Is there a difference in Smart Media cards from various manufacturers: speed, reliability, etc? I'm in the market for my first one and just wanted to know if there are any things I need to look out for.

-- Kenny Trussell (kenny.trussell@thielekaolin.com), January 19, 1999

Answers

All smartmedia is the same. If you want a real deal check out the website for the Rio device at Diamond Multimedia http://www.diamondmm.com They are selling a pair of 16MB smartmedia for $89.95. This is so much cheaper than anyone else. I am sure they are going to sell out. Hopefully they won't raise the prices. Olympus branded smartmedia comes with a bit of software on it to support the old panorama software they used to provide. With the Enroute software they provide this is no longer needed. The only other catch is that some cameras may not be able to handle the 16MB chips.

-- Ben Gordon (bengordon@earthlink.net), January 21, 1999.

Actually, there are two SmartMedia manufacturers, Toshiba and Samsung. All the SmartMedia on the market is made by these two companies. Samsung manufactures under a license from Toshiba, so I'm reasonably certain there are NO differences between the two. Thus, as Ben said, you can pretty well count on all the cards on the market being the same.

-- Dave Etchells (hotnews@imaging-resource.com), January 23, 1999.

Oops! Important note for first-time SmartMedia buyers: Make sure your camera is one that supports the 16 Meg size before you buy those cards! Many early cameras only handle SmartMedia as large as 8 Meg.

-- Dave Etchells (hotnews@imaging-resource.com), January 23, 1999.