Newer Storage Media Compatibility for DCS 6xx/7xx?

[Andrew_Kalman_]

FWIW, I returned the 4-in-1 reader I had and will be looking for another -- I think ideally, I'd like a CF-to-SD adapter (the size of a CF card / disk).

SanDisk has three lines of SD -- "normal", Extreme and Ultra II. Extreme is aimed at the professional photographer, and comes with some extra software and services. Extreme and Ultra II claim 10(read)/9(write) MB/s speeds, and the literature for Extreme also touts -25 to +85 C operation.

The code on my "normal" SD card is AR0312QS CHINA.

The SD ** spec ** requires -25 to +85 C operation, and also states "up to 10MB/s read/write rate (using 4 parallel data lines)". (Note 1)

So, it seems to me that SanDisk's Extreme and UltraII lines are primarily marketing (nothing wrong with that -- more power to them) with perhaps a more powerful / faster controller than the "normal" cards, and there shouldn't be anything inherently wrong with using my "normal" SanDisk 256MB SD card in my DCS720x or DCS760.

Note 1: SD Memory Card Specifications, Part 1, PHYSICAL LAYER SPECIFICATION, Version 1.01, April 15 2001, SD Group (Matsushita, SanDisk and Toshiba).

--Andrew

[Andrew_Kalman_]

Also of interest -- in this site's CF database, the "standard" (i.e. non-Ultra, non-Extreme) SanDisk CF cards perform very poorly (like, at 1/3 the speed or worse) compared to the Ultra and/or Extreme cards.

So I suspect the non-Extreme, non-Ultra SanDisk cards have low-performance (yet compatible) controllers, and my problem was almost certainly a bad PCMCIA-to-SD 4-in-1 adapter.

--Andrew

[Chuck_Kuhlman]

Yes, Andrew. The single-purpose SD-PCMCIA adapters I have hold the SD card 'flush' with the PCMCIA adapter. The doors on my 7xx cameras shut just fine and in my laptop the cards do not stick out at all.

The ebay store I bought them from is: http://stores.ebay.com/Super-Good-Deal

The don't appear to have any at the moment but you might want to send them an email asking.

[Andrew_Kalman_]

Hi Chuck.

Thanks -- they do have them (on page 2) and I went ahead and got one now.

Hopefully, it'll work with my standard SanDisk SD card.

--Andrew

[RobinHorlock]

I am using a sandisk sd256 card with a microtech cf+2 pc card adapter with my 660 and I have never had a problem with this combo. although it is not as fast as my microdrive.

[Andrew_Kalman_]

Well, I'll be .... got the Link Depot DC-to-PCMCIA adapter for $7.99 (+$10 shipping), formatted my Sandisk "standard" 256MB SD card as FAT16 (FAT) from a WinXP laptop, put it in my DCS720x ... and ... 90 images available (for comparison, my 1GB Microdrive shows around 377 when empty).

So, it's working just fine. I wonder what was wrong with the CompUSA "house-brand" 4-in-1 adapter I bought. Of course, it was useless anyway, since it didn't accept the SD card flush, and so I couldn't have used the adapter in the DCS7xx's anyway.

Thnks to all who replied -- this is one combo that works: DCS7xx + SanDisk standard SD + Link Depot SD-to-PCMCIA adapter.

I'm looking forward to seeing what sort of improved battery life I'll get with SD vs. MD.