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xD Picture cards vrs SM Cards

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Restless

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Can any one give me a camparison between using a smartmedia card verses the new xD-picture cards? I know the the new xd's will be available for larger storage [1 g], but what about performance/failures. Is the Smart media card to go out of production ???
I am looking at two camera's 2600/2650
thx
 
I just went through the same decision making routine on the 2600 and 2650. I opted for the 2650 and love it. I didn't have any smart media so I was not out anything going to the new. I have read that the new xd is faster in saving images so you can take pictures faster. This 2650 is much faster than my old Toshiba PDR-M1 in saving pictures but I don't know for sure if it's media or camera. I have read several articles that xd is the smartmedia killer. I'm sure smartmedia will be around for some time as many devices use this.
Restless said:
Can any one give me a camparison between using a smartmedia card
verses the new xD-picture cards? I know the the new xd's will be
available for larger storage [1 g], but what about
performance/failures. Is the Smart media card to go out of
production ???
I am looking at two camera's 2600/2650
thx
Click to expand...
 
One of the things I like with the SM card Or the Compact Flash card is the readers you can hook up to your computer[i.e Sandisk]
Is there a 'reader' for the new xD Cards??? Are there plans to produce one ???

thx
bspicer said:
Restless said:
Can any one give me a camparison between using a smartmedia card
verses the new xD-picture cards? I know the the new xd's will be
available for larger storage [1 g], but what about
performance/failures. Is the Smart media card to go out of
production ???
I am looking at two camera's 2600/2650
thx
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Restless said:
Can any one give me a camparison between using a smartmedia card
verses the new xD-picture cards? I know the the new xd's will be
available for larger storage [1 g], but what about
performance/failures. Is the Smart media card to go out of
production ???
I am looking at two camera's 2600/2650
thx
Click to expand...
At the current time I dont believe there is any advantage going with xD cards. Smartmedia and CF will be around at very cheap prices for many years to come. Most MP3 players still use them, they will still be here after you have scrapped off your new camera and the next one.

In a performance test in one of the mags recently smartmedia still came out the fastest even beating the micro-drive though it was close.

Just because its the most recent format does not necessarilly mean its the best.. go with the majority.. card readers for SM and CF are cheap too.
I do not see any immeadiate advantage going with xD format cards.
JMO

Grandpa
 
Yes. I have one ordered through Amazon, however, the delivery date keeps getting pushed back. I suspect that Fuji is not supplying them as expecetd.
Restless said:
thx
bspicer said:
Restless said:
Can any one give me a camparison between using a smartmedia card
verses the new xD-picture cards? I know the the new xd's will be
available for larger storage [1 g], but what about
performance/failures. Is the Smart media card to go out of
production ???
I am looking at two camera's 2600/2650
thx
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--

regards,
Mike Abbaticchio
 
The XD cards are tiny, and are easy to store in a small camera bag. Just watch them around kids, they are not much larger than most suckie candies.
grandpa said:
Restless said:
Can any one give me a camparison between using a smartmedia card
verses the new xD-picture cards? I know the the new xd's will be
available for larger storage [1 g], but what about
performance/failures. Is the Smart media card to go out of
production ???
I am looking at two camera's 2600/2650
thx
Click to expand...
At the current time I dont believe there is any advantage going
with xD cards. Smartmedia and CF will be around at very cheap
prices for many years to come. Most MP3 players still use them,
they will still be here after you have scrapped off your new camera
and the next one.
In a performance test in one of the mags recently smartmedia still
came out the fastest even beating the micro-drive though it was
close.
Just because its the most recent format does not necessarilly mean
its the best.. go with the majority.. card readers for SM and CF
are cheap too.
I do not see any immeadiate advantage going with xD format cards.
JMO

