On Sat, Nov 11, 2006 at 11:13:19AM -0800, Shel Belinkoff wrote: > What's the deal with Type 1 and Type 2 CF cards? My recollection is that > one is somewhat larger in some dimension than the other. If that's the > case, is there any problem or caution using one or the other in the istD? > > Bruce, do you find an advantage using a micro drive over a regular CF card? > > Shel
A CF I card is a little thinner than a CF II card. The D has a CF II slot, so it can accept either type. A Microdrive is physically the same size as a type II CF card, but has a noticeably higher current draw. Not all devices with a type II CF card slot have a power supply rated for the requirements of a Microdrive, but the D can provide more than enough power. The only reason to use a Microdrive, rather than a CF card, is cost. Back in the days when I bought my *ist-D I paid around $350 for two 1GB microdrives. Buying the same amount of capacity on CF cards would have cost me at least twice as much. Nowadays memory is at least an order of magnitude cheaper, and the price-per-gigabyte advantage is much smaller, so I wouldn't buy a Microdrive today. While the mechanical unreliability is, in my opinion, nowhere near the problem the doomsayers would have you believe (at least if you stick with name-brand media, not some anonymous product) there are still the issues of higher current draw (leading to shorter battery life) and speed - Microdrives are only spun up when they are needed, so the time to write the first image is a bit higher. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
