SD Cards and Pro-Consumer Gear

[jvora]

Hello :

Is there a new trend where SD cards are being "pushed" ( logically or ill-logically ) into Pro-Consumer Cameras/Gear ?

Lately, it seems I am "seeing" an evolution with the new gear being introduced ! Is my perspective corect ?

If the trend is confirmed for Pro-Consumer gear, what's your take in this migrating to Pro Cameras ??

Are CF Cards beginning to lose their Pro Status ?

Any advatages of SD over CF ?

Do share your thoughts - Thanks,


Jai

[situgrrl]

Does it matter?  CF never started as a pro format - they were pretty ubiquitous until makers decided to make electronics smaller still.  The pro market kept CF as it was faster and able to store more. Being bigger and enclosed, they also give more confidence in their robustness.  However, I've broken the odd camera, I've never broken a card.  CF is easier to fumble in your pockets for, but capacities are so high now, how often do you need to?  I'm not sure whether SD is quite as fast but unless you shoot motorsport, this becomes more academic each month.  

However, if you are 60 miles north east of nowhere, your computer has packed up and you are on assignment, chances are you can buy, borrow, beg or steal an SD card from somewhere.  CF is harder to find.

[dalethorn]

Hello :
Is there a new trend where SD cards are being "pushed" ( logically or ill-logically ) into Pro-Consumer Cameras/Gear ?
Lately, it seems I am "seeing" an evolution with the new gear being introduced ! Is my perspective corect ?
If the trend is confirmed for Pro-Consumer gear, what's your take in this migrating to Pro Cameras ??
Are CF Cards beginning to lose their Pro Status ?
Any advatages of SD over CF ?
Do share your thoughts - Thanks,
Jai

It's probably going to be a moot point for most people right now, due to the actual cameras they shoot with.  But I will say this about SD cards - the terminals are exposed, and so they are very vulnerable to static electricity or other nasty contamination, unlike compact flash.  So if you have to use SD, and you intend to remove the card from the camera frequently to plug into a card reader or directly into a laptop computer, you'd better be very, very careful that you don't zap the card and lose all of your images.  For that reason alone, I just download from camera to computer through the camera's USB.  Most newer cameras have USB2 of course, and where some of the older cameras had USB2 nominally but were slow downloading due to various constraints in the camera's design, the newer cameras seem to be much faster.

[Jonathan Ratzlaff]

Good points and bad points to both.  Although the terminals in an SD card are exposed, they are quite wide and so are the contacts, so there is little danger of them being bent or broken which could happen with CF cards.  Not sure if i like the switch on the side; a potential danger point.  
CF cards are a bit faster but the gap is closing.  I am not sure whether the type of card used is a good indicator of whether the equipment is pro or not,  and I think the distinction will be less in the future.