Microdrive...


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nickmak

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Apr 16, 2004
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I'm thinking of getting a 4GB MD for my camera... I'm a CF user but want an affordable solution to higher capacity cards. Some people warn against the use of MD. Anybody had any problems so far? (I apologize if this has been repeated again.)

Thanks!
 

i drop my MD once.... Screw up my whole photos inside.... lucky i store a backup on my comp liao... if not sure kenna jialet jialet from the couple....
MD is cheap... but kinda fragile..... slow compared to a CF card.... i tink will be good if u dun take out from the cam... just keep the MD inside then use FW to transfer from CAM to COMP... should be quite safe loh.... for me ... i like to take out... oso another reason is that i`m quite "Chor Lo" is another factor why my MD die on me....
 

Has anyone out there encountered reliability problems with the Hitachi 4GB MD yet?
 

kerpalz said:
i drop my MD once.... Screw up my whole photos inside.... lucky i store a backup on my comp liao... if not sure kenna jialet jialet from the couple....
MD is cheap... but kinda fragile..... slow compared to a CF card.... i tink will be good if u dun take out from the cam... just keep the MD inside then use FW to transfer from CAM to COMP... should be quite safe loh.... for me ... i like to take out... oso another reason is that i`m quite "Chor Lo" is another factor why my MD die on me....
Yikes... I think I'd stick to CF cards then... I'm probably as chor lor or worst than you!
 

nickmak said:
Yikes... I think I'd stick to CF cards then... I'm probably as chor lor or worst than you!

bro, as long as u leave it in the cam, its perfectly fine... unless u drop the cam as well! :faint:

eh? i thot u bought the 1DMkII recently? then, IMO, dun get the MD becos ur fps is 8.5. might as well make full use of it and get a SanDisk 1GB Extreme or Lexar 40x or 80x 1GB CF. :think:
 

nightwolf75 said:
bro, as long as u leave it in the cam, its perfectly fine... unless u drop the cam as well! :faint:

eh? i thot u bought the 1DMkII recently? then, IMO, dun get the MD becos ur fps is 8.5. might as well make full use of it and get a SanDisk 1GB Extreme or Lexar 40x or 80x 1GB CF. :think:
U c, that's the problem. I used so much vitamin M already that not enough for vitamin C - CF cards...

Thanks for the advice bro... I've been pondering over this problem since i got my 1D MKII... Maybe I'll stay with the CF cards... I was thinking of the Lexar cards and the Sandisk Ultra II cards too... (Extreme is a bit too extreme when price comes along! :eek:)
 

I just have got one thing to do to nightwolf75

:flame:

How can you say that man? There is no basis for you to make that statement. There are some Pros who really take care of their cams and do trust their MDs on top of their CFs.

The only reason why you would say such a thing is that your 300D write speed is really slow with MDs and I would agree, but on a 1D Mark II with a 40 frame buffer, tell me whether would the write speed be a important thing to you?

nickmak I can testify to you that if you do take your photos in RAW and do not use up the entire buffer, then I would seriously advise you to consider getting the 4GB MD.
 

agape01, i think u totally misunderstood me. i din say nickmak will drop his cam or MD on purpose. i'm asking him to take care not to drop the MD if he's using it. pls read carefully b4 flaming me.

i've used the MD b4 and i found it very useful. yes, the reason its slow for me becos (a) i shoot RAW, and (b) i shoot portraits. so the lag bet shots sometimes can be quite distracting to the model. this is why i switched over to using a high-speed CF card. other than dat, i brought my MD out for an extended holiday b4 and it gave me no problems and i loved the huge space.

the MD is good value for money if u dun mind the slightly slower write speeds. this goes whether u use the 300D or not. u may have a big buffer. but, the MD's writing speed (its after all a very small hdd) doesn't change. so, having a big buffer means u can store more images temporary in the cam's memory, while the cam's I/O writes the images into the MD.

so, pls get ur facts right b4 u go round flaming people. i dun appreciate ur insults.
 

nightwolf75 said:
bro, as long as u leave it in the cam, its perfectly fine... unless u drop the cam as well! :faint:

eh? i thot u bought the 1DMkII recently? then, IMO, dun get the MD becos ur fps is 8.5. might as well make full use of it and get a SanDisk 1GB Extreme or Lexar 40x or 80x 1GB CF. :think:

I never drop any of my hard disks before, but I have RMAed dozen of hard disks in the past few years. :think:

May be becos of all these bad experiences with hard drives, I never trust microdrive, especially if I have to carry the MD around, and may need to swap the MD when it run out of space, no way that I will take the risk.

To save time when I have to change CF, I just dump the filled CF inside my pants/shirt pocket, and wait till I am free then I will keep the CF card in a safe place. No way I will want to do that to a MD.

With the large buffer found in MKII, I feel that there is no need to get high speed CF, I don't understand why one shouldn't get MD because of 8.5fps (unless he got the same reason as myself). Since the buffer is large enough to hold more than enough photo that most pple will shoot, so even you have the slowest CF/MD, it will not affect your shooting because the buffer should clear faster than you can fill it up, therefore the write speed is not important.

Unless you are those who review your pic more than you shoot, then a fast CF may be useful. Otherwise, IMO, it is not worth to pay extra for high speed CF when MKII don't really need it.

This analysis is based on MKII only, for other cameras, high speed storage device may help, take for example, your 300D.
 

