Would you buy SMARTMEDIA base camera now?

Hi,

I love this forum and have been looking for advice on what camera to get. Just as I decided the Fuji 601Z was the camera for me, I hear that SMARTMEDIA will be phased out and XD media will be brought in.

I am concerned that:

1. 128mb is the max for Smartmedia

2. The advantages in the new memory included faster writes to the card (ie better movie mode), smaller (ie smaller cameras), larger in size (I hear 128mb to 4 gig. Who needs a laptop on you holiday with 4gig media?

3. I cant buy anymore Smartmedia when they are stopped and NO, I dont have the money to stock up on them now!

What are your thoughts?

... the underdog. Cameras fitted solely with this had relatively short working life expectancy anyway in the consumer ranges.

Do feel free to buy a SM machine now as you will get your two to three years out of it anyway before you want to buy something else by natural evolution anyway.

Of course we need a few things in the industry to become standard – one is batteries, one is memory and another is connectivity. Ideally, all cameras take the same battery – and the more batteries the more power in a machine – so one could buy a high power version which takes two batteries and use them in the next cam as well. Comm ports should be standard as well with universal communications – so I should be able to plug in my D1x, 707, 4040 or D7i to the same port – my universal charger and mains adapter should be able to sense and change the voltage for each camera and my memory should be universal, or at least a slot that with the right adapter would take multiple memory, so as I don’t have to buy three or four different brands – just because I want to own and like three or four different cameras.

But that’s such a stupid thing to want – isn’t it? I mean I can’t even have two different Nikon cameras on my system without a crash – I’ve a beautiful new D100 and I cannot use Nefs with it for instance, because I’m already using Capture2 – and want to continue to use C2 with my D1X for the quality and tethered connectivity – so to expect the industry worldwide to standardise is a stupid thing to imagine.

Isn't it?

I've always stayed away from Smartmedia cameras since I had so many compact flash cards along with a CF reader. However, even if the death of Smartmedia-based cameras were to happen today, I'm sure that you'd be able to purchase SM cards for several years to come. There's lots of devices that were sold with this storage option (digital cameras, MP3 players, etc.) and people with these devices are going to require memory updates for some time to come. However, my local Costco has nicely packaged 128 MB smart media cards for $54.95 - or, about $15.00 less than most other places like CompUSA or BestBuy or even your local photo retailer.

NO

serpeant said:

Hi,

I love this forum and have been looking for advice on what camera
to get. Just as I decided the Fuji 601Z was the camera for me, I
hear that SMARTMEDIA will be phased out and XD media will be
brought in.

I am concerned that:

1. 128mb is the max for Smartmedia
2. The advantages in the new memory included faster writes to the
card (ie better movie mode), smaller (ie smaller cameras), larger
in size (I hear 128mb to 4 gig. Who needs a laptop on you holiday
with 4gig media?
3. I cant buy anymore Smartmedia when they are stopped and NO, I
dont have the money to stock up on them now!

What are your thoughts?

Click to expand...

Aloha,

I think that Smart Media will be around for a while as there are too many things besides camera that use it.

Look at 35 mm cameras, their sales are down, but they aren't totally discontinued. They still make and sell 35 mm film. It may be more expensive, but it's still availiable.

The same will probably be true for Smart Media. Will there be larger than 128 mb cards, I don't know. As long as 128 mb cards are still around, I'll use my 4 cameras unless something so fantastic comes out that I just "gotta" have. At which point I will probably switch.
I really don't think that Smart Media will totally diappear.

Agreed. My Fuji 602 uses both SM and CF, but all SM 128MB cards are equally fast and sell for as little as $40 around here. With the large installed base, there should be plenty of SM supply for a few years. I would not shy away from a camera solely because of that. After all, there are lots of happy Sony users out there and noone else uses the Memory Stick cards. My 2 cents.
Seth
'Momma don't take my Kodachrome away'
http://www.pbase.com/seth

Ok,

I understand what you say. There will hopefully be continued support for SmartMedia. However, would you buy a digital camera now that only supported SmartMedia?

Marc

6oh2 Seth said:

Agreed. My Fuji 602 uses both SM and CF, but all SM 128MB cards
are equally fast and sell for as little as $40 around here. With
the large installed base, there should be plenty of SM supply for a
few years. I would not shy away from a camera solely because of
that. After all, there are lots of happy Sony users out there and
noone else uses the Memory Stick cards. My 2 cents.
Seth
'Momma don't take my Kodachrome away'
http://www.pbase.com/seth

Click to expand...

Yes, Yes, why not? Buy the cam. The cards will get cheaper and cheaper. The next years, there will always be more sm cards than you'll ever need as long you have your camera...
Heinz

serpeant said:

I understand what you say. There will hopefully be continued
support for SmartMedia. However, would you buy a digital camera now
that only supported SmartMedia?

