Hitachi Microdrive for Digital Rebel

[Razor Roman]

Hey all,

I have 4 GB of memory for my Digital Rebel, I added up the number of pictures I could take the other day and it's about 850 (obvioulsy it will vary with Jpeg compression vs raw, etc..) That's on best quality JPEG mode. I rarely shoot in RAW, and that probably won't chage...whatever

Anyway, I can fill that in a week at WDW, a place I am intimately familiar with. I am making a 2 week trip to Disneyland and Hawaii and I want to get some more memory. I was thinking about buying the biggest CF card I could afford, probably 1 or 2 GB. I stopped in best buy real quick today and saw that the regular sandisk was $99 (I bought one there last time for like $40!) and next to it was a 6 GB microdrive for $249.

Anyone have experience with them? I was worried about their reliability, but is the savings in cost enough to make up for that? (Hopefully it won't fail on my trip, I meant long-term I obviously dont' want to lose pics on my honeymoon)

Anyone have any experience with them?

How about the Segate ones? I found one of them in 8 GB from Walmart.com for about the same price as the 6 gb.

 

[Supercod]

Personally I stopped using micro drives and now only use solid state CF cards, and only professional 80x speed ones at that. Reason I stopped using micro drives was I found them much slower compared to a good CF card, in fact I was amazed at how much faster and bigger burst rate you get with a CF card.. Also if you think about it mini hard drives whizzing about with little parts are more likely to break than something that’s solid state.

 

[Geoff_M]

Also if you think about it mini hard drives whizzing about with little parts are more likely to break than something that’s solid state.

Basically, if you drop a microdrive (in or out of the camera)... kiss it good-bye. CFs on the other hand can suffer all kinds of abuse. Try putting a microdrive through the wash and see what happens. Microdrives also consume some of your camera's battery power.

 

[kbnovak]

I had a microdrive and absolutely babied it, but it failed--luckily I did not lose any images.

I second (third?) the CF card suggestion. When I'm working event work, we routinely toss cards--and drop them--with absolutely no ill effects. Your mileage may vary.

 

[MICKEY88]

I agree with everything Geoff_M said, I have a 4 gig Hitachi Microdrive that I bought when I bought my camera.. it is much slower than my 1 gig Lexar 40x write speed CF card..

another problem I encountered was while doing a model shoot on a 90 degree day it seems that it generated enough heat to lock up my camera.., at first I thought it was just the camera, kept starting my car and cooling the camera down with my AC, then switched to my lexar 1 gig card and didn't have any more trouble..

the microdrive has since been reduced to back up purposes only...

 

[robertchance]

i would buy CF cards, but not for the reasons stated above,, if all your pics are on one card, and it is lost,, you lose your pics,, if you have more then 1 card and it is lost, then at least you will have pics on other cards so it will not be a total loss. of course, this advice means nothing if you bring a laptop and download the card every evening.. but if u don't, then this might save some memories for you.

 

[WillCAD]

CF cards have been going on sale a lot lately because of the Thanksgiving and Christmas sales.

I recently bought a pair of PNY 512mb CF cards from Office Depot for $30 each. But I have also seen the SanDisk regular grade cards on sale for that price, and the 1gb cards have been $60 each.

The higher grade 80X cards will cost more, and you may not see any bennefit from buying them, because a Digital Rebel cannot save the files to a card as fast as a more advanced camera like a 20D or a 5D. Why get faster cards if your camera is not that fast?

I'm also a big supporter of the philosphy that robertchance mentioned - don't keep all your eggs in one basket, or all your pics on one card. Split them up so that if you lose a card, or lose the camera with a card in it, you will not lose all of your pics.

 

[Razor Roman]

i bought a 1gb card for $30, and I know the durability of CF cards (Ive washed one).. I was shocked to see the "regular" lexar 1 gb was $99 after rebates!

I've found better deals since, and will probably buy about $200 worth of CF when I find a good price.

 

[Supercod]

Hi, I buy in the UK from a company called Calumet and the prices are very good, notice the USA ones are good and have rebate offer just now.

Lexar Pro 80X CompactFlash Rebates

Rebate Offer
Valid for purchases made between October 2 and December 31, 2005
Get up to $50 back by mail when you purchase a Lexar 1GB, 2GB or 4GB 80X CompactFlash card.

$20 - 1GB 80X CompactFlash Card
$30 - 2GB 80X CompactFlash Card
$50 - 4GB 80X CompactFlash Card

And looking at the website the price before rebate is

Lexar Pro 1GB 80X CompactFlash Card $99.99
Lexar Pro 2GB 80X CompactFlash Card $199.99
Lexar Pro 4GB 80X CompactFlash Card $409.99

These are the ones I use, I have a 1GB and a 2GB.
This is the website by the way http://www.calumetphoto.com/

 

[Anewman]

I'm also a big supporter of the philosphy that robertchance mentioned - don't keep all your eggs in one basket, or all your pics on one card. Split them up so that if you lose a card, or lose the camera with a card in it, you will not lose all of your pics.

On the other hand some(minority) feel that the less you have to swap cards, the less oportunity to lose/drop/damage cards or cameras. I have seen many bent/broken pins in cameras. 512mb cards would have to be swaped 8 times b4 you need to swap a 4gb card/microdrive.

Microdrives are NOT bulletproof but if price per mb is the biggest concern they do fit the bill.

