Reading mode: Light Dark

256.M Smartmedia soon (and maybe 512.M)

Go to last post
Eric Carlson

Eric Carlson

Veteran Member
Messages
7,525
Solutions
1
Reaction score
493
Location
Sterling, VA, US
I found 2 page (not in English) which appear to indicate that 256.M and possible 512.M SmartMedia will be available soon. Here are the links with the translations of the relevent text.

Page updated 24.10.2001
256 MT SmartMedia memory card - approx. in 4 weeks available
http://www.mb-edv.at/preise_fotospeicher.html

SmartMedia memory cards for digital photo cameras 256 MT, 480.--
SmartMedia memory cards for digital photo cameras 512 MT, 1'100. - -
http://www.mus.ch/falter/2001-09/MUS-Shop.shtml

I also found an interesting document (in English) on SmartMedia formatting.
http://www.winhex.com/winhex/kb/resources/SmartMedia_Format.pdf

All found and translated via http://www.Google.com/--- Eric, http://www.InvisibleRobot.com/
 
Hi Eric.

My boss regularly attends fairs with computer and photo equipment. He recently told me that he'd seen both 256MB and 512MB SM cards in working action. What they'll sell for a month after they hit the market will be interesting to see.

Maxven
Eric Carlson said:
I found 2 page (not in English) which appear to indicate that 256.M
and possible 512.M SmartMedia will be available soon. Here are the
links with the translations of the relevent text.

Page updated 24.10.2001
256 MT SmartMedia memory card - approx. in 4 weeks available
http://www.mb-edv.at/preise_fotospeicher.html

SmartMedia memory cards for digital photo cameras 256 MT, 480.--
SmartMedia memory cards for digital photo cameras 512 MT, 1'100. - -
http://www.mus.ch/falter/2001-09/MUS-Shop.shtml

I also found an interesting document (in English) on SmartMedia
formatting.
http://www.winhex.com/winhex/kb/resources/SmartMedia_Format.pdf

All found and translated via http://www.Google.com/
--
Click to expand...
--Regards, Maxven (E-100rs, B-300, C-210)
 
That's neat - although SAN just announced they had a 1 gig compact flash for early next year - with a 2 gig to follow. Damn - wish I remember where I'd read that so I could post a link!
 
Cool. If the 128.Meg cards prices drop in half at NewEgg after the newer cards come out, I'll probably pick up a bunch.

Last night, at the robotics meeting, I almost filled three 64.Meg cards at the default resolution (with a couple of short movies thrown in) on my UZI. (All on one set of 1600.Mah batteries, which had been charged a week earlier, and had had already seen some use.)
Maxven said:
Hi Eric.

My boss regularly attends fairs with computer and photo equipment.
He recently told me that he'd seen both 256MB and 512MB SM cards in
working action. What they'll sell for a month after they hit the
market will be interesting to see.

Maxven
Click to expand...
--- Eric, http://www.InvisibleRobot.com/
 
The question is... will the 2100UZ support a 256 or 512mb card?

Mark L.
Eric Carlson said:
Last night, at the robotics meeting, I almost filled three 64.Meg
cards at the default resolution (with a couple of short movies
thrown in) on my UZI. (All on one set of 1600.Mah batteries, which
had been charged a week earlier, and had had already seen some use.)
Maxven said:
Hi Eric.

My boss regularly attends fairs with computer and photo equipment.
He recently told me that he'd seen both 256MB and 512MB SM cards in
working action. What they'll sell for a month after they hit the
market will be interesting to see.

Maxven
Click to expand...
--
Click to expand...
 
That will be terrific for those of you who want or need it.

I, for one, will not go any higher than 128mb. The reason? Last week I took pictures, filled up a 128mb card and then used part of a 64mb. When I got back to my car, I decided to take a fast look at this last bunch of photos.

Switched the Oly2100 to view mode and got a flashing F (media failed) message. Yikes! Came home and tried to upload the pics to my computer and couldn't. Tried the card in my 2100 again - no good. Tried it in my 3040- same media error. End result is that I had to reformat the card (and lose the pics I took).

