What is the easiest memory to use for digital cameras? Smart Media, Linear PCMCIA or Compact Flash?What is the easiest to enter into a computer. How important is the type of memory used in a digital camera in selecting the camera?

-- Roger Kuppinger (rkupp@home.com), November 18, 1999

Answers

My personal preference is the CF card. Not many cameras use the ATA size card. It's size is too large to fit in small cameras. When the CF card is plugged into a $10 adapter, it becomes the exact equivalent of the ATA card.

The CF card also has the advantage of having the controller built into the card, rather than the device using it, as is the case of the Smart Media card. This gets around problems of the controller in the camera becoming out dated in relation to the size of memory card used. Some of the older devices that were built prior to 32MB cards coming out are limited to 16MB cards. Having the controller built into the memory card does cause the price to be slightly higher, and the size to be larger. There is always a trade off somewhere.

Finally, the CF card is available in sizes up to 128MB, with 160MB coming very soon. The Smart Media card is limited to 32MB at this time. If you want to shoot a lot of images without changing cards, CF is the way to go.

-- Steve (milwaukeechrome@aol.com), November 19, 1999.

if 64MB cards are enough, the memory type shouldn't matter much. If you need much more than that, CF is a good choice.

-- benoit (foo@bar.com), November 20, 1999.