Microdrives and the E10

Can anyone tell me their experience with IBM microdrives and the E10?

I know they are not supported for the E10, but are there bad problems using them? How about the 340Mb vs the 1Gb card? Any difference with the Iomega brand?

I understand that there is a power problem and that is the cause for the malfunctions.... Anyone use more powerful batteries? How about not letting rechargables run down too far? Does that obviate the problems?

Enlighten me!
Thanks in advance.
--
Jon

Olympus E-10

Jonathan D. Hoffberger said:

Can anyone tell me their experience with IBM microdrives and the E10?
I know they are not supported for the E10, but are there bad
problems using them? How about the 340Mb vs the 1Gb card? Any
difference with the Iomega brand?

I understand that there is a power problem and that is the cause
for the malfunctions.... Anyone use more powerful batteries? How
about not letting rechargables run down too far? Does that obviate
the problems?

Enlighten me!
Thanks in advance.
--
Jon

Olympus E-10

Click to expand...

Jon,

I've had no problems with 340md IBM drives in my E10. As far as batteries, I use the Lipo grip almost exclusively so can't address that, sorry. My E 10 will not recognize my 1 gig drive, it is an Iomega & works perfectly in my E20.

I've been using the 340 Iomega microdrive for several months now without any problems whatsoever. It is a tiny bit slower than my Dane Electric compactflash, but that hardly matters unless you are shooting very rapidly.

For batteries I'm using just standard Ni-MH. They range anywhere from 1200 mAh to 1800 mAh and they all work just fine. It does use batteries faster, but that just means you need to swap out more frequently - no real performance problems as far as I'm concerned.

The Iomega drive is also manufactured by IBM. As far as I can tell, they're exactly the same, just different packaging (I may be wrong). A friend in the industry told me that the reason that IBM drives are so much more expensive is that IBM doesn't want to retail it's own drives - it wants companies to buy and resell the drives under their own brand name. Dunno, just a theory.

As a sidenote, i was VERY impressed with Iomega's customer support methods. When I recieved my microdrive it was packaged very well and, to my suprise, included a pre-paid shipping label which I could use if I needed to return it. Just toss it back in the box and stick the label on, then drop it off at the post office. I didn't need to use it, but was impressed that Iomega would do something like that. I like above-and-beyond types of service.

Well, there's my long-winded answer. Hope it helps!

Best,
gooley
--------------
http://www.thegooley.com

Jonathan D. Hoffberger said:

Can anyone tell me their experience with IBM microdrives and the E10?
I know they are not supported for the E10, but are there bad
problems using them? How about the 340Mb vs the 1Gb card? Any
difference with the Iomega brand?

I understand that there is a power problem and that is the cause
for the malfunctions.... Anyone use more powerful batteries? How
about not letting rechargables run down too far? Does that obviate
the problems?

Enlighten me!
Thanks in advance.
--
Jon

Olympus E-10

Click to expand...

I've been using the Iomega version of the IBM Microdrive 340Mb for a couple of months. Only 1800 NiMH. If I use the LCD preview while shooting, the batteries drain fast. No LCD and I don't really notice the difference - at least not enough to worry about. I'm in Canada, so I had to ask a friend in the US to be the shipping address. I distrust Iomega, but couldn't pass up the price - $103. Too many bad zip and jaz drives, and lousy CS.

I think they've been forced to change through class actions and that's one reason they don't ship outside continental US. Kinda silly for a company that big not to deal with Canada, but that's Iomega.

Anyway, I really like the drive. Davidk.

Thanks for all the info.
David, where did you order the Microdrive for $103?
Please leave me the link.

Thanks again, Jon

Davidk said:

I've been using the Iomega version of the IBM Microdrive 340Mb for
a couple of months. Only 1800 NiMH. If I use the LCD preview
while shooting, the batteries drain fast. No LCD and I don't
really notice the difference - at least not enough to worry about.
I'm in Canada, so I had to ask a friend in the US to be the
shipping address. I distrust Iomega, but couldn't pass up the
price - $103. Too many bad zip and jaz drives, and lousy CS.

I think they've been forced to change through class actions and
that's one reason they don't ship outside continental US. Kinda
silly for a company that big not to deal with Canada, but that's
Iomega.

Anyway, I really like the drive. Davidk.

Click to expand...

