IBM microdrive vs. CompactFlash

[jwren00]

This is for you digicam people:

Has anybody tried the microdrive in their digital camera? I'm thinking about getting a 1gb microdrive, they are much cheaper than the compact flash cards. Do they perform any differently than the compact flash cards? Thanks for the help.

[Fixion]

They should be faster, it will produce more heat.

[Scooter/Cootie]

When I bought my new digital camera, I was also considering going with a microdrive over a flash card.

However, I ended up going with the flash card instead simply because the microdrive has moving parts. The more parts, the greater chance for something to go wrong.

This is especially important if the camera happens to get suddenly jarred (ie. dropped, shot by a paintball). The jar could cause the head of the reader to come into contact with the hard drive, requiring the whole thing to be replaced with the loss of whatever photo's you've already taken.

This won't happen with a flash card as it dosent have the hard drive.

It's possible to buy a 1 gig flash card for less than a microdrive.

Hope this helps.

[Crighton]

The micro drives are remarkably jar and shock resistant. They do how ever use batteries up at a hugely increased rate. Between a 1gb CF card and a 1gb micro drive for a camera I'd take the CF card. Battery life is important. With a PDA you can always plug it in and still use it.

[jwren00]

thanks for the info!

I think I'll go with a compact flash now, where can you find them cheaper than the microdrive? On ebay it looks like the 1gb microdrive is around $140, and the 1gb flash is more like $190?

[Muzikman]

CF over MicroDrive any day. In all out performance tests, CF card are faster. Would you be able to tell, no, but they are. I have used both and will stick with CF.

As for a good place to buy CF, look at www.mydigitaldiscount.com and look at the Transcender cards. I have 5 of these bad boys and you can not beat the quality for price. They are as good a Lexar but MUCH cheaper.