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01/02/2006 10:20:51 AM · #1 |
| What's the general opinion of microdrives? Are they a good thing to go with for your camera? Found this deal and was thinking about it. //www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=13G1768-R&cat=FLM&cpc=JAD |
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01/02/2006 10:34:12 AM · #2 |
Seems like a very good price for 4GB of storage. Some people seem to be of the opinion that they are extremely fragile. While they are undoubtedly more fragile than solid state devices, they are quite robust. I used mine for something like 18 months without a problem.
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01/02/2006 10:48:32 AM · #3 |
Check this this recent discussion for some opinions.
Next week I'll be using two of them (IBM 340Mb and Hitachi 1Gb) in the cold of Nothern Finland.
That price is extremely low for a 4Gb Microdrive. It says refurbished, that means that it had some maintenance or repairs done to it. You also only get 90 days guarantee. For photography I wouldn't buy a refurbished Microdrive.
It could be fine for a music player where files are loaded on the drive from your pc, but when it is the first storage of the file (before it gets on the pc), I'd recommend not to get this one.
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01/02/2006 10:51:45 AM · #4 |
Originally posted by Azrifel:
Check this this recent discussion for some opinions.
Next week I'll be using two of them (IBM 340Mb and Hitachi 1Gb) in the cold of Nothern Finland.
That price is extremely low for a 4Gb Microdrive. It says refurbished, that means that it had some maintenance or repairs done to it. You also only get 90 days guarantee. For photography I wouldn't buy a refurbished Microdrive.
It could be fine for a music player where files are loaded on the drive from your pc, but when it is the first storage of the file (before it gets on the pc), I'd recommend not to get this one. |
Thanks for the link, and the info about the refurb. I handn't noticed that part of it. I agree with that. There some things I buy refurb, and am ok with, and others I won't. |
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01/02/2006 11:38:30 AM · #5 |
Originally posted by "Azrifel":
For photography I wouldn't buy a refurbished Microdrive. |
Personally, I would not stray away from it just cause it's refurbished. My Olympus E-20N was refurbished. Never a problem. In fact, very few refurbished products I've purchased ever gave me trouble. (In the camera world, only a single P&S that I wasn't happy with and was refunded it.)
Now, let's look at the "new" world.
Canon 20D (new) - died within a few months, had to be serviced by Canon.
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS - died within a couple months
Tokina 12-24mm - focus issues out of box (B&H quickly replaced)
Hitachi 4gig Microdrive - died after a couple of months, Hitachi sent replacement.
Anyways, I've always looked at it this way. There is about a 5% failure rate for new products. Refurbish simply means the part that was going to "fail" has already "failed" and been replaced. Odds are now in your favor that product will work more reliably than a new product.
(Note, this only goes for "factory" approved refurbished products.)
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01/02/2006 12:11:30 PM · #6 |
I just got the Hitachi 4G microdrive for xmas. With my camera, on RAW, it holds over 500 shots.
2 things about it:
Its slow. no, really slow. I am using it for studio stuff and landscapes where nothing moves. I will continue to use Sandisk x-tremes for sports, action, candids, etc.
Its slow. Reformating takes a reallllllly long time. Make sure you do it BEFORE you want to take the first dozen or two shots. It takes a good 5 minutes...
I have enjoyed it - not having to swap out cards is great (512s last about 20 minutes) and I see no other drawback. Especially for the price.
BTW - I got mine new at Bestbuy for $99 after I get the rebate back. :)
Message edited by author 2006-01-02 12:12:36. |
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01/02/2006 12:19:26 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by dahkota:
Its slow. no, really slow. I am using it for studio stuff and landscapes where nothing moves.
Its slow. Reformating takes a reallllllly long time. Make sure you do it BEFORE you want to take the first dozen or two shots. It takes a good 5 minutes...
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Okay, something seems strange here...
I have the 20D and the 4gig Hitachi microdrive. It's a replacement. But both of the ones I had re-formated within probably 10-15 seconds.
As for performance, I found the microdrive to be quite a decent performer. It might not be the Extreme III but it is not slow. In fact, I got better performance from the microdrive than I did from my standard 512mb compact flash card.
I am wondering if something might not be quite right with your card or perhaps your 300D would benefit from a firmware update. Your performance does not seem to be comparative to mine for whatever reason.
Anyone got any ideas why it would be so much slower on Dahkota's Rebel than my 20D? |
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01/02/2006 12:50:11 PM · #8 |
The Rebel (original 300D) writes much slower than the 20D...so that's not a surprise. On my 1D II I rarely run into a full buffer with a 4GB Hitachi Microdrive whereas on my 300D it is very slow... So it's all camera dependent.
Going back to the OP, I would stay away from a refurb Microdrive, small delicate moving parts...You might be lucky and get a perfectly good one and $79 is a pretty darn good price...so not much risk besides losing your photos. Microdrives are more "fragile" than CF cards...but you can't beat it in terms of price/MB... |
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01/02/2006 08:11:23 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by doctornick:
The Rebel (original 300D) writes much slower than the 20D...so that's not a surprise. On my 1D II I rarely run into a full buffer with a 4GB Hitachi Microdrive whereas on my 300D it is very slow... So it's all camera dependent.
Going back to the OP, I would stay away from a refurb Microdrive, small delicate moving parts...You might be lucky and get a perfectly good one and $79 is a pretty darn good price...so not much risk besides losing your photos. Microdrives are more "fragile" than CF cards...but you can't beat it in terms of price/MB... |
Yeah I'm going to skip it. |
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