Memory Media and Recording formats

[memobug]

The S2pro has dual slots that support both Smart Media and Compact Flash formats, including the IBM Microdrive.


http://www.sandisk.com/img/products/cons_cf_pict.GIFCompactFlash ©SanDisk
CompactFlash (http://www.sandisk.com/consumer/cf_card.asp) is a solid state memory device available in a number of different recording speeds from a wide variety of manufacturers. Lexar Media for example offers Flash that records at 4x, 12x and other speeds. Lexar recently developed a method that will enable some cameras to write even more quickly to the media, but it is not supported on the S2Pro at this time.

http://www.sandisk.com/img/Cons_people/sm.jpgSmartMedia ©SanDisk
SmartMedia (http://www.sandisk.com/consumer/sm_card.asp) is a smaller, solid state memory device about the size of a postage stamp, with exposed gold contact surfaces on the face. Capacity tends to lag CompactFlash development and price is generally slightly higher.

http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/micro/1gbmicro.gifMicrodrive ©IBM
The IBM Microdrive (http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/micro/datasheet.htm) is a tiny harddrive with recording heads and rotating media. It offers a fairly large memory size for the price, but the moving parts present reliability concerns in rough handling, shock and vibration and temperature. The microdrive also has a higher power consumption rate and some users have reported that the camera can be stalled out waiting for the microdrive to spin up to operating speed. More details below. We've seen a lot of the 340Meg microdrives on closeout, and we expect the 1GB drives will be soon to follow. The economy of manufacturing high-precision magnetic recording media in this form factor will no doubt be surpassed by digital memories in the next year or two.


OTHER INFORMATION compatibility with compactflash cards (http://theswampbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141
) Comparison between CF card & MicroDrive (http://theswampbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141) Other discussions about memory (http://theswampbbs.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=10)

[memobug]

This is actually a pretty easy question to answer.

If you are a professional photographer you should buy CompactFlash media from a major manufacturer like Lexar or Sandisk. Reliability and power consumption are lower than the Microdrive and the capacities available are comparable.

You can expect to pay at least 2-3 times as much for a compact flash card than an IBM Microdrive, but the cost of a lost image, or an entire day's work it could make all the difference.

If you are a hobbyist and want a lot of capacity, don't need lighting fast startup speeds and don't mind swapping batteries more often, you could look into an IBM microdrive.

It appears that Smartmedia is waning. The form factor is being supplanted by the SD Expansion cards (http://www.sandisk.com/consumer/sd_card_exp.asp). In palmtop devices. Smart Media is still found in a variety of point and shoot models and has been supported by Olympus as well. As a format, Smart Media's far from dead yet, but the smart money is on compact flash for professional digital photography

[memobug]

Occasionally during a read or write operation a media card will fail, either internally or more likely because power was interrupted during a critical operation.

This can cause the file index on the card to become corrupted in some cases, or it may just affect a single photo. Sometimes the computer or camera will report an error and not be able to continue using the card.

To help prevent this from happening, don't eject memory cards or swap batteries with the power switch on. Make sure write operations to the card have been completed before ejecting the card (access lamp on the back is out)

If a card does become corrupted, don't give up hope. Eject the card and keep it in a safe place . Jot a note down so you remember what happened and to which card.

When you get back home, there are several options to try downloading one of the image recovery utilities appropriate for the device.

1) Lexar has a proprietary recovery program for their Jumpshot (USB compatible devices), unfortunately, it's designed and marketed only for Lexar Media with USB connection - and it's available for about $40 as a *physical* shipment. Not real helpful when you need results now. Some Lexar dealers have the image recovery program and you can try there.

2) I found another program that works very well called PhotoRecovery from LC Technology http://www.lc-tech.com The nice point about this program is there is a free download that you can use to test whether the pay version (also about $40) will work for you. This program works with your CompactFlash, SmartMedia, Memory Stick Microdrive, SD Card, Floppy Disk, CDR or DVD for images
It is compatible with JPEG, GIF and TIF among others. I have not tried RAW formats yet. (Haven't had the opportunity ;) )