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View Full Version : 4GB Microdrive and the D70

Mike_B
August 28th, 2004, 07:52 PM
I'll apologize in advance. There's really nothing productive about this post. It's just that I'm using my 4GB Microdrive with my new D70, and I'm pretty damn tickled that I can get 750 shots on one card. And my close friends and family are not really photographers, so who else can I share my gleefulness with. :)

Now if I can just get my butt out there and manage to take anywhere near that many photos!

On the other hand, it would be nice if Nikon comes up with a firmware fix in regard for how the D70 displays available shots. Evidently, the calculation is based on the size of D100 RAW files, which are nearly twice as large due to the fact that the D70 uses compressed RAW files. So, the counter shows only 377 available shots when I have 750+ available.

Ironically, the D70 only uses compressed RAW files (which are always around 5 megs), so basing the calculation on the uncompressed size is totally irrelevant.

Mike
Swampy
August 28th, 2004, 08:28 PM
Yeah, I was really happy to see the D70 handle the 4gb MD. Although I'd never trust a Microdrive (personal preference), It was silly to see 1000's of shots (in low mode). haha.
Igor
August 28th, 2004, 11:32 PM
Mike,
I too was excited about 4gb MD in my D70 giving so much shots space.
And once I really almost filled it shooting bursts at the Zoo.

Now it's in my SLR/n and it gives me about 300 RAWs which is very good. :)
snaggs
August 29th, 2004, 01:49 AM
How fast are the microdrives compared to something like a SanDisk Ultra 1gig ? Noticibly slower, or just "the specs say its slower, so I guess it is".

Daniel.
Igor
August 29th, 2004, 02:02 AM
I used both with D70 and experienced NO significant difference in write speed.
The 4gb MD is really fast.
Mike_B
August 29th, 2004, 03:16 AM
How fast are the microdrives compared to something like a SanDisk Ultra 1gig ? Noticibly slower, or just "the specs say its slower, so I guess it is".

Daniel.

On paper, the microdives are slower, with the S2 being the notable exception. But, in real life, the 4GB microdrive seems to work very well with the D70. I shot a few bursts with the D70/4GB combination, and was surprised that I seemed to wait only a few seconds and then fired off a second burst at the same speed as the first.

The S2 writes slower to the microdrive than the D70, but that's because the S2 processes data more slowly, not because of the microdrive. Even on paper, microdrives compare with CF in the S2 for write speed.

Mike