Just ordered my microdrive from Iomega for $79.99.
http://www.iomega.com

Already looking forward to getting it!

Thanks for your comments.

Jon

Jonathan D. Hoffberger said:

Can anyone tell me their experience with IBM microdrives and the E10?
I know they are not supported for the E10, but are there bad
problems using them? How about the 340Mb vs the 1Gb card? Any
difference with the Iomega brand?

I understand that there is a power problem and that is the cause
for the malfunctions.... Anyone use more powerful batteries? How
about not letting rechargables run down too far? Does that obviate
the problems?

Enlighten me!
Thanks in advance.
--
Jon

Olympus E-10

Click to expand...

I just checked Iomega site (where I got mine) and they're down to $80.

http://www.iomega.com/microdrive/index.html

Good deal. Want to get one for me, they still don't ship to Canada.

Have CF prices fallen that much?

Davidk

Jonathan D. Hoffberger said:

Thanks again, Jon

Davidk said:

I've been using the Iomega version of the IBM Microdrive 340Mb for
a couple of months. Only 1800 NiMH. If I use the LCD preview
while shooting, the batteries drain fast. No LCD and I don't
really notice the difference - at least not enough to worry about.
I'm in Canada, so I had to ask a friend in the US to be the
shipping address. I distrust Iomega, but couldn't pass up the
price - $103. Too many bad zip and jaz drives, and lousy CS.

I think they've been forced to change through class actions and
that's one reason they don't ship outside continental US. Kinda
silly for a company that big not to deal with Canada, but that's
Iomega.

Anyway, I really like the drive. Davidk.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Ordered mine 2 days ago 80.02 including shipping and tax.
67.xx was the price. Definitely cheaper than most of the 256MB CF cards.
Package should arrive today.

Da-Yuan

Jonathan D. Hoffberger said:

Already looking forward to getting it!

Thanks for your comments.

Jon

Jonathan D. Hoffberger said:

Can anyone tell me their experience with IBM microdrives and the E10?
I know they are not supported for the E10, but are there bad
problems using them? How about the 340Mb vs the 1Gb card? Any
difference with the Iomega brand?

I understand that there is a power problem and that is the cause
for the malfunctions.... Anyone use more powerful batteries? How
about not letting rechargables run down too far? Does that obviate
the problems?

Enlighten me!
Thanks in advance.
--
Jon

Olympus E-10

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

With shipping mine was $84.... Not a big difference in price, but just curious, where did you get it for $67

Jon

Da-Yuan Tung said:

Da-Yuan

Jonathan D. Hoffberger said:

Already looking forward to getting it!

Thanks for your comments.

Jon

Jonathan D. Hoffberger said:

Can anyone tell me their experience with IBM microdrives and the E10?
I know they are not supported for the E10, but are there bad
problems using them? How about the 340Mb vs the 1Gb card? Any
difference with the Iomega brand?

I understand that there is a power problem and that is the cause
for the malfunctions.... Anyone use more powerful batteries? How
about not letting rechargables run down too far? Does that obviate
the problems?

Enlighten me!
Thanks in advance.
--
Jon

Olympus E-10

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Jonathan

just sold me E-10 last week. I used a 340MB MD with no problems with 1300mAh NIMH's. Never had any problems with it. Was an IBM brand drive.

Mike

can the compact flash readers read the microdrives or will I have to get a new microdrive reader

Mike Salzlechner said:

Jonathan

just sold me E-10 last week. I used a 340MB MD with no problems
with 1300mAh NIMH's. Never had any problems with it. Was an IBM
brand drive.

Mike

Click to expand...

mauritta said:

can the compact flash readers read the microdrives or will I have
to get a new microdrive reader

Click to expand...

Mauritta:

My Microtech CameraMate CF reader works just fine with the IBM microdrive connected to my desktop. I use a CF Type 2 PCMCIA card to use it with my laptop.

Regards, Jim

Thanks Jim, I think that I am going to get the $80.00 microdrive. Thanks again.

Jim King said:

mauritta said:

can the compact flash readers read the microdrives or will I have
to get a new microdrive reader

Click to expand...

Mauritta:
My Microtech CameraMate CF reader works just fine with the IBM
microdrive connected to my desktop. I use a CF Type 2 PCMCIA card
to use it with my laptop.

Regards, Jim

Click to expand...