Twenty bucks?
Below is an example of an online storage solution: $9.95/mo (home edition).
So now I have the equivalent of ten rolls of film on one card, no need for storage albums, just a baggie, CF cards numbered 1 thru 10 (20 gigs worth) and a small lined piece of paper telling me what I thru 10 means. I suspect that USB, or it's compatible cousins will far outlive my worthlessness. Now, I don't have to worry about the who-ha surrounding the obsoleting of CD's/DVD's and format compatibility as that's now, for me, a concern of the past nor the corporate structure and will it be around next month/year; continuity.
So forgive me for my myopic view cause if they'll sell em to me, I'm buying.
Just to throw some gas on the fire here, the Ultra II SD cards at Staples are $17.99 each, not $14.99. Not only is the SD Ultra II card not pictured or mentioned in the ad, but I also went to Staples yesterday and confirmed both price and availability.To get that $17.99 price, you need to be there between 6-10am Friday morning, otherwise they want $49.95. What fun!!!
I decided to go to the Calumetphoto.com site (we have a local store but I didn't want to drive) and the same cards (Ultra II CF and SD) are available at $39.95 on a two for one sale. Seems like a much better deal to me. You pay $2 more per card, but you don't have to go near the stores/mall on BF which is going to be crazy no matter where you live. I live in Boston, but I'm in Portland ME as I write this and the stores here will be nuts too....
Moral - if you want these cards (2GB Ultra II), dont' want to wait in line, don't mind paying $4 more (assuming you don't have to ship), then Calumet may be your best bet.
The SanDisk Ultra II 2GB is on the front page of the Staples ad supplement that came in today's paper. The qualifying text says that there's a limit of one for all items on the front page.
