Digital memory, XD vs. CompactFlash?

I was just wondering if there are any major benefits that make XD card better or worse than CompactFlash. Just got a new camera after about 3 years using my first digicam, of course the new one allows for both XD and CF and the old one was SD. I've read a few things that make the XD sound a little better but I'm leaning towards the CF because our new computers 8 in 1 media reader supports pretty much everthing but XD. I'm pretty sure I could always just transfer files using USB anyways so I coulds still get away with XD if it is far and away better. The one thing about the XD that caught my eye is that they are supposedly much better for panoramic pics? Any truth to that? Hopefully all this isn't too confusing, basically I just want to know if there are really any significant differences between CF and XD. Thanks!

XD, SD and CF are just different types of memory cards - they don't have anything to do with panoramic pictures, etc. It's the camera that determines those functions (or you can do it in the computer with pano software).

There are very few P&S digitals that use CF any more, but that's what I prefer simply because I have a bunch of CF cards and a reader for it. They're sometimes cheaper too, comparing equal sizes among different formats of cards. Also different write speeds are available with CF but that doesn't always have an affect on P&S cameras.

XD (and SD) might be a little harder to find and cost more per MB, but they're physically smaller so camera manufacturers can make their cameras smaller.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Catch22

I was just wondering if there are any major benefits that make XD card better or worse than CompactFlash. Just got a new camera after about 3 years using my first digicam, of course the new one allows for both XD and CF and the old one was SD. I've read a few things that make the XD sound a little better but I'm leaning towards the CF because our new computers 8 in 1 media reader supports pretty much everthing but XD. I'm pretty sure I could always just transfer files using USB anyways so I coulds still get away with XD if it is far and away better. The one thing about the XD that caught my eye is that they are supposedly much better for panoramic pics? Any truth to that? Hopefully all this isn't too confusing, basically I just want to know if there are really any significant differences between CF and XD. Thanks!

---

I have CF in my D70 and XD in my Fuji F10.

CF is cheaper. It fits in my ARCHOS GMini for easy unloading in the field. It's much easier to find accessories like card readers. CF cards go bigger than 1GB.

XD is much smaller (I use one in a USB key adapter instead of a regular USB key). However not all the accessories are compatible with the 1GB XD card.

Now I have all the accessories for XD card format - including a CF card adapter so it fits in the ARCHOS - I'm quite happy with it.

Charles
.