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...Sony's Memory Stick format

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sdboyd79

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Let me start off by saying that I realize this has probably been discussed 1,000 times but I just can't get past Sony's proprietary memory. I own a Panasonic FZ7 right now and I like it alot but something always wows me about photos I see from some of these Sony cameras...specifically some I've seen from A.A.Katz.

I would get my hands on on H5 as soon as possible if it weren't for the memory format. Every other device I own from my MP3 player, to my cell phone, to my PDA uses SD format and I own so many SD cards of different formats that I just had to go with a camera that uses SD. Not to mention, the card reader in my laptop supports just about everything but Memory Stick. Why can't Sony get with the program? It is their desire to keep people buying different products with the Sony name that keeps people like me from buying anything Sony. I still almost bought an H1 (and new memory cards) but the burst speed tipped the scales.

I am not the only one who wont buy Sony simply because of the Memory Stick issue. I suppose all I can do is hope that one day Sony will abandon the Memory Stick format in their new electronics. They gain many more customers if they did, I believe.

I would also like to add that I'm am in no way trying to inflame anybody as I really like the new Sony cameras. I'm simply frustrated because I see these new H2's and H5's which seem so awesome...yet the are ruined (in my opinion) by a proprietary memory stick format that I refuse to buy into.
--

 
Too bad for you. I really like my H1.
--



Karen
 
sdboyd79 said:
Let me start off by saying that I realize this has probably been
discussed 1,000 times but I just can't get past Sony's proprietary
memory. I own a Panasonic FZ7 right now and I like it alot but
something always wows me about photos I see from some of these Sony
cameras...specifically some I've seen from A.A.Katz.

I would get my hands on on H5 as soon as possible if it weren't for
the memory format. Every other device I own from my MP3 player, to
my cell phone, to my PDA uses SD format and I own so many SD cards
of different formats that I just had to go with a camera that uses
SD. Not to mention, the card reader in my laptop supports just
about everything but Memory Stick. Why can't Sony get with the
program? It is their desire to keep people buying different
products with the Sony name that keeps people like me from buying
anything Sony. I still almost bought an H1 (and new memory cards)
but the burst speed tipped the scales.

I am not the only one who wont buy Sony simply because of the
Memory Stick issue. I suppose all I can do is hope that one day
Sony will abandon the Memory Stick format in their new electronics.
They gain many more customers if they did, I believe.

I would also like to add that I'm am in no way trying to inflame
anybody as I really like the new Sony cameras. I'm simply
frustrated because I see these new H2's and H5's which seem so
awesome...yet the are ruined (in my opinion) by a proprietary
memory stick format that I refuse to buy into.
--

Click to expand...
The only thing that's keeping me from buying sony digicams is the stupid memory stick. THeir strategy does backfire for some people like me.

I've got a lot of SD card devices: palm PDAs, my sister's camera, my card reader, my mini card readers, DVD player, etc. Getting a sony means I lose connectivity with all those devices.

They've even got a new memory format: memory stick micro
 
I'm sure I'd like the H1 too. I know I enjoy the photos that come out of them.

As far as the cost, that is really not the point. It's sort of the mentality that Sony is using. When you see the majority of the market using one thing (SD or even CF) and you use something totally unique to your brand, it just doesn't seem logical to me. Why should one have to buy all new memory sticks when most everything else uses SD. I'm sure SD will go away eventually, but not anytime soon. Look at how long CF has been around and it's still going. Too many companies and devices use SD for it to just vanish. Virtually every electronic item I own will accept SD and they span several different brands. Seems there's something to be said for that. I've already spent my hundreds of dollars on varying sized memory cards so it seems idiotic to spend more on a different format when there are alternative cameras that will accept what I currently have. Just doesn't make much business sense to me from Sony's standpoint because I'm sure most people who enjoy electronics have at least one, if not multiple items that use SD. Why force them to buy your format?

Oh well, it could be worse...it could be the painfully slow XD. Maybe one day I'll get over the fact that Sony has to use proprietary memory or maybe one day they'll at least offer and optional SD slot but until then, I'm sure I'll be missing out on some otherwise great cameras. My loss, I suppose.
--

 
I have a Sony digital camera in my collection and at first I was also a bit concerned about the proprietary memory format as well. However, the Olympus and Fuji folks were equally a bit concerned about the x-card format. Anyone remember the Smart Media format that has now all but vanished? Also, at one point the Compact Flash and Micro Drives were all the rage, but not so as much as before. The point being, there is no and never was no single memory format that dominated the industry.