If SPEED and duribility is top priority, skip them.

 

[WillCAD]

On the other hand some(minority) feel that the less you have to swap cards, the less oportunity to lose/drop/damage cards or cameras. I have seen many bent/broken pins in cameras. 512mb cards would have to be swaped 8 times b4 you need to swap a 4gb card/microdrive.

Microdrives are NOT bulletproof but if price per mb is the biggest concern they do fit the bill.

If SPEED and duribility is top priority, skip them.

Excellent point Anewman. Swapping too many times does present more possibility of damage.

I bought 512mb cards because they are big enough to give me one full day of average shooting at WDW, and I download my pics every day so that they are not all on one CF card. That compromise works for me, although others may want to change cards more or less often.

I think it's a fine line; I remember my film days, when I had to change rolls every 24 shots, vs. today when I routinely take 100 or more shots on the same CF card and don't change all day. I like the idea of not having to swap cards very often, but I think that needs to be balanced out with the very real possibilities of losing images from accidents like dropped cameras, lost cameras, defective cameras, defective CF cards, or accidental formatting.

Your milage may vary.

 

[glass slipper girl]

I had a Microdrive that came with me last week to WDW along with 2 1 GB CF cards. I shot most things in RAW so I needed lots of space. I downloaded pics ever night just to be safe. My microdrive was never dropped and was completely babied. It worked fine for the first few days and worked find downloading pics from it the night before but sitting down to watch a show at MVMCP I changed from a CF to the microdrive and low and behold "Unable to use card." I tried formatting and it would get almost to the end and give me the same message. I am just thankful it happened AFTER I got pics off of it so I didn't lose any images. I only had the microdrive b/c it was given to me as a gift and my 3 year old opened the packaging before I had time to return it.

I would definitely recommend spending the extra and getting CF cards.

 

[kbnovak]

I've had great results with Kingston Elite 1GB cards. They are frequently on sale from from an on-line retailer that is synonymous for "purchase" for around $50. I've shot literally tens of thousands of images on them (sports and events) and they work perfectly. I have, however, heard that they don't get along well with a particular card reader-but I can't recall the brand (not an issue for me b/c I use PCMCIA reader.

 

[BeautyLLM]

I guess everyone's experience is different. I have been using a 2GB microdrive with my 20D for a year. I have been very happy with it. It is fast and reliable, even when recording in RAW and jpeg together. I don't think it eats up battery power, but I've made a habit of carrying a second charged battery so it isn't an issue. It has paid for itself many times over!

 

[Kelly Grannell]

No more microdrive for me. After 2 Hitachi and 1 IBM failed on me, with a whole bunch of pictures in them, plus the really-really-absolutely-slow access and write time, I swear off to never use Microdrive in my life again.

 

[Supercod]

I guess everyone's experience is different. I have been using a 2GB microdrive with my 20D for a year. I have been very happy with it. It is fast and reliable, even when recording in RAW and jpeg together.

Honestly get a 80x speed card, you already paid out for a great camera and it's one of them upgrades that when you get it you never look back. I was really happy with my micro drive until guy at the camera shop took my camera and done a test right in front of my face, I couldn't believe the difference it was like it was making the camera work faster when all it was really doing was letting it do what it was meant to in the first place.

 

[Anewman]

Honestly get a 80x speed card, you already paid out for a great camera and it's one of them upgrades that when you get it you never look back. I was really happy with my micro drive until guy at the camera shop took my camera and done a test right in front of my face, I couldn't believe the difference it was like it was making the camera work faster when all it was really doing was letting it do what it was meant to in the first place.

ONLY possible advantage you get from faster cards is clearing the buffer faster.

And if one never fills up that buffer there is no advatange what so ever.

And that test you fell for was not exactly scientific was it?
Only real tests would be to fill up the buffer with the exact same scene/lighting/settings/etc... and time how fast buffer would clear.

Some of these tests have shown that the 20d maxxes out at around 46X.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Don't forget after you've taken all those pics, you'll need to download them... and yeah, 80x makes a LOT of difference when you're downloading 2 Gb of pictures.

 

[Supercod]

ONLY possible advantage you get from faster cards is clearing the buffer faster.

And if one never fills up that buffer there is no advatange what so ever.

And that test you fell for was not exactly scientific was it?
Only real tests would be to fill up the buffer with the exact same scene/lighting/settings/etc... and time how fast buffer would clear.

Some of these tests have shown that the 20d maxxes out at around 46X.

I am not a scientist and I am guess your not one as well, if you are then magic I am sure you will have them down a lab . Instead I go on real life trial of products and comparing how they matched up for me.

Things I noticed where, camera was ready faster, I could review images faster, they where on screen faster, I could take more pictures so when I was doing a burst it was ready quicker for me to take more, it formatted faster.

I never claimed to be a scientist and you have even said yourself cards are better than micro drives and clear almost everyone agrees with that. All I was simply trying to do is point someone in what I see if the right direction because if you pay the money we have all clearly had to shell out for the body then why go cheap on the storage.. It’s like getting a sports car and then putting on budget tyres, sure they do a job but you really should buy the best you can afford. I am not putting down anyone that’s not got the budget to get some juicy cards as yes they are more expensive just now but in my opinion worth it.

And as was right pointed out, you can download 2 gigs of images much faster on these than you can micro drives yet another great reason to go for it.