Smartmedia vs. Compact Flash

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Which is storage media is better and why ... SmartMedia or CompactFlash? Are both able reusable for new pics after downloading to a computer? That is to say can they be re-formatted?

-- Roland DiSabatino (archer@capital.net), June 26, 1999

Answers

The ComactFlash has been available on the market for longer period of time, and also has had a much faster growth in regard to the storage size. The SmartMedia has had a very slow growth, and still after being on the market for a few years does not even come close to the size of available ComactFlash and ATA Flash PC card (PCMCIA type I, II, and III). So I would recommend the ComactFlash over Smartmedia, due to available much larger media size from many solid & reliable third party suppliers.

-- Fred (tabarrok@frontiernet.net), June 28, 1999.

I think the question to ask is whether you want/need the biggest size cards. If 32MB is big enough for you, the media choice probably doesn't matter. If you want 96MB+ cards right now, then compact flash would be a better choice.

-- benoit (foo@bar.com), June 29, 1999.

Yes, both types can be reformatted after use, so they're reusable. (Should be near-infinite use, for all practical purposes. Worst case is something like 10,000 write/erase cycles, which would be equivalent to completely filling and erasing the card 3x a day for 10 years.) As Benoit said, unless you really need more than 32 meg right now, I wouldn't pay too much attention to the type of media a camera uses: Focus on the cameras' features and image quality, rather than the type of storage i

-- Dave Etchells (detchells@imaging-resource.com), July 05, 1999.

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