Grandpa
Click to expand...
--

regards,
Mike Abbaticchio
 
Thanks for the input M. A. --Yes I saw how small they were....kinda easy to lose I might think........
Mike Abbaticchio said:
grandpa said:
Restless said:
Can any one give me a camparison between using a smartmedia card
verses the new xD-picture cards? I know the the new xd's will be
available for larger storage [1 g], but what about
performance/failures. Is the Smart media card to go out of
production ???
I am looking at two camera's 2600/2650
thx
Click to expand...
At the current time I dont believe there is any advantage going
with xD cards. Smartmedia and CF will be around at very cheap
prices for many years to come. Most MP3 players still use them,
they will still be here after you have scrapped off your new camera
and the next one.
In a performance test in one of the mags recently smartmedia still
came out the fastest even beating the micro-drive though it was
close.
Just because its the most recent format does not necessarilly mean
its the best.. go with the majority.. card readers for SM and CF
are cheap too.
I do not see any immeadiate advantage going with xD format cards.
JMO

Grandpa
Click to expand...
--

regards,
Mike Abbaticchio
Click to expand...
 
The last one I bought came in sort of a plastic holder that serves to protect it in my camera bag. It also makes it less likely to disappear.
Restless said:
Mike Abbaticchio said:
grandpa said:
Restless said:
Can any one give me a camparison between using a smartmedia card
verses the new xD-picture cards? I know the the new xd's will be
available for larger storage [1 g], but what about
performance/failures. Is the Smart media card to go out of
production ???
I am looking at two camera's 2600/2650
thx
Click to expand...
At the current time I dont believe there is any advantage going
with xD cards. Smartmedia and CF will be around at very cheap
prices for many years to come. Most MP3 players still use them,
they will still be here after you have scrapped off your new camera
and the next one.
In a performance test in one of the mags recently smartmedia still
came out the fastest even beating the micro-drive though it was
close.
Just because its the most recent format does not necessarilly mean
its the best.. go with the majority.. card readers for SM and CF
are cheap too.
I do not see any immeadiate advantage going with xD format cards.
JMO

Grandpa
Click to expand...
--

regards,
Mike Abbaticchio
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--

regards,
Mike Abbaticchio
 
Had you checked this site?

http://www.fujifilm.co.uk/fujidc/xdcard/info.html

It saids that the performance of xD card and SM card is absolutely the same, including the power consumption, read/write speed, etc.

The only difference is the potential storage capacity which is supposed to be 8GB. Since they are based on the same technology you can say they are idential except for the shape and potential capacity.
Restless said:
Can any one give me a camparison between using a smartmedia card
verses the new xD-picture cards? I know the the new xd's will be
available for larger storage [1 g], but what about
performance/failures. Is the Smart media card to go out of
production ???
I am looking at two camera's 2600/2650
thx
Click to expand...
 
Thanks to ALL !!
Shizhu Pan said:
http://www.fujifilm.co.uk/fujidc/xdcard/info.html

It saids that the performance of xD card and SM card is absolutely
the same, including the power consumption, read/write speed, etc.

The only difference is the potential storage capacity which is
supposed to be 8GB. Since they are based on the same technology you
can say they are idential except for the shape and potential
capacity.
Restless said:
Can any one give me a camparison between using a smartmedia card
verses the new xD-picture cards? I know the the new xd's will be
available for larger storage [1 g], but what about
performance/failures. Is the Smart media card to go out of
production ???
I am looking at two camera's 2600/2650
thx
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Yes, they(Fujifilm) claims that the CF-card adapter will be available next year, so you can put the xD card into a CF-card adapter, and put this 'CF card' into any devices which support CF-card (IBM Laptop, CF-card reader, CF cameras such as Nikon, Canon, etc.)

So you'll see xD card has this advantage:

1. ultracompact but faster than current CF cards. (same r/w speed as SM card)
2. portable to all CF-card devices.
3. 8G potential capacity.

I don't think SM card will continue, because SM card is mainly supported by FUji and Olympus, but all the new Fuji camaeras no longer support SmartMedia card...