One can easily point to all the different batteries that are out there for not only Sony but every other manufacturer. There never was a single format for these either.

I can only speak for myself here, but what has been a bit un-nerving with Sony are all the different varieties of memory sticks! Standard, Duo, Duo-Pro, etc. Sony just can't seem to make up it's own mind what it really wants. All-in-all, their cameras are capable of taking incredibly good images and at the end of the day that's all the should matter!
 
My first digital camera was a Minolta S304, which used Compact Flash cards. A few years later I wanted to buy a really pocketable camera and had to accept, that there were no current compact or subcompact cameras, which could use compact flash cards. First I felt a grudge for this, but then I realized that all my compact flash cards (256 MB + 128 MB + 64 MB), for which I paid good money, can be substituted with a memory Stick for just a few bucks.

So my conclusion is that if you do not replace your camera every year, you don't need to care about the memory format. You will buy a memory card anyway, which holds more than twice the memory of all the cards you have at home, and you pay less than you did pay for one of your memory cards at home.

Bye, Silvio
 
remove the emotion from the issue, and things look a lot different.

Buy the tool you feel will give you the best result. Sony does take some good pictures, but so do the other brands.

there is no standard, and there never will be as long as innovation and improvements are allowed to happen. why would anyone want to stifle improvements to any product? Just so that everything in your own desk drawer always matches? Nah!

Look at Canon. they can't seem to "standardize" either, some of their cameras have CF, some have SD.

Sony makes models that use both CF and MS. It would not surprise me to see some in the future that would also accept SD.

there are 3 different sizes of SD that I know of right now.

MS used to be highly priced compared to the other formats. It was just a fact of life that Sony owners grouched about, but in the big picture, the extra cost was minimal compared to the costs of film, so we kept going and realized it's not such a big deal spread over the life of a camera.

Last week-end I bought a Sandisk 2 gig MS Duo for $75 with a $26 rebate, final price - $49. And I have been having good luck getting rebates back.

That's getting very competitive.

Advice: Choose the camera that best fits your needs, memory is such a small part of the decision that it's hardly worth worrying about.

Regards,

-=- Jerry -=-
/*
 
jerrykr said:
remove the emotion from the issue, and things look a lot different.

Buy the tool you feel will give you the best result. Sony does
take some good pictures, but so do the other brands.

there is no standard, and there never will be as long as innovation
and improvements are allowed to happen. why would anyone want to
stifle improvements to any product? Just so that everything in
your own desk drawer always matches? Nah!

Look at Canon. they can't seem to "standardize" either, some of
their cameras have CF, some have SD.

Sony makes models that use both CF and MS. It would not surprise
me to see some in the future that would also accept SD.

there are 3 different sizes of SD that I know of right now.

MS used to be highly priced compared to the other formats. It was
just a fact of life that Sony owners grouched about, but in the big
picture, the extra cost was minimal compared to the costs of film,
so we kept going and realized it's not such a big deal spread over
the life of a camera.

Last week-end I bought a Sandisk 2 gig MS Duo for $75 with a $26
rebate, final price - $49. And I have been having good luck
getting rebates back.

That's getting very competitive.

Advice: Choose the camera that best fits your needs, memory is such
a small part of the decision that it's hardly worth worrying about.

Regards,

-=- Jerry -=-
/*
Click to expand...
Not for geeks like me. I'm a heavy PDA user. My Palm uses SD. If I buy Sony digicam I can't transfer the MS to the PDA anymore. It's so nice to be able to share memory between digicam and PDA, the palm screen is almost 4 inches, and you could allocate memory to each device as needed:

e.g. if the digicam is running low on memory you could just delete some files on the PDA memory card and insert it into the camera.

and vice versa, if you're not gonna be shooting you could load up the camera memory card with PDA data like movies, etc.
 
There are many factors that you can use to evaluate a digital camera. The primary thing has to be the quality of the pictures that it takes. The second is how the camera is laid out and how it 'feels' in your hands.

The very LAST...the VERY LAST...thing that is imporant is the shape of the temporary storage memeory card that the camera uses. I have the Sony V3 (which uses both MS and CF cards) and do you know something? The pictures I save on the MS are just as good as the images I save on the CF card. The shape of the card makes ZERO difference and to elevate that to the major decision point makes no sense at all. It is like judging the worth of a person by the color of their skin...a silly prejudice.
 
Take the universal compatibility of CD-ROMs for instance.