Marc

6oh2 Seth said:

Agreed. My Fuji 602 uses both SM and CF, but all SM 128MB cards
are equally fast and sell for as little as $40 around here. With
the large installed base, there should be plenty of SM supply for a
few years. I would not shy away from a camera solely because of
that. After all, there are lots of happy Sony users out there and
noone else uses the Memory Stick cards. My 2 cents.
Seth
'Momma don't take my Kodachrome away'
http://www.pbase.com/seth

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

serpeant said:

Ok,

I understand what you say. There will hopefully be continued
support for SmartMedia. However, would you buy a digital camera now
that only supported SmartMedia?

Click to expand...

Most cameras "only" support one card standard.

--
http://www.molon.de/Galleries.htm
Olympus 4040 online resource at http://www.molon.de/4040.html

This is a non issue. Digital cameras are changing to fast to be conscerned about the media. Buy the camera you want. Memory will NOT be an issue and that is the bottom line. If three years from now you purchase another camera, then whatever memory you now own will be to small to make use of with the new machine. Really, don't worry about it.

Dave

alfredm said:

serpeant said:

Ok,

I understand what you say. There will hopefully be continued
support for SmartMedia. However, would you buy a digital camera now
that only supported SmartMedia?

Click to expand...

Most cameras "only" support one card standard.

--
http://www.molon.de/Galleries.htm
Olympus 4040 online resource at http://www.molon.de/4040.html

Click to expand...

Do you think there will be SM to XO media adapters for SM cameras? This is just in case I need to buy more memore in the future.

David Barkin said:

Dave

alfredm said:

serpeant said:

Ok,

I understand what you say. There will hopefully be continued
support for SmartMedia. However, would you buy a digital camera now
that only supported SmartMedia?

Click to expand...

Most cameras "only" support one card standard.

--
http://www.molon.de/Galleries.htm
Olympus 4040 online resource at http://www.molon.de/4040.html

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I have a friend that has SM cards and he says the contacts get damaged very easily just from inserting and ejecting SM cards. They are also very slow. There are new SD/MMC cards which are the size of a quarter and will be up to 1GB in size soon. I have a 128MB SD card for my LS420 camera and it's the smallest media available today and the only one with a protect switch on the card to prevent overwriting/deleting your files.

If you plan on using only 1 card then maybe SM would be ok since it wouldn't get damaged from inserting and ejecting it, but I recommend a camera with CF or MMC/SD cards since they are MUCH faster and very solid. If you really need a lot of space you can get a camera with a PCMCIA slot, my handheld PC has a PCMCIA slot and there are 5GB pcmcia cards available today, I have a 2GB card I use to store and watch DVDs/music from my handheld.

ch2s said:

I have a friend that has SM cards and he says the contacts get
damaged very easily just from inserting and ejecting SM cards. They
are also very slow.

Click to expand...

They aren't easily damaged, period. I've inserted/removed/fed to the Image Bank dozens and dozens of times.

Speed is not a factor. The controller is in the camera, not on the card like the CF card.

--
bob
http://www.pbase.com/bobtrips
pictures from Thailand, Myanmar(Burma), and Nepal

OK, NikCanFujOly Camera Company is releasing a Foveon chip, 12 meg camera that simply blows medium format film away. Starts people talking about the death of large format.

Under $1k.

Only comes with SM cards.

Going to buy one?

--
bob
http://www.pbase.com/bobtrips
pictures from Thailand, Myanmar(Burma), and Nepal

Hi Bob

I've had over twenty cards, from 8 megs to 128, never had a problem. While my Nikon uses CF and MD Drives I still have an Olympus that uses SM cards. The speed is just fine, there's nothing wrong with the card.

In addition you can cover a corner of the card and protect the card from further writes. Although to be frank I've never used this option. Why bother?

While all these little cards can actually be used as disk drives it doesn't strike me as the optimum solution, but it can be done with SM and cannot be done with CF cards.

Dave

BobTrips said:

ch2s said:

I have a friend that has SM cards and he says the contacts get
damaged very easily just from inserting and ejecting SM cards. They
are also very slow.

Click to expand...

They aren't easily damaged, period. I've inserted/removed/fed to
the Image Bank dozens and dozens of times.

Speed is not a factor. The controller is in the camera, not on the
card like the CF card.

--
bob
http://www.pbase.com/bobtrips
pictures from Thailand, Myanmar(Burma), and Nepal

Click to expand...

I think a very high majority would dispute your friends assessment of the SM card. It's only fault is that 128 is the max size made.I'll miss it for sure. But by the time it is gone ,so won't most of todays digicam models.
It'l be in use quite some time .
John

ch2s said:

I have a friend that has SM cards and he says the contacts get
damaged very easily just from inserting and ejecting SM cards. They
are also very slow. There are new SD/MMC cards which are the size
of a quarter and will be up to 1GB in size soon. I have a 128MB SD
card for my LS420 camera and it's the smallest media available
today and the only one with a protect switch on the card to prevent
overwriting/deleting your files.