Wai said:
I never drop any of my hard disks before, but I have RMAed dozen of hard disks in the past few years. :think:

May be becos of all these bad experiences with hard drives, I never trust microdrive, especially if I have to carry the MD around, and may need to swap the MD when it run out of space, no way that I will take the risk.

To save time when I have to change CF, I just dump the filled CF inside my pants/shirt pocket, and wait till I am free then I will keep the CF card in a safe place. No way I will want to do that to a MD.

With the large buffer found in MKII, I feel that there is no need to get high speed CF, I don't understand why one shouldn't get MD because of 8.5fps (unless he got the same reason as myself). Since the buffer is large enough to hold more than enough photo that most pple will shoot, so even you have the slowest CF/MD, it will not affect your shooting because the buffer should clear faster than you can fill it up, therefore the write speed is not important.

Unless you are those who review your pic more than you shoot, then a fast CF may be useful. Otherwise, IMO, it is not worth to pay extra for high speed CF when MKII don't really need it.

This analysis is based on MKII only, for other cameras, high speed storage device may help, take for example, your 300D.


hey, wai!

yeah. there are inherent risks to using the MD. which was why i was very very careful when i was using my MD. me a big klutz... :embrass:

agree dat the big buffer in 1DMkII negates the inherent slow write speeds of the MD. dat said, actually a lot of it has to depend on wat nickmak is shooting. haha... if he's like wee khim in the canon 1DMkII commercial, and shooting the wakeboarder, mebbe he'll need to consider a fast CF! :bsmilie: other than dat, the MD will suffice, based on rob galbraith's charts.

i switched over from using MD to high-speed CF card is becos of my 300D small buffer. sigh... which meant dat now if i going on a holiday, i need to lug ard my x-drive.

anyway, my rant against agape01 is dat he/she thinks dat i dun know the inherent limitations of MD and my 300D. like i mentioned, he/she totally misunderstood me and go round flaming me. i dun appreciate dat.
 

CF vs MD
1 is memory module 1 is hardisk...definitely the more reliable 1 will be CF...faster,no mechanical movement involved, little power consumption and hence less heat.

I think it depends on how an individual take care of its own equipment. However, I quote an example, my PC hardidsk die on me several times and it was always the first thing to die off..even faster than my AMD CPU... Guess its the heat that conked it up.

So I guess harddisk is never built to last..and even manufacturer claimed so...Do u believe? :)

BTW I'm using a 300d, anyone can advice on a 40X lexar with 300d burst shot? Currently I'm using a 12X normal CF and it takes me about 10 sec for another 4 bursts of shots.
 

i dunno about u...but i using the sandisk ultra 2 1Gb wif my d70...the burst is pretty fast ya haha..
 

I haved used he Hitachi 4 GB MD before and Now I switched to CF. The storage space is wonderful. A great thing to have when going on holiday. I too loke to tkae it out of my camera and put it on a card reader to transfer files to my pc. This is faster than connecting my camera to the pc using USB. Don't get me wrong the MD has never failed me but I do not want to take the risk of losing my data due to my habit of taking it out and putting it in my shirt pocket. A CF is more rugged. So if you do not move it too much or take it out too often then the MD is value for money. Your camera buffer will compensate for the slow write speed of the CF.
 

My plan rite now is to get the 4GB MD off the Creative Muvo or the iPOD mini whichever is cheaper.

I'd probably keep the card in my camera if its a 4GB one. Probably enough for shooting. Doing wedding photography and also landscape and nature ones.

I'm nice to my stuff. For those who have bought my lenses before they would probably say the same thing. (Except for my old tamron.)

Cheers!
 

nickmak said:
My plan rite now is to get the 4GB MD off the Creative Muvo or the iPOD mini whichever is cheaper.

I'd probably keep the card in my camera if its a 4GB one. Probably enough for shooting. Doing wedding photography and also landscape and nature ones.

I'm nice to my stuff. For those who have bought my lenses before they would probably say the same thing. (Except for my old tamron.)

Cheers!

think there's a guy selling his MD on buy/sell a week ago. the last i saw, no one bought it yet. check it out?

oh yeah.... the current batch of muvo2 had their MD's CF functions locked down. ie- it will be useless on other devices except the muvo. dat goes the same for iPod. so, be careful when buying 2nd-hand MDs, esp if the seller says he/she recently extracted it out of a muvo. best test it first b4 buying.
 

I bought a 4GB MD and was very happy with it - great for one weeks travelling - no need to bring Xdrive or laptop.

However, I've lost the damn thing...moved apartments last month and just can't remember where I packed it. Know it was somewhere safe!! :confused:
 

nightwolf75 said:
think there's a guy selling his MD on buy/sell a week ago. the last i saw, no one bought it yet. check it out?

oh yeah.... the current batch of muvo2 had their MD's CF functions locked down. ie- it will be useless on other devices except the muvo. dat goes the same for iPod. so, be careful when buying 2nd-hand MDs, esp if the seller says he/she recently extracted it out of a muvo. best test it first b4 buying.
Great, now who has a 4GB MD?

If cannot extract the MD then i'm dead. ;p

Will check out that MO! Thanks!
 

Too bad dude. Just sold mine a while ago. Anyway good luck.
 

I would also add that nightwolf75 also has totally misunderstood me...

But no point bringing this any further unless the goal is to see who has gotten more posts. heee heee....
 

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