I am using a Nikon D-1 shooting uncompressed RGB images and fine images at about 7.5 meg and 1 meg respectively. I understand that the IMB has a heat build up issue which might be damaging to the Nikon D-1 due to lack of ventilation or placement of delicate components in the camera near the memory storage bay. I have no expertise in memory drives or flash memory devices or the internal workings of the D-1. I do not want to risk my $5000+ camera to save a few dollars on memory but the convenience and cost factors can not be ignored if it works. since I used up most of my savings for the camera and lenses and accessories, money is an issue but so is memory. I can not afford to pay for a camera that will not be repaired because of heat damage to a non authorized device, (the Microdrive) but I do not want to pass up on new technology that works. Is the risk worth the savings and convenience?

I am interested in knowing if there is some actual testing going on besides Nikon or IMB. Both companies are very tight lipped and will not comment other than to say that it is not supported.

Is there anything I can do to reduce the risk, such as delay between shots, or shooting smaller files, etc.?

I Know it is being used widely and would welcome and appreciate real world experience and especially from someone with technical expertise. I am a layman in this area and the white paper from IBM was too technical and not very helpfull.

Any comments or advice is appreciated.

-- Scott Sherman (interactivephotos@home.com), May 15, 2000

Answers

Scott, I wouldn't worry about it. I've been using the combination since late December with absolutly no problems whatsoever. I've never felt the drive get more than just the slightest bit warm even after shooting quite a few shots in sucession. I shoot raw (.nef, 4MB) files almost exclusively. They keep the drive pretty busy.

The only failures I have heard of seem to unrelated to heating problems. Let me suggest a couple of sites where a lot of D1 shooters hang out, many of them pros. You can get much help from other users at both areas. http://www.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1014 http://anima.de/cgi/lyris.en.pl?enter=d1scussion The second URL is exclusively D1 users.

-- Steve (MilwaukeeChrome@aol.com), May 15, 2000.