If Fuji and Olympus give up the SmartMedia, I wonder who will use SmartMedia?
Restless said:
thx
bspicer said:
Restless said:
Can any one give me a camparison between using a smartmedia card
verses the new xD-picture cards? I know the the new xd's will be
available for larger storage [1 g], but what about
performance/failures. Is the Smart media card to go out of
production ???
I am looking at two camera's 2600/2650
thx
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Shizhu Pan said:
Yes, they(Fujifilm) claims that the CF-card adapter will be
available next year, so you can put the xD card into a CF-card
adapter, and put this 'CF card' into any devices which support
CF-card (IBM Laptop, CF-card reader, CF cameras such as Nikon,
Canon, etc.)

So you'll see xD card has this advantage:

1. ultracompact but faster than current CF cards. (same r/w speed
as SM card)
2. portable to all CF-card devices.
3. 8G potential capacity.

I don't think SM card will continue, because SM card is mainly
supported by FUji and Olympus, but all the new Fuji camaeras no
longer support SmartMedia card...
Click to expand...
Yes but there are a lot of current MP3 players + several electronic keyboards that use SM. They will be around for a long time yet.
Far longer than you will have your camera.

Does anyone know if the xD controller hardware is in the card or the camera, as you may know Smartmedia cards dont have a built-in controller, it is in the camera itself which is one of the reasons they are fast, thats why some older camera's could only handle SM cards that the camera was designed to take ie. the largest available card at the time when the camera was released. Where as CF has the controller built in to the card itself. Due to the fact the xD card is even smaller than SM I'm wondering whether the controller is in the camera or the card, if its in the camera then there is the possibility that one may have difficulty using the larger size xD media when or if it becomes available.

Grandpa
 
grandpa said:
Shizhu Pan said:
Yes, they(Fujifilm) claims that the CF-card adapter will be
available next year, so you can put the xD card into a CF-card
adapter, and put this 'CF card' into any devices which support
CF-card (IBM Laptop, CF-card reader, CF cameras such as Nikon,
Canon, etc.)

So you'll see xD card has this advantage:

1. ultracompact but faster than current CF cards. (same r/w speed
as SM card)
2. portable to all CF-card devices.
3. 8G potential capacity.

I don't think SM card will continue, because SM card is mainly
supported by FUji and Olympus, but all the new Fuji camaeras no
longer support SmartMedia card...
Click to expand...
Yes but there are a lot of current MP3 players + several electronic
keyboards that use SM. They will be around for a long time yet.
Far longer than you will have your camera.

Does anyone know if the xD controller hardware is in the card or
the camera, as you may know Smartmedia cards dont have a built-in
controller, it is in the camera itself which is one of the reasons
they are fast, thats why some older camera's could only handle SM
cards that the camera was designed to take ie. the largest
available card at the time when the camera was released. Where as
CF has the controller built in to the card itself. Due to the fact
the xD card is even smaller than SM I'm wondering whether the
controller is in the camera or the card, if its in the camera then
there is the possibility that one may have difficulty using the
larger size xD media when or if it becomes available.

Grandpa
Click to expand...
Answering my own question... on doing a search, it appears as though the xD card does not have its own controller therefore like the SM if the camera itself has not been designed to take the larger media sizes which are not even available as yet then you wont be able to use the larger size in that camera. :-((

Grandpa
 
chances are that xD card is the same as SM, so... too bad to hear that. :-(((

Why not all the cameras designed to support 8G xD card before that storage size became available?
grandpa said:
Answering my own question... on doing a search, it appears as
though the xD card does not have its own controller therefore like
the SM if the camera itself has not been designed to take the
larger media sizes which are not even available as yet then you
wont be able to use the larger size in that camera. :-((

Grandpa
Click to expand...
 
Shizhu Pan said:
chances are that xD card is the same as SM, so... too bad to hear
that. :-(((

Why not all the cameras designed to support 8G xD card before that
storage size became available?
Click to expand...
Well thats quite possible of course, and I'm sure thats what they will aim to do. The trouble is in practice one is never certain its going to work 100% when your designing for something that does not exist yet because it cant be tested. That is one big advantage of the compact flash card and the micro drive of course with its own controller at least you know you can always use the larger sizes when they become available.