This is the first time a card failed for me but it proved to me how easily that can happen.

Losing a 64mb card full of pics was quite distressing but I can you imagine filling a 256 or 512mb card and having the card fail? Not for me! I'll stick to 128- Doesn't take but a sec. to change cards and they certainly don't add weight or take up any room in the camera bag (or pocket).

Of course... if they could come up with a way that lets the camera back up each picture, as taken, (much like backing up our hard disks)...... ;-)

--Olympus 3040 and Olympus 2100UZ http://www.pbase.com/ro2001
 
I've had the same thing TWICE lately. Both times though - I put the card into my card reader (which wouldn't read it) and ran SCANDISK on it. Both times this fixed the card - and it created a folder with my files in it. They had a weird file extension (sequential numbering) so I just used ACDSee to rename to .jpg. Pictures were still there.

Not saying this was the case for you - but hey....
Roberta said:
Switched the Oly2100 to view mode and got a flashing F (media
failed) message. Yikes!
Click to expand...
 
I would agree that card corruption is a concern, but when you are taking lots of sequence photos at a robotics competition, sometimes you really don't want to have to stop and swap cards, or worry about filling up the card. At one point last night, I had to swap cards really fast to avoid missing anything.

I only have 64.Meg cards, but I eventually plan to get a bunch of 128.Meg cards so I'll have more "headroom".

Also, for anyone who shoots in TIFF format (not me), you can fill up a 128.Meg card very quickly.

For occasional single frame shooting throughout the day, 64.Meg cards would seem ideal to me, unless you shoot SHQ.--- Eric, http://www.InvisibleRobot.com/
 
A few months ago, I grabbed a no-name 128 SM at Fry's when they had it on sale for $79. A couple weeks ago, they had an ad that said 128 SM for $25! When I got to the store they said it was a typo and should have been 64 MB. But they gave me a used, returned 128 MB card at that price with a written agreement to honor the mfg.'s warranty. Cool by me! It's been working fine.

I also have a 64 MB which I foolishly bought using my $100 Oly warranty. I hadn't yet shopped around and didn't realize that I could have done much better than $109. (minus $100 rebate)

One thing about the bigger cards is that if you leave them partially full, as I sometimes do for backup till I can burn a CD for backup, it takes a long while for the computer to read all the pictures you shot before the most recent ones.

It would be cool if you could read the card in backwards chronological order and not have to load all the pictures every time you want to download images to your HD.

BTW, this week Fry's had a (probably no-name) 64 MB SM advertised at $55. I got real lucky with that 128 for $25.

Since each 128 holds around 300 HQs shot by the UZI, and more, of course if shot with the RapidShot, I should be OK for most occasions. But I recently decided to shoot RapidShot photos at SHQ due to the 1.5 MPixels. Then I decided why not shoot UZI photos in SHQ as well, for hopefully noticeably better results (at least when printing [anyone have experience trying each of these settings? can you see a difference when you print, say, 8 x 10s?).

So the UZI pictures jumped from about half a Meg ea. in HQ (give or take a little) to almost a MB each. That should start to fill up the cards a lot faster. And if I start using pre-capture and sequence mode more often on the RapidShot.
 
Smart Media 256mb has been out for some time. In order to keep abreast of SM technology, the Toshiba Web is the more reliable resource; since Smart Media is a Toshiba Invention...

ciao....Barry
Eric Carlson said:
I found 2 page (not in English) which appear to indicate that 256.M
and possible 512.M SmartMedia will be available soon. Here are the
links with the translations of the relevent text.

--Ciao...Barry
Click to expand...
 
Great. Please send a link to Toshiba's SmartMedia information page.
Barry Carter said:
Smart Media 256mb has been out for some time. In order to keep
abreast of SM technology, the Toshiba Web is the more reliable
resource; since Smart Media is a Toshiba Invention...

ciao....Barry
Click to expand...
--- Eric, http://www.InvisibleRobot.com/
 
I can access any picture on the card immediately with my SmartMedia card reader. In the reader, the card works exactly like a removeable hard drive (and I've also used the card to transfer other files between two computers). I've never connected the camera to my computer.
Steve Weisel said:
It would be cool if you could read the card in backwards
chronological order and not have to load all the pictures every
time you want to download images to your HD.
Click to expand...
--- Eric, http://www.InvisibleRobot.com/
 
Possibly. They are really designed for the new digital cams yet to be put on the market. The megapixels are going to be so large that even with a 256mb card you won't get as many images as you might think at first. Now the 1 gig that Sandisk is coming out with next year is another story....

