I'm thinking about buying a Nikon Coolpix 990. The only thing that's stopping me is that it doesn't support CompactFlash II; meaning the IBM microdrives can't be used with it. I read the various discussions about this in the archives and kindof understand why Nikon took that path. Since high capacity compact flash cards are so expensive, I'm trying to find a way to use smaller capacity CF cards and IBM microdrives.

Is there a device available that will copy a CompactFlash type I to an IBM Microdrive without requiring a PC? Something like that would make the Coolpix 990 usable on long trips without having to buy the very expensive, high capacity CompactFlash cards.

I had heard of some company that is manufacturing microdrives that fit in the CompactFlash I slots. Does anyone have any info on that?

Thanks.

-- Abbas Muhmmed (abbas_muhmmed@hotmail.com), August 22, 2000

Answers

Sounds like you're looking for the new Digital Wallet. It's a 6GB, 2.5" laptop hard drive with a built-in card reader and small LCD display. You can find recent(month or so ago) news items and I think reviews at www.imaging-resource.com or www.steves-digicams.com

So far it seems to support PCs better than MACs unless the MAC problems have been mostly pilot error? I'd bet it was designed primarily for Windows, and probably integrates better under it.

The other option is a small 2 or 3lb. laptop with a good sized hard drive and a CF or Smartmedia to PCMCIA adapter. For about the same money you can do much more with a laptop than a dedicated device like the Digital Wallet, but in fairness, the wallet is much smaller. I bought my 9.25"x6.5x1.375, 3lb., Mitsubishi Amity CN brand new about two years ago for about $50 more than the wallet. You can't web surf or edit images with a digital wallet... ;-)

Good Luck

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@surferz.net), August 22, 2000.

This is an intriguing answer to a vexing problem. My wife took a rather hilarious pix of me downloading a memory card to my Mac PowerBook in the middle of a buffalo herd. But, seriously -- how many memory cards can you buy for the price of a Digital Wallet?

-- T.Muhlstein (tom.muhlstein@sympatico.ca), August 22, 2000.

"How many memory cards can you buy for the price of a Digital Wallet?"

NOT MANY! Or, more accurately, not much memory. www.pricewatch.com says you can get two 128MB cards for $239 each, or 256MB for $478. A Digital Wallet currently lists at $499 and stores 6GB, that's roughly 22.5X's AS MUCH STORAGE FOR THE SAME PRICE... Not exactly a kick in the pants.

I'd still go with the laptop vs. the Wallet as far as utility goes. But, if I was traveling and "on my person" portability was an issue, the Digital Wallet might start looking pretty good to me. I could have made good use of one this past weekend. I took 515 pictures during a 2-1/2 day Balloon Festival. If it had been an all day event for me or if I was on vacation, the Digital Wallet would have been perfect, since I managed to fill my allotment of smartmedia at each launch! I like my notebook, but I couldn't imagine how annoying it would have been to try carting it around with the camera, two accessory lenses, lens adaptor, extra batteries, and extra smartmedia cards. The other downside of the laptop is the amount of time required to boot it so I could finally spend 30 seconds copying the contents of a card. Not to mention that the laptop batteries wouldn't last through too many boots in day.

On the other hand $500 is a lot of money for "film", even virtual film, at least to me. I suspect, even were I rich, my feelings wouldn't change much in that respect. Digital cameras are evolving at a rapid pace. Memory has always been expensive, but with competition from hard drive technology maybe they'll be forced to drop the black market pricing strategy. For simplicity's sake and from an engineering/suspicion of moving parts outlook I prefer solid state memory, but at over 20X's the price of magnetic media it's a tad outrageous!

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@surferz.net), August 23, 2000.