Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Microdrive Novice seeks advice  (Read 4563 times)

  • Guest
Microdrive Novice seeks advice
« on: June 27, 2004, 08:42:00 am »

[font color=\'#000000\']No longer. I've been told that as of about a month ago the drives were changed so as not be be usable in a digital camera any longer.

Michael[/font]
Logged

Krazy_Horse

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 14
Microdrive Novice seeks advice
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2004, 06:45:10 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']Correct......"Microdrive" is a trademark name for the IBM and Hitachi devices. However there are other CF Type II manufactures. One is Magicstor, which appear to be of lower quality. Also appears that "Seagate plans to enter the CompactFlash II world of 1-inch hard drives. Beginning with a 3600 RPM 2.5GB and 5GB capacity drive in Q3 of 2004. Detailed pricing is not yet available, but Jeff Loebakka, Seagate's vice president of global product marketing indicated that these drives will cost less than $150."

That should case waves in the Microdrive market.........5GB for $150.00.  Bring it on.[/font]
Logged

drew

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 477
    • http://www.andrewrichards.net
Microdrive Novice seeks advice
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2004, 09:05:51 am »

[font color=\'#000000\']I have just been reading the third instalment of the review of the Canon EOS 1D MkII, written by John Clements in the British Journal of Photography. In it, he makes a very interesting observation about the performance of Canon cameras with write accelerated cards. According to Lexar, Canon does not support write accelerated technology and write accelerated cards are an 'expensive luxury' and a waste of time with Canon cameras. Good news as I do not possess any of these type of cards and I can go ahead and buy the much cheaper standard type. Others seem to be finding the same thing. I would think that microdrives will perform nearly as well with Canon as solid state cards.[/font]
Logged
Andrew Richards [url=http://www.andrewri

scotts

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4
Microdrive Novice seeks advice
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2004, 03:37:51 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']I'm purchasing a digital rebel and am looking at the 2.2 GB microdrives on ebay for about 150.00.

I plan to shoot in RAW format.

My MAIN QUESTION is will use of a certain brand of microdrive vs another slow down the picture to picture lag time? I really want to maintain the shot to shot speed - one of the main reasons for purchasing the camera besides image quality.

Thanks[/font]
Logged

Clint S

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 32
    • www.gravelbed.com
Microdrive Novice seeks advice
« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2004, 06:12:29 am »

[font color=\'#000000\']Just a little thought.
If you buy the Creative Labs Muvo 2 MP3 player (the 4GB version), for around £150 - you get an hitachi 4GB microdrive.
So at the end of the day you are buying a 4GB microdrive and get a mp3 player free!!  :D  :D[/font]
Logged
Dare to Dream - Dare to Follow your Drea

Hawkeye

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 69
Microdrive Novice seeks advice
« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2004, 01:22:07 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\'](www.7dayshop.com for the best prices £99 for a 2.2Gb microdrive)
That's an excellent price for a 2.2GB and I would be happy to buy a couple at that price - but I see on the website that they warn that some cameras cannot accept cards of that size. Anyone know if they could be OK for the 10D and D60?
Regards
Ken
PS: I have dealt successfully with 7dayshop.com for some years - and never a problem.[/font]
Logged

r42ogn

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 47
Microdrive Novice seeks advice
« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2004, 05:22:00 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']To my knowledge all microdrives are now made by Hitachi so the branding shouldn't matter.  I've used 2 of the older IBM (they sold the business to Hitachi) 1GB drives in my 10D.  Unfortunately one failed for no apparent reason after about 13 months so I mainly used CF cards now.[/font]
Logged

jwarthman

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 99
Microdrive Novice seeks advice
« Reply #7 on: June 27, 2004, 09:47:39 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']
Quote
My MAIN QUESTION is will use of a certain brand of microdrive vs another slow down the picture to picture lag time?
Scotts,
Rob Galbraith has a very useful database of CF card performance, including Microdrives, on a variety of camera models. I strongly encourage you to read this. You'll get a better understanding of the factors involved, and you can look up the performance of many different CF cards on the Digital Rebel (and numerous other cameras).

Let us know what you decide.

Enjoy!

-- Jim[/font]
Logged

glpsg

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7
Microdrive Novice seeks advice
« Reply #8 on: June 29, 2004, 11:30:53 am »

[font color=\'#000000\']Just got to DP Review.com and look at the Canon EOS Digital Rebel review. At the top there is a menu bar. Choose 'Performance'. There are detailed tests on how fast the camera is with different types of memory cards.

 ::[/font]
Logged

drew

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 477
    • http://www.andrewrichards.net
Microdrive Novice seeks advice
« Reply #9 on: June 30, 2004, 09:27:54 am »

[font color=\'#000000\']Rob Galbraith's tests do not seem to support what Lexar have said, but maybe the write accelerated cards just have better controllers as they are newer designs? Certainly, the 1D MKII seems to write to media very quickly with just about any newish card.[/font]
Logged
Andrew Richards [url=http://www.andrewri

drew

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 477
    • http://www.andrewrichards.net
Microdrive Novice seeks advice
« Reply #10 on: June 29, 2004, 12:13:04 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']There has been discussion over the Magicstor drives here before and I still would not have any qualms over buying one. There is absolutely no reason to suppose that they are 'poor quality' and if there have been incompatibility issues with certain cameras, then this is likely to be due to the controllers on the card rather than a quality issue. 7dayshop specifically say that the 10D and D60 are compatible. For me the 4GB microdrive can be had at a good price for its size.[/font]
Logged
Andrew Richards [url=http://www.andrewri

steel-jaw-sasha

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4
Microdrive Novice seeks advice
« Reply #11 on: June 26, 2004, 03:57:13 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']Hi I cannot help with the speed issue but check out www.7dayshop.com for the best prices £99 for a 2.2Gb microdrive!  
www.7dayshop.com/catalog/normal_search_result.php?keywords=microdrive&x=8&y=8

I will watch this space with interest I might consider a microdrive for my new 10d[/font]
Logged

Krazy_Horse

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 14
Microdrive Novice seeks advice
« Reply #12 on: June 27, 2004, 02:10:11 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']Take a look at this review of Microdrives.
The Magicstor brand has problems.  
http://www.steves-digicams.com/microdrive.html[/font]
Logged

drew

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 477
    • http://www.andrewrichards.net
Microdrive Novice seeks advice
« Reply #13 on: June 29, 2004, 12:06:49 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']Scotts,
The 'picture to picture lag time' you refer to is a function of the performance of the camera's buffer which is not media dependent. The lag comes when the camera is clearing its buffer after a burst of shots and this is media dependent. You need to decide whether or not your type of shooting will be affected by how quickly the buffer clears. The Canon cameras (unlike the Kodak DCS Pro/N) are not optimised for performance with microdrives. However, I have microdrives and find they work well for me with Canon equipment. The 4GB microdrives were redesigned over the 1GB models, with better shock absorbance and most importantly the read head was moved to the interface side of the card where it is much less likely to be squeezed by impatient fingers pulling it out of its read device.[/font]
Logged
Andrew Richards [url=http://www.andrewri
Pages: [1]   Go Up