I was wondering if there are any advantages for going with one type of memory over another. I mean, once you commit to a certain camera and it's standard, it would be difficult to go with a camera that has the other format without shelling out more money. Is one standard more popular than the other? What direction, if any, is the marketplace going?

I also noticed that the IBM Microdrive has a CF and Type II interface. Does that mean that if you have a digital camera that uses CF memory, that you can plug the microdrive into it instead of a CF card?

-- Ken Wan (kjwan@home.com), April 04, 2000

Answers

Ken, Depending on your situation there's no real technical advantage of one over another, but there are many differences:

1) CF-I cards come in much higher capacities (180MB+ currently for CF, SM just 64MB). 2) In general it's also safe to say that if you have a camera that conforms to CF-I standards that your camera will work with new higher capacity cards as they come out. For instance my original Coolpix 900 will support the newest CF cards released today, whereas many SM based camera's that came out only 6 months ago will not work with the new 64MB SM cards. 3) Depending on your situation getting your pics into your PC may be easier with CF. If you have a laptop with a PCMCIA card available or if you have a PC that accepts PCMCIA you can get a CF adapter for 10- 15 dollars. The SM adapters are about $50.00. If you don't have a PC card reader than you'll want to buy one - count on spending about $50.00 for either a CF or SM reader.

I would say the CF cards are currently more popular, mainly due to their larger capacities and from the looks of things they will continue to outpace SM in the future. And yes, depending on which one you choose you will have a bigger challenge if your next camera uses the other media. This is one of the reasons (IMHO) why CF is gaining momemtum - the CF camp has a lot of users who've invested more in larger capacity chips - a switch to SM means not only losing your investment in CF cards but also going to a media that doesn't support as many shots. On the other hand, going from SM to CF results in a loss of SM investment (though the cost may be lower since the capacities are lower), and the upside is you can get bigger capacity CF cards, so at least there is an upside.

Still, if you haven't invested in either type of media there's no real problem going either way. The current SM card capacities (64MB) are more than enough to handle the needs of the average photographer. And remember you can buy several 32 MB cards - it's probably a better way to go anyway. If you buy a SM based camera make sure that it is capable of accepting AT LEAST a 32MB SM card, hopefully 64MB - and 128MB cards should be out soon!

Finally, no - the IBM microdrive is a CF-II device. The CF-I slot will not accept a CF-II card (though the CF-II device IS backwards compatible and will work with the older CF-I cards). There are a limited number of cameras on the market now that will work with CF-II and the microdrive, including the Canon S series, the new Casio, and a couple of others.

-- stosh (stosh@sound.net), April 04, 2000.

Compactflash cards are significantly cheaper than SmartMedia cards of the same capacity. And cameras that take CF cards may also take innovative new stuff like the IBM Microdrive, which for technical reasons is unlikely to ever work directly in a SmartMedia slot. Can't think of many reasons to prefer SmartMedia over CF except maybe that the SmartMedia cards are a little smaller and in the long run may have somewhat more rugged plugin/unplug contacts. But with USB ports on the newest cameras, in the long run we may be pulling the cards out of our cameras less often anyway.

-- Russell Bozian (finaldesign@hotmail.com), April 04, 2000.

I thought this discussion was kin to arguing about which auto was the best but after reading an article about the two cards I became a CF card biggot. Lucky, the camera I bought uses CF cards.

The SM card is really 'dumb' since the controller is in the camera while in the CF card the controller is on the card. Thus cameras using CF cards have a much better chance to use the new gigabyte card yet to be released. If you think you might want to use your new digital camera longer that a few days (sometimes years go by faster than days) you might want to go CF!

-- dave clark (daveclark@mail.com), April 10, 2000.

Here's my "Fearless Prediction", in the competition between Compact Flash and SmartMedia, all we need to do is follow the money. With the big money guys (like Kodak, Canon, Nikon, etc.) supporting Compact Flash, guess who wins?

-- Dave Miller (dmiller14@juno.com), May 09, 2000.

Who needs 256mg in a 1.2mp camera? Everyones needs are different but for me it seems that the memory question is not all that important, at least if the camera you have supports 64mg smartmedia. I'm looking at a Oly 3000z and I can't imagine that a 64m sm card (or two or three or four) will ever cease to be enough with that camera. When I buy that new 7mp camera in 3yrs these 64m cards (CF or SM) will be worthless anyway. How many are using 8mg cards now in a 3.3 camera?

-- jason whitaker (hlmbtsw@yahoo.com), January 16, 2001.