I was at Best Buy recently; windowshopping in there digicam area. I noticed that the PCMCIA adapter for the memory stick was about $80 where as the CF adapter was only 12.99. A mistake?

I always took the PCMCIA adapter route to be the cheapest and fastest way to transfer pictures. Doesn't seem that way for Memory Stick.

Anyone have the final word on this ? :)

-- David Erskine (davide@netquest.com), August 06, 2000

Answers

I don't know about the "final word", but consider this:

Compactflash adapters are probably cheaper because CF media has a built-in controller chip, so the adapter is likely little more than two connectors and connecting wiring, or more likely traces on a PC board.

Smartmedia adapters are "supposedly" more expensive because they have to include a controller chip... Now, how they justify that adapter being several times more expensive than the cheapest of CF cards which include a controller somewhat mystifies me. I smell either a large profit or a very slight demand... Probably one, because of the other.

My guess is that there are two possibilities with the memory stick adapters. Either they also require a controller in the adapter or they're merely more expensive due to recent introduction and lack of great demand to drive prices lower. Perhaps they aren't being made in great quantities yet. It takes time to amortize costs.

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@surferz.net), August 06, 2000.