Article Surfing Archive

They made MemPlug for Secure Digital, Memory Stick, Compact Flash, and other formats. If you have a choice I would choose: First, whatever format something else you already have would use, maybe the same format as your digital camera, for example. Second, both Compact Flash and Secure Digital, these are the most common and available formats right now. Now the module will cost you about $70 from PiTech or about $20-30 from eBay if they have any at the time.

You can buy a new and more powerful PDA for $90. Palm One has 'blemished' Palm One Zire 31's on sale and you can find other bargains if you look on the internet, etc. With the newer PDA such as the Zire 31, you'll get a color screen, built in Secure Digital card slot and better integrated software for using it, MP3 and video capabilities, etc. I also noticed that Palm is running a $50 trade in offer as well for buying a new Palm. For more information on a wider range on using memory cards and such you can go on the internet and look it up.

Most flash cards that come in new digital cameras have such small memories. In order to save your frustration, order the SanDisk Compact flash 256 mb with the digital camera. I have a Minolta Dimage 7 and when I set the camera to more than 3 megapixels, you could see the "gas gauge" literally move. With 256 K, running empty will still be a long way. Brand names and card specifics do matter somewhat. The difference is in warranties and quality of craftsmanship.

I use compact flash, and at times the images can get corrupted or the card "non-readable". Both Scan Disk and Laxar provide recovery software that can correct most of these issues when purchasing there higher level cards. They also come with at least a 1 year warranty. For example: I have accidentally sent a Scan Disk compact flash card through the washing machine, retrieved all of the photos, and the card still works...I wouldn't count on it again, and don't suggest trying it.

The other difference is in the read write speed. The higher the read write speed, the faster your cards will offload onto your CPU, as well as write to your camera (allowing less time to get ready for additional photographs). The fastest I have seen so far is 80 xs. Through a USB port, a 1g memory card takes about 10-15 min to offload at this (80x) speed. It also supports the IBM micro drive, but I would stay with the SanDisk ultra II which is rated perhaps the fastest compact flash card available. I'd opt for at least a l gig card which will give you about 160 Raw images with a small jpeg imbedded. You should be very happy with the purchase.

If you are going to do model shots then you must get a Digital SLR because other types have a shutter lag (that means that the moment you press the shutter the camera takes 1/2 - 1 second to actually take the image.) A D50 or Canon Rebel would work. I use and prefer compact flash memory cards as they are lots less expensive than SD memory. Megapixels are a measure more of the initial image capture file size. Once you pump the image through Photoshop you make the corrections and adjustments for whatever you are going to do.