Personally I suspect that the memory sizes that Fuji etc quote as being feasible to attain with xD are a dream and too optimistic IMO. I shall be very sirprised if they attain 1 or 2 gig never mind 8gig. The other thing to bear in mind too is that FAT16 only supports upto 2gig max in size, so they would have to switch to some other file system too.

Nah the whole things a pipe dream. IOW why keep paying Samsung who make almost 100% of the SM cards when you can come out with a alternative yourself but you have to convince the users by putting out these wild claims. :-))

Grandpa (for ever a pessimist)

Grandpa
 
After discussing this topic with Fuji at a recent electronics exhibition in the UK, my understanding is that Fuji have tested their current crop of xD cameras for compatibility with 1Gb (or maybe it was 2Gb) cards, even though they've not yet released such cards for sale. Production will be stepped up for release in future months/years as xD (hopefully) catches on and demand for higher capacity cards rises.

No-one that I've contacted has the card reader yet here in the UK.

Tony
Shizhu Pan said:
chances are that xD card is the same as SM, so... too bad to hear
that. :-(((

Why not all the cameras designed to support 8G xD card before that
storage size became available?
Click to expand...
 
.. So HOW MANY pics could a 2 gig card take in a 2650 ...and would you want that many..........
Tony UK said:
No-one that I've contacted has the card reader yet here in the UK.

Tony
Shizhu Pan said:
chances are that xD card is the same as SM, so... too bad to hear
that. :-(((

Why not all the cameras designed to support 8G xD card before that
storage size became available?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Is 2650 a 2mp camera? then you can put more than 2500 pictures in the 2GB xD Picture drive (about 2650 pictures? :-) ), that sounds to many?

but wait, don't forgot the movie! the superccd3 shoots 640*480 movie at 30fps, so 2GB can only stores 31 minutes VGA movie, that only half an hour!

your 2650 can shoot QVGA movie at 10fps, that is 1/6 size so you can shoot 3 hours' movie at 2GB. sounds that 1.5 hour is merely enough? but most people consider 10fps as useless... if you want full 30fps, then,

Now you know, the storage will never be enough!
Restless said:
Tony UK said:
No-one that I've contacted has the card reader yet here in the UK.

Tony
Shizhu Pan said:
chances are that xD card is the same as SM, so... too bad to hear
that. :-(((

Why not all the cameras designed to support 8G xD card before that
storage size became available?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
ha...I don't know.....2500pics is more family than I want to see......
but I get your point....
Shizhu Pan said:
but wait, don't forgot the movie! the superccd3 shoots 640*480
movie at 30fps, so 2GB can only stores 31 minutes VGA movie, that
only half an hour!

your 2650 can shoot QVGA movie at 10fps, that is 1/6 size so you
can shoot 3 hours' movie at 2GB. sounds that 1.5 hour is merely
enough? but most people consider 10fps as useless... if you want
full 30fps, then,

Now you know, the storage will never be enough!
Restless said:
Tony UK said:
No-one that I've contacted has the card reader yet here in the UK.

Tony
Shizhu Pan said:
chances are that xD card is the same as SM, so... too bad to hear
that. :-(((

Why not all the cameras designed to support 8G xD card before that
storage size became available?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
So they can get more money out of it.. Otherwise they lose out.. you want a 1GB xD card you buy a new camera that can take a 1GB card..
Shizhu Pan said:
Why not all the cameras designed to support 8G xD card before that
storage size became available?
grandpa said:
Answering my own question... on doing a search, it appears as
though the xD card does not have its own controller therefore like
the SM if the camera itself has not been designed to take the
larger media sizes which are not even available as yet then you
wont be able to use the larger size in that camera. :-((

Grandpa
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Mike L.

http://www.pbase.com/ferrari355/galleries
 
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