Olympus Stylus 840 Memory

[cbgroves]

Hello!

I just purchased my fiancee an Olympus Stylus 840 for her birthday and now I need some advice. I am a Canon user, but the deal on the Olympus was too good to pass up. My question is what type of memory should I go with? It takes both the xD that all Olympus' take but can also use micro SD. I know the micro SD has more uses beyond the camera, but what are the advantages/disadvantages of each?

Thanks in advance!

-Calvin

[Doug Pardee]

MicroSD tends to be cheaper. It used to be a lot cheaper, but I see that xD prices have come down recently.

The largest xD card you can buy is 2GB. You can get MicroSD cards (actually, MicroSDHC) all the way up to 16GB.

MicroSD cards usually come with an SD/SDHC adaptor. That lets you plug the card directly into a wider variety of equipment. For example, my Wii game and my big-screen TV both have SD/SDHC slots for producing slide shows directly from the card.

I don't know about the 840, but most of Oly's cameras will not take max-resolution video (640x480x30) for more than 10 seconds on anything except an M+ class xD card. A few of their latest and most expensive models will do more than 10 seconds on a MicroSD, but I doubt that the 840 is one.

For marketing reasons, Oly locks out the camera's "panorama" functions unless the camera is loaded with an Olympus-brand xD card (not just any xD card).

There are probably speed differences, but that will depend on the cards used and the camera so I can't predict which will be faster. A Class 4 MicroSD is probably going to be faster than an M+ class xD card, but I'm just guessing. I suspect that almost anything will be faster than an M class xD card.

[cbgroves]

Thanks Doug! I knew that the micro SD would work best for compatibility's sake but I was more worried about functionality. I'm pretty sure that it does not support SDHC so I think I'll go with xD!

Many Thanks!

[Doug Pardee]

Originally Posted by cbgroves

I'm pretty sure that it does not support SDHC so I think I'll go with xD!

According to Olympus, the 840 supports microSDHC. In order to use cards over 2GB for movies, the firmware has to be updated to version 1.1.
http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_se...ma_microSD.asp

As far as I know, all of the Olympus Stylus digicams that can use microSD can also use microSDHC. I suspect that the main reason that Olympus began allowing use of non-xD cards was because nobody makes xD cards over 2GB.

[cbgroves]

Well I guess I have another question. I ordered the xD before I saw your second reply. Is it worth it to send it back and have to pay shipping twice and then buy a microSD card or just stick with the xD? Is xD faster or have any advantages to Olyumps cameras that the mircoSD does not?

Thanks!