A quick question for those of you who have traveled with your digital cameras and compactflash memory cards. I've heard that the memory cards are safe from the airport xray machines, but are there any other devices to "avoid" when traveling that could erase or damage the memory cards? Don't want to take the photos of a lifetime and lose them doing something stupid...

Choirguy, CF cards will be affected by strong magnetic fields and so be sure to avoid putting them next to speakers or taking them through the walk-through security machines. CF cards are not affected by Xray machines.

I don't believe that's correct, Italybound.

CF cards don't store data magnetically like disks do. They are EEPROM devices - ie electrically eraseable read only memory chips. As such, I don't believe they would be affected by magnetic fields.

The exception to that would be "hard disk" CF cards such as the IBM Microdrive - they could certainly be affected by magnetic fields, but I don't believe normal "solid state" CF cards would be.

There's not a lot, other than physical damage, that can damage a CF card. Severe physical shock to the card could break it by severing the incredibly thin corrections to the pins of the memory chips, but that's about it!

That's my understanding anyway; if anyone knows better, please do correct me!

Regards,

Chris

Hmmm..
the instructions I got with mine say don't expose to the following:
Strongly vibration or shock (quote)
Direct sunshine (i.e. ok for U.K. or Auckland conditions!)
Dusty, hot or humid conditions (explains why it failed on day one in Singapore)
Extreme temperature fluctuations
Near Magnetic fields.

They don't define "near"

As my CF card has been dodgy since day one I'll see if I can do some mag field testing for you. I can always reformat it...

cheers.

As you say, SanDisk should certainly know. I humbly stand corrected .

Regards,

Chris

Bob,

There is a problem with SanDisk's advice. They want us to avoid exposing the Flash Card to Xrays and suggest that we carry it on our person. That will subject it to strong magenetic fields (since the walk through security gates generate strong magnetic fields). Of course they also say that users have to avoid exposing the cards to strong magentic fields! So I guess one has to get these cards hand checked - and that isn't going to make too many airport security personnel too happy.

Chris, the reason I thought that magnetic fields were harmful to these cards is because of the induced electrical charges that moving the cards within a strong magnetic field might generate.

I put my memory cards with my film canisters in a clear plastic bag. Had no problem.

Pat, where did you keep the clear plastic bag during the security check?

Here's something to think about:
I have waved my flashcard around the magnet on my stereo's speakers - no problem, images still readable and no CRC errors (computerspeak for file corruption)

then I got nasty. Left the thing between the sparkplug leads on the car whilst engine running.
result? not a thing! images still readable!

I read in the paper yesterday a story of highschool students in Antarctica dropping a digital camera thru a hole in the ice. The camera was recovered by a diver and didn't survive the dip, but the flash was fine!

Short of drilling holes in it, has anyone broken one? Mine has been faulty since day one in that the camera sometimes won't write all the file to it, so we know they are not infallible but they sure are pretty tough!

I must have at least a dozen CF cards I've acquired over the last 5 years, and I've certainly never had one go faulty on me.

The more modern "SD" cards, now that's a different story...

Regards,

Chris

I showed it to the inspectors and then put it into a empty lead lined (black bag) and sent it through the scanner. No problem, it was available for them to see if they wanted to.

ChoirGuy,
I took four compact flash cards with me to Europe, they totaled 240 MB...all four and the 800+ pictures I took survived the trip with no problem...my impression is that Zip disks are tricky with magnetic fields and xrays, but not SanDisks...

Dsfair,
Thanks for your feedback with using your memory cards. Did want to ask you about zipdisks?? Are you talking about the big 100MB disks used in zip drives, or is that a brand of compactflash card??
Thanks!
Choirguy

we (3 of us) used our digital cameras (2 fujifilm and one olympus) smart media (SM) cards and had no problems in storage and passing through xray machines. I had a portable 3GB hard drive (Digital Wallet) device that we all downloaed our pictures to for future use. You can take a lot of pix on a 64mb card (over 130 photos on setting normal--more if you want basic setting). No problems experienced. Your worry's are valid, but you can't worry about it for the whole trip. Enjoy.

Choirguy:
Zip Disks come in 100mb, 250mb, 500mb and the company (Iomega) has announced a 750mb drive and storage. These are based on traditional magnetic storage.

You can now get CompactFlash cards up to 1 gigabyte in capacity.

Glenn