Mike http://usa.maxbizcenter.com/
Mark L. said:
Mark L.
Eric Carlson said:
Last night, at the robotics meeting, I almost filled three 64.Meg
cards at the default resolution (with a couple of short movies
thrown in) on my UZI. (All on one set of 1600.Mah batteries, which
had been charged a week earlier, and had had already seen some use.)
Maxven said:
Hi Eric.

My boss regularly attends fairs with computer and photo equipment.
He recently told me that he'd seen both 256MB and 512MB SM cards in
working action. What they'll sell for a month after they hit the
market will be interesting to see.

Maxven
Click to expand...
--
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I found that page too, but it doesn't list anything over 128.Meg, and I searched a few of Toshiba's sites, and couldn't find anything relating to any existing SmartMedia cards over 128.Meg. The only things I found were not-to-recent documents implying that SmartMedia cards larger than 128.Meg might be available someday.
Barry Carter said:
But of course...hope it works:
http://www.toshiba.com/taec/cgi-bin/display.cgi?table=Category&CategoryID=6928
Click to expand...
--- Eric, http://www.InvisibleRobot.com/
 
You did not study the specs close enough. A 256 mb is just 2x128 stacked, etc. The innards are just made thinner in other words. The spec for the 512mb are also listed. These items have been available in Japan for some time in other electronic devices (MP3 players, etc.); and they eventully show up in digital camera's. Since the price of flash memory is dropping rapidly, that may or may not be a sign that higher capacities of SM are on the way IMO...

Ciao...Barry
Eric Carlson said:
Barry Carter said:
But of course...hope it works:
http://www.toshiba.com/taec/cgi-bin/display.cgi?table=Category&CategoryID=6928
Click to expand...
--
Click to expand...
--Ciao...Barry
 
Barry:

On the page you listed, the largest SmartMedia card I see is the TH58NS100DC, and it is 128.Megabytes (also called 1. Gigabit, but a bit is only 1/8 of a byte). Which cards are larger than 128.Megabytes?
Barry Carter said:
You did not study the specs close enough. A 256 mb is just 2x128
stacked, etc. The innards are just made thinner in other words.
The spec for the 512mb are also listed. These items have been
available in Japan for some time in other electronic devices (MP3
players, etc.); and they eventully show up in digital camera's.
Since the price of flash memory is dropping rapidly, that may or
may not be a sign that higher capacities of SM are on the way IMO...

Ciao...Barry
Click to expand...
--- Eric, http://www.InvisibleRobot.com/
 
http://www.toshiba.com/taec/press/to-177.shtml
Eric Carlson said:
On the page you listed, the largest SmartMedia card I see is the
TH58NS100DC, and it is 128.Megabytes (also called 1. Gigabit, but a
bit is only 1/8 of a byte). Which cards are larger than
128.Megabytes?
Barry Carter said:
You did not study the specs close enough. A 256 mb is just 2x128
stacked, etc. The innards are just made thinner in other words.
The spec for the 512mb are also listed. These items have been
available in Japan for some time in other electronic devices (MP3
players, etc.); and they eventully show up in digital camera's.
Since the price of flash memory is dropping rapidly, that may or
may not be a sign that higher capacities of SM are on the way IMO...

Ciao...Barry
Click to expand...
--
Click to expand...
--Ciao...Barry
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Keyboard shortcuts

f
Forum
m
My threads
Mobile site
About
Editorial content
Cameras & Lenses
Community
All content, design, and layout are Copyright © 1998–2025 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or part in any form or medium without specific written permission is prohibited.
When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission.
©GPS Media - Guides, Products, Services.
Back
Top