> When Pentax said they were swtiching to SD cards, I did my own > investigating on them and learned about the lock that will prevent the > user erasing anything important. I heard that CF cards were headed in > that direction, but never have seen a CF card with a lock on it to prevent > erasure. I have lots of CF cards for my *ist D and Optio 230 Pentax. Too > bad Pentax didn't allow a dual use system like, I believe, Canon did > with one of there EOS dslrs.
This is just an educated guess, but I think a major reason most cameras now use SD cards (other than the smaller size compared to CF) is the number of warranty repairs they had to do on those little pins in the CF slot. At the camera shop I worked at, we got dozens of people coming in with bent pins because they put the card in the wrong way. We always made a point of showing people how to do it when they first bought a camera, but it still happened. Most people with this problem bought their cameras on the internet, though. Many digital neophytes have problems remembering how to insert CF cards, even when the card has a little arrow on it, or the camera has a diagram showing the proper orientation. Older folks with poor vision have the worst time with it, I found (no offense to older folks here, I'm just reporting an observation). Bent pins are a nightmare, because you have to support the customer for something they did from not following the instructions. It's not a manufacturing defect, but the customer will usually piss and moan like it is. I think that was a big motivating factor for the switch to SD. John -- http://www.neovenator.com http://www.cafepress.com/neovenatorphoto -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
