CF cards and micro drive error disasters

I recently had a disaster when the 2.2GB micro drive I had been using came
up with an error after the hundredth frame. A word of advice, if you are
doing a professional assignment with a digital camera, use a lot of small CF
cards, much like you would use film, that way when, (and it probably is
when) it fails, you won't have lost all of the shots. Another thing I do is
to have a film camera with black and white film and a different lens from
the one on the digital, I alternate between the two so if the worst happens
I have something to show for it.

 

Using Memory cards in Compact Flash format has a much higher reliability factor for the mere
fact that there are no mechanical parts that may fail. A micro drive is but a very small
hard disk with a platter and a head that moves across the face of the platter. The MTBF of
such a device will be much lower than that of a solid state electronic device as a memory
card. The MTBF will be even lower for micro drives if they are subject to shock and/or
G-forces.


--
Dave




| I recently had a disaster when the 2.2GB micro drive I had been using came
| up with an error after the hundredth frame. A word of advice, if you are
| doing a professional assignment with a digital camera, use a lot of small CF
| cards, much like you would use film, that way when, (and it probably is
| when) it fails, you won't have lost all of the shots. Another thing I do is
| to have a film camera with black and white film and a different lens from
| the one on the digital, I alternate between the two so if the worst happens
| I have something to show for it.
|
| --
|
| <http://www.theweddingphotographers.com>
|

 

All true, but CF cards like any electrical device, can fail, which can cost
you dear.

 

SanDisk (I think) ships a CF recovery program with their higher-end CF cards. I haven't ordered one yet but was wondering if anyone has and if the recovery program is actually functional.

I bought my first digital camera to take SCUBA diving and I'm torn between shelling out the bucks for a 4 Gb microdrive or a 2 Gb CF card.

I like the idea of lots of space, but know that the first bit of salt water that actually gets into the microdrive will kill it. Diving exposes everything to salt water, even when you're above the surface.

--
Doug Greenwald
Keeper of the Bad Attitude

All true, but CF cards like any electrical device, can fail, which can cost
you dear.

 

I had a rock roll out from under me last weekend my camera hit the rocks the Hitachi microdrive 2 gig popped out I thought all was lost drive was all but full only had a dozen shots left. Plugged it in and they were all there. I am impressed with my KM A2 and the Hitachi microdrive.
SanDisk (I think) ships a CF recovery program with their higher-end CF cards. I haven't ordered one yet but was wondering if anyone has and if the recovery program is actually functional.

I bought my first digital camera to take SCUBA diving and I'm torn between shelling out the bucks for a 4 Gb microdrive or a 2 Gb CF card.

I like the idea of lots of space, but know that the first bit of salt water that actually gets into the microdrive will kill it. Diving exposes everything to salt water, even when you're above the surface.

--
Doug Greenwald
Keeper of the Bad Attitude

All true, but CF cards like any electrical device, can fail, which can cost
you dear.

 

With the price of CF cards coming down every day it makes little sense
to buy a micro drive, it is just not worth the risk. I just got
another LEXAR 1GB pro, and it does come with recovery software. I
checked it out on a deleted card and it found every image that had
been ( or actually still was) on that card.

At the same time I would not buy a card bigger than 1GB, there are
hardly any savings to be had by buying larger cards.

Hank

 

It was probably Lexar I was thinking of - thanx for sharing your experience with the software.

One advantage to larger cards is that when I'm underwater I can't change them

--
Doug Greenwald
Keeper of the Bad Attitude

With the price of CF cards coming down every day it makes little sense
to buy a micro drive, it is just not worth the risk. I just got
another LEXAR 1GB pro, and it does come with recovery software. I
checked it out on a deleted card and it found every image that had
been ( or actually still was) on that card.

At the same time I would not buy a card bigger than 1GB, there are
hardly any savings to be had by buying larger cards.

Hank

 

Also, it's better insurance to have several smaller cards than one large
card. If a card bites the dust in the middle of a shoot, you'll lose less
if it's one of five 1GB cards, than if it's a single 5GB card.