The world would be a much nicer place if there was a univerdsal memory format
 
I also own a PDA that I use heavily and this is definitely a big plus. It's just that despite what some may say, SD is more universal than most other card formats from my own experience. Let me sit down and see what I have. I have Dell PDA, a Musiq MP3 player (I got while deployed overseas...never heard of it before), a Panasonic Camera, a Garmin GPS, and even my Motorola Cell Phone uses Micro SD which can uses an adapter to be virtually an SD card. That's a memory card format that spans 5 brands just in little slice of the world alone. I have a 2GB, several 1GB, 512MB, on down to some 64MB and 32MB cards I bought when I first started getting stuff with SD format.

I do see some valid points and I suppose it really shouldn't be an issue but I can't always afford to buy extra stuff if I don't need to. I bought the Panny FZ7 because it seemed like good bang for the buck at $250 and it also used the current memory card format. For people that are on the fence in the highly competitive ultra zoom market, the fact that Sonys aren't compatible with what they currently have takes them down a notch right off the bat...at least it did for me. In the end I settled for a compatible camera that can take some good pictures for a cheap price. I suspect that this may happen more than Sony realizes or cares to admit. But, I'm not trying to spark any camera debate here and I know it gets touchy sometimes.

To Sony I say, keep your memory format, but offer an SD slot too so some of us can join your world with little hassle because right now, I don't think it's worth the extra cost or hassle to many people. I think there are many people just like me who don't even give the Sonys a chance because of the memory format. A Sony camera just wasn't on my short list to even look at. If I made the "jump" to Sony, then all the memory sticks I bought would only be compatible with one brand, Sony. That doesn't make sense to me when there are other formats that span several brands, giving me options. I don't like being stuck to any brand, especially when I'm not sure what brands I will buy in the future. This is just from one dumb consumers perspective, however. By the way, I really do appreciate the civil debate. I can't say the same for some of the stuff I read in the other forums I frequent. It says a lot for you "Sony folks."

Having said all this, the Sony's do take outstanding pictures and I do enjoy coming here and viewing them.
--

 
uhalex said:
Wow, that's a good deal.

where did you get that deal?
Click to expand...
I assume you are asking me. It was an in-store special at a local Fry's Electronics store. I watch their week-end advertising sections in the local newspaper every week.

http://www.outpost.com is Fry's online sales site. I have not looked for MS there in awhile, but they usually have some good prices.

BTW: I paid around $60 for a 1 gig Pro stick a few months ago and thought that was a great price.

good luck,

-=- Jerry -=-
/*
 
on at least one point. The folks here on the STF usually have very civil debates, and this is one of them. I certainly have not meant to offend you in any way, and if I did even in the slightest, I would want to apologize.

I do see your point, and don't blame you for your decision. I sometimes think "what am I doing" buying MS for my "old" F717 and how much longer will I myself use a Sony as my primary camera. I dunno!

The F717 is so good, that i don't mind investing in MS. I sold all my older non-Pro sticks to owners of older Sonys (they are no longer available), and have upgraded to Pro.

cheers,

-=- Jerry -=-
/*
 
They have become quite accepted. Sony sells millions of them, thay are fast, and now they are cheap. Its like complaing about CF wich are bulky and ancient, but they work.
 
I suppose, but what other brand besides Sony uses them? Of course they have been accepted...by Sony. The card reader in my computer won't even accept them. I'm sure Sony does sell millions but I'll bet SD outsells them. CF is also different in that it is not only supported by one company. In any case, that's not the point I was getting at.

I could care less about whose format it is if more than just Sony products could use them. Standardization is what I dream of. If I were to buy a Sony camera now, I'd basically have to maintain two sets of memory cards for my different devices when it shouldn't have to be that way. It's like saying that if I buy a Sony laptop I'm only able to use Sony CD's or something. I'm just saying that Sony is driving away many potential customers, like myself, because of this issue. But then again, maybe that's why they don't pay me to run Sony.

-Steve
--

 
And sympathize. sony is aware of the issue, the larger sony cams like the v3 and 828 and R1 take CF in addition to mem stick. But look at it from another point of view. Sony prolly has the largest installed base of cams in the world. How would Sony regulars feel if all of a sudden new sony cams took xd or sd, instead of memory stick. I think standards would be great, but its probably too late. Me, I like mem stick, I use em in my 828, R1 and PSP. I can also use them im my 36" sony HD TV. I also use CF in my D70 and SD in my S3. The mem sticks are so big now I just by one for each cam, not a big deal to me. And I can use the Cf in my 828, nikon and R1.
 
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