cf going and sd coming in for SLRs

[Sime]

I have a camera that i'd rather take 400 photos with, and then replace the card with another... rather than lose a thousand photos if my 16gb card fails.

Oh, hang on... lol... sorry, right... I'll go away now!...

[Major_Small]

I used to love SD cards, for their ability to protect like a floppy, and their small size, but I've grown to love CF cards. If, however, SD cards picked up their game with overall durability and capacity, and they fully opened up their standards, I'd be right back in their camp.

This is all a great excuse to own a 1DsMkIII - it has both SD and CF slots

@Sime™: nothing says you can't own two 16gb cards

[kirbinster]

I think both formats will stay around. My Nikon D40 and D80 use SD while my New Nikon D300 uses CF. I think the CF cards are more durable and are somewhat faster. Further the SD cards have exposed contacts which can be damaged while the CF cards have contacts that are recessed inside the chip. Most higher end cameras seem to use CF.

[jlang]

I would say the recessed contacts on CF cards are more of a nuisance and make the system less durable - I've bent pins inside card readers by not putting my card in absolutely straight. Luckily it hasn't happened on the camera (to me, but I've heard of people making their slot unusable by pushing cards in without due care). Because the entire card fits in the slot, it has to be aligned before making contact with the pins.

[Major_Small]

On a properly built slot, the rails should be aligning the card long before it makes contact with the pins. The only way to bend them is to put the card in sideways. It's feasible, however, that a company could build a card or slot not quite to spec on a very cheap device that would allow such messy insertions though.

[neilwood]

For what its worth, I use both SD (in my powershot) and CF (in the 400d) and i definately prefer CF.

There are a few reasons:
1) the cards are easier to handle.
2) They are less subject to damage (putting an SD in your pocket and sitting down= one bent card, no such risk with CF)
3) Easier to find due to the size

Oh and has anyone tried handling an SD with cold hands up the side of a hill? Did you manage to do it without dropping the little SoD? Give me CF any day!

[jordanaustino]

The big problem with a switch from CF to SD would be speed. The fastest I have seen a SD card in 133x but we know have 300x for CF. When your are taking 6 10mb pictures every second or more you need that extra speed.

As for the hard drives the crash a lot and would not be as secure, you would have somebody loose all their data because their hard drive failed. If we were to start seeing internal memory it would be using the same flash memory that is in a memory card of flash drive.

[jdepould]

At current file sizes, I wouldn't want anything bigger than 8GB anyway. I think it was a weird choice to go dual SD/CF on the Mk3, I think the D3 approach is better, two of the same thing. Either gives you a backup on the capture side or eliminates the need to swap cards.

[glyphon]

my camera has dual xd/cf, and personally, i love it. but, for the reasons i love it, would work for any dual formats. have both slots loaded, and when one gets full, a couple of button presses, and the camera is saving to the other card. takes only a few seconds, where as changing a card takes much longer (relatively), depending on how prepared you are for the switch.

but, for an entry level dslr, i think supporting 2 different types is a good decision to help draw people in from their p&s cameras. even if media isn't expensive, people don't like having to discard perfectly good memory cards. or maybe that is just thrifty people like me

[fletch]

Originally Posted by glyphon

my camera has dual xd/cf,

As does mine and I have never purchased an XD due to the general concensus being they are no good. I have 2 CF instead which means carrying the extra card in my bag but does mean I have a decent back up.

Originally Posted by glyphon

for an entry level dslr, i think supporting 2 different types is a good decision to help draw people in from their p&s cameras. even if media isn't expensive, people don't like having to discard perfectly good memory cards. or maybe that is just thrifty people like me

This would be great if everyone used the same format but alas. I went from a Sony P100 using Memory Sticks to my E510 using CF or XD. My camera phone uses Micro SD, my girlfriends phone uses MS duo and her Casio P&S uses SDHC. Arhhh redundant memory galore, which is very annoying when my 512mb Memory stick was over £100 ($200) when I bought it back in the day.