smartmedia vs compact flash

which is better? advantages-disadvantages? Any comparison?
which to prefer? Thanx in advance.--Michael Vlastos
Athens, Hellas
http://users.panafonet.gr/dr_michael/michalis.htm

They both work just fine. Don't worry too much about the storage media of a camera, there are far too many other factors to consider when purchasing a camera that are much more important.

CompactFlash is the industry leader, and if the camera takes CF II, you can use a Microdrive. Smartmedia is a little smaller and uses a little less power.

Brad

Dr_Michael said:

which is better? advantages-disadvantages? Any comparison?
which to prefer? Thanx in advance.
--
Michael Vlastos
Athens, Hellas
http://users.panafonet.gr/dr_michael/michalis.htm

Click to expand...

Although I currently use smart media cards will be switching to compact flash with my new camera for the following reasons:

Available in larger sizes upto 512Mb
Appear more robust, though have never had a smartmedia card fail

Dr_Michael said:

which is better? advantages-disadvantages? Any comparison?
which to prefer? Thanx in advance.
--
Michael Vlastos
Athens, Hellas
http://users.panafonet.gr/dr_michael/michalis.htm

Click to expand...

I've used both in the past. I've had smart media fail on me a couple of times...especially in hot weather. Never had a compact flash fail though. Also CF are easier to handle, SM is less durable, easier to scratch etc. I just receieve a 512MB CF card from Vasa (who is mentioned many times in this forum) and it works beautifully in my S20.

Dr_Michael said:

which is better? advantages-disadvantages? Any comparison?
which to prefer? Thanx in advance.
--
Michael Vlastos
Athens, Hellas
http://users.panafonet.gr/dr_michael/michalis.htm

Click to expand...

Stay away from smartmedia !!!

Smartmedia does not include a controller and if new card appears (larger)
than you have to upgrade the controller which is... in the CAMERA...

One more point they are more fragile then the CF...

Last point as from now all profesional cam use CF....

Just my 2ç (and a bad experice with smartmerdia...)

Luc

So you say to me to stay away from the FujiFilm 6900 for example which use SmartMedia... So I am thinking of buying better the Cannon Pro 90 IS?
Take a look please at my relative post:
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1018&page=1&message=1620642

I am just saying that for me I'll never buy (again) a cam with smartmedia...
That's all...

Luc

Dr_Michael said:

So you say to me to stay away from the FujiFilm 6900 for example
which use SmartMedia... So I am thinking of buying better the
Cannon Pro 90 IS?
Take a look please at my relative post:
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1018&page=1&message=1620642

Click to expand...

I had an old (relative term here) Kodak that used CF, and I had a CF card fail on me. It's like buying a car, you can get a top of the line Mercedes that turns out to be a lemon.

Buy the best camera in your price range, and consider all the features that you need. Storage type is only 1 of the considerations. Once you get into 4 megapixels, or if you take a lot of TIFFs, the higher capacity of CFII cards is a big plus.

I just wouldn't rule out a camera that uses smartmedia, but I can understand why Luc wouldn't. I'll never buy a Panasonic product again because I had 2 of their VCRs die early deaths.

Good luck, and enjoy whichever camera you purchase.

Brad

Luc said:

Luc

Dr_Michael said:

So you say to me to stay away from the FujiFilm 6900 for example
which use SmartMedia... So I am thinking of buying better the
Cannon Pro 90 IS?
Take a look please at my relative post:
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1018&page=1&message=1620642

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

thanx for your answer!

Ok because I thought of not buying any product with SmartCard even if I had Olympus 990c with smartcard and no problem with it!
Take a look at my choices if you want:
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1018&page=1&message=1620642

In my opinion people paint themselves into a corner too often by making an 'always/never' statement.

If a company released a camera using SM cards and that camera outperformed the Nikon D1x and sold for less than $500US does anyone think that the 'never' statement would hold?

Personally, I shoot an Oly C2100 that uses SM cards. I find myself a bit envious of CF camera owners' opportunity to purchase larger storage units and often more megs for the same dollar.

Would I give up the advantages of the Oly and go with a non-10x camera just to get CF? No.

My suggestion. Use your storage type as one of the criteria for your camera selection. It might be the deciding factor between your final two choices. Try to compare the two cameras as if they had the same storage media and see if the other differences really matter. If not, use SM/CF to swing the choice.

Now when it comes to Sony's Memory Stick! Never!!!!!

Bob is correct. While I have always used DCs with CF cards, my colleague at work has owned two Olympus cameras and they take wonderful pictures and have a nice feature set. It is possible that I might have gone the smart card route if my requirements had been better met by the Olympus.

All things being equal and if you don't have any particular unique usage requirements you might be better off with a CF camera. Mainly because, as the most prevalent form, the costs should be lower and CF capacities have soared recently.

I also agree with Bob about Sony. I have a LOT of Sony home entertainment equipment in my home. I like their feature set and quality...but their clumsy power play to make their chewing gum sticks the de-facto standard for "everyone" irks me. They have positioned it in the market as a "one type fits all" product which can be used in DCs, mp3 devices, PDAs, etc, etc. That's fine if everything you buy is a Sony which uses that proprietary memory chip. However, once you walk down that path you are very limited as to your choices (ala Microsoft Windows). I like to see competition and believe the marketplace should find the best porducts....not cornering the storage technology and making money on royalties because every other company switches over to yours to be able to sell their brand products to compete with Sony. Using their model, they would get money from every device sold, not only their own brand They could have easily picked either SM or CF and the world would have changed very little. As a matter of fact, they make great cameras, but they got greedy and wanted to control the memory sales as well.

Rich

BobTrips said:

In my opinion people paint themselves into a corner too often by
making an 'always/never' statement.

If a company released a camera using SM cards and that camera
outperformed the Nikon D1x and sold for less than $500US does
anyone think that the 'never' statement would hold?

Personally, I shoot an Oly C2100 that uses SM cards. I find myself
a bit envious of CF camera owners' opportunity to purchase larger
storage units and often more megs for the same dollar.

Would I give up the advantages of the Oly and go with a non-10x
camera just to get CF? No.

My suggestion. Use your storage type as one of the criteria for
your camera selection. It might be the deciding factor between
your final two choices. Try to compare the two cameras as if they
had the same storage media and see if the other differences really
matter. If not, use SM/CF to swing the choice.

Now when it comes to Sony's Memory Stick! Never!!!!!

Click to expand...