If you plan on using only 1 card then maybe SM would be ok since it
wouldn't get damaged from inserting and ejecting it, but I
recommend a camera with CF or MMC/SD cards since they are MUCH
faster and very solid. If you really need a lot of space you can
get a camera with a PCMCIA slot, my handheld PC has a PCMCIA slot
and there are 5GB pcmcia cards available today, I have a 2GB card I
use to store and watch DVDs/music from my handheld.

Click to expand...

One of the reasons I just bought Oly C-3020 and not Canon S30 or Nikon 995 was... surprise... SmartMedia:

1. I have already a bunch of SM cards from mp3 player. Note that most solid state mp3 players use SM and not CF or SD/MMC. That's why I'm not really concerned about premature death of SM.

2. I'm sure that what replaces SM (if this will happen at all) will be compatible so you can use a new card format in SM equipment directly of through an adapter. Otherwise I simply don't see a point to introduce a yet another flash memory format when heavily backed SD finally starts to catch up.

3. SM (and CF) cards are dirt cheap as compared to SD/MMC and Memory Sticks.

4. SM cards are lighter and thinner than CF and are easier to carry around.

5. I have a feeling that CF will die even sooner than SM driven out by recent PDA (Palm and PPC) move towards much smaller and less power hungry SD/MMC. SD/MMC are too expensive and MS is too proprietary and also is expensive.

6. SM camera will morally die much sooner that the SM card format. I'm sure when the latter happens CF and MS will be also instinct.

serpeant said:

Hi,

I love this forum and have been looking for advice on what camera
to get. Just as I decided the Fuji 601Z was the camera for me, I
hear that SMARTMEDIA will be phased out and XD media will be
brought in.

I am concerned that:

1. 128mb is the max for Smartmedia
2. The advantages in the new memory included faster writes to the
card (ie better movie mode), smaller (ie smaller cameras), larger
in size (I hear 128mb to 4 gig. Who needs a laptop on you holiday
with 4gig media?
3. I cant buy anymore Smartmedia when they are stopped and NO, I
dont have the money to stock up on them now!

What are your thoughts?

Click to expand...

Ditto! Never had any problems damaging SM cards, no in camera nor in mp3 players. Speed becomes an issue only when card is used as an active read/execute memory extension in PDA's. That's why there's hardly and PDA thta uses SM, the bulk use CF or proprietary and move now to SD. Digicams mostly write in one burst to the card, so speed is less of an issue. Olympus also does writting in parallel with the next shot, dunno about other brands.

As it was said, the only real limitation I see with SM is the 128MB limit.

johnd1 said:

ch2s said:

I have a friend that has SM cards and he says the contacts get
damaged very easily just from inserting and ejecting SM cards. They
are also very slow. There are new SD/MMC cards which are the size
of a quarter and will be up to 1GB in size soon. I have a 128MB SD
card for my LS420 camera and it's the smallest media available
today and the only one with a protect switch on the card to prevent
overwriting/deleting your files.

If you plan on using only 1 card then maybe SM would be ok since it
wouldn't get damaged from inserting and ejecting it, but I
recommend a camera with CF or MMC/SD cards since they are MUCH
faster and very solid. If you really need a lot of space you can
get a camera with a PCMCIA slot, my handheld PC has a PCMCIA slot
and there are 5GB pcmcia cards available today, I have a 2GB card I
use to store and watch DVDs/music from my handheld.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Hi all

Smartmedia are extremely reliable. There are no pins to bend and the gold plated contacts are rated at over 10,000 insertions/removals. They will easily outlive the life of a camera.

They are inert with no chip to fail and are almost indestructible. People report having run over them, put them through the washing machine etc and they still work.

They are not slow either, but they have a relatively small capacity and are not compatible with new chips. The capacity is the killer. That and not selling them to a really big selling manufacturer like Canon.
Buy the camera that suits your need and if it uses Smartmedia, so be it.

Buy several cards if you need a lot of memory or an image tank and hedge your options.

Otherwise you could buy a camera that takes a microdrive and treat it very very carefully otherwise it'll break.
regards
Ian

ch2s said:

I have a friend that has SM cards and he says the contacts get
damaged very easily just from inserting and ejecting SM cards.

Click to expand...

It says on the box that my latest Fuji card came in that SM cards will eventually lose the ability to be written to and or read. I presume its because of the gold contact area being worn away. Possibly leaving a big card in there and downloading via the USB cable is better for the longterm life than taking it out after only a 10 shot session and sticking it in a card reader.

jp103276 said:

They are also very slow.

Click to expand...

Possibly the fault of the camera? Perhaps someone with an Oly E10/20 or a Fuji S602 can tell us.

jp103276 said:

There are new SD/MMC cards which are the size of a quarter and will be > up to 1GB in size soon. I have a 128MB SD
card for my LS420 camera and it's the smallest media available
today and the only one with a protect switch on the card to prevent
overwriting/deleting your files.

Click to expand...

SD is a lot more expensive when comparing cards of equal size. Sony's memory stick also has a protect switch.