Talk to me about the Microdrives....

[pixelpixie]

Do you have one? What are their selling points? Down falls? I just came accross them as a HUGE amount of storage....do your reccomend them? Any and all info and advice would be GREATLY APPRECIATED! thanks!

[Arctirus]

I haven't used any of the newer ones but my 1gb IBM microdrive was very slow to power up and slow to write.

[Michael Fanelli]

Do you have one? What are their selling points? Down falls? I just came accross them as a HUGE amount of storage....do your reccomend them? Any and all info and advice would be GREATLY APPRECIATED! thanks!

They are slower than memory cards, more fragile (they are mechanical) and are prone to head crashes over 8500 feet (not enough air to float the heads).

[almo]

They are slower than memory cards, more fragile (they are mechanical) and are prone to head crashes over 8500 feet (not enough air to float the heads).

Magnets will erase them.

[mjs1973]

One thing to consider is how many photos are you willing to loose, if something crashes? That's something to think about no matter what type of memory your using.

[pixelpixie]

These are all wonderful things to consider...I didn't want one just because of the slower transfer rate but saw them and thought I should ask "those who know" what they thought of it! I totally love how I can get an answer here with out feeling "dumb" or "insignificant"
Thanks Guys

[Stephen Lutz]

Lots of storage space, a touch slow on the write times, but not THAT slow. I have never had an issue with write times being a problem with my microdrive. I would buy a 4 gig microdrive right now, if I needed that much capacity. Right now, though, my two 1 gig cards (one a microdrive) adequately meet all my needs.

Consider a huge 4 gig microdrive if you need a large capacity, and don't have a lot of money. If those aren't considerations, buy a 1 gig CF card.

[SmartWombat]

Too fragile for my use.
I bought two and now only one works.
Higher battery drain, because there is a motor in them spinnnig a disk.
Slower access, because it's rotating media not semiconductor memory.

I think I trashed it by taking photos with the camera mounted ont he car while driving.
The vibration destroiyed the 1G disk.
Cost me £300 when new, replaced with 1GB memory for £100