People concerned about the fragility of memory cards may find this BBC news story reassuring:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3939333.stm

Regards,

Chris

Thanks Chris - very interesting article!

We just purchased our first digital camera (Minolta Dimage Z2) and been out playing with it to familarise ourselves prior to our trip.

007

Thanks Chris!
The article was interesting and now I don't have to worry about the frailty of the SD card in my camera. Somehow I don't think that I'll be attacking the card with a sledgehammer but the other situations described are always a possibility.

Chris, that is great news! But I am more worried about what will happen to the photos after I delete them from my camera. Even though I make back-ups onto CDs, I still can't bring myself to delete any of them from the hard drive! I am going to have to purchase a second hard drive shortly because the free space on my computer is dwindling by the week.

CDs are pretty much safe as long as you keep them stacked upright or flat. If you're worried, make two copies of your CDs. You can safely delete your pictures from your hard disk!

Regards,

Chris

For once I have to agree with Chris If you are really worried, CD's are really cheap to purchase, so make 2-3 copies and keep them stored in 2-3 different locations. I personally have one set of photos at home and another in my office. I cant see both sets getting destroyed at the same time

i lost my canon on my last tour and decided to get a new one. on a recomendation from a friend and what i have read on this board. i decided to get a sony camera. can anyone tell me what the difference is between a memory stick and a memory stick pro?

joey

While this article is interesting, I am still skeptical because the study is done by "Digital Camera Shopper magazine". Of course they will try to push for these devices.

Tell you what, Sally. You boil your film in coffee, put it through the washing machine, and dunk it in coke. I'll do the same with my memory cards. Care to place a bet about which of our pictures will survive?

What exactly are you "skeptical" about? About the fact that digital media is tougher than film? Do you think there's any doubt whatsoever that it is?

Regards,

Chris

quote:

Originally posted by joeycerra:
[qb] i lost my canon on my last tour and decided to get a new one. on a recomendation from a friend and what i have read on this board. i decided to get a sony camera. can anyone tell me what the difference is between a memory stick and a memory stick pro?

joey [/qb]

The memory stick pro is a higher capacity device than a memory stick. Memory sticks can only (if memory serves me correctly) go up to 128MB in size; pro is available in higher capacities.

Any camera which can use a memory stick pro can also use a memory stick, but _not_ vice versa.

Regards,

Chris

Unfortuneatley, it is typical of Sony.... upgrade the recording media every couple of years so you have to buy another of their products to read them!! When I bought my first Sony camera, it recorded to 3.5 floppy disk, then they went to memory stick, now they have Memory Stick Pro or Duo. I have now gone away from Sony to Canon... they have stayed with CompacFlash, and give a far better quality picture than Sony, or that is MY BELIEF!!
Memory Stick goes from 4MB to 512MB, Memory Stick Pro from 512MB to 2GB at present!! The Duo cards go up to 512MB at present I think, but could be higher.

When we made our recent digital camera purchase (Minolta), we were told to stay away from Sony because they use unique memory systems. As we are travelling with my sister & hubbie, it made more sense to have memory cards that were inter-changeable.

007

We have finally decided to buy a digital camera as supposed to film! All of our cameras are Nikon, so we're going to stick with Nikon, and get the 5 meg. Our concern isn't so much the memory cards but the batteries. We hear it's not long until they run out!!!

quote:

Originally posted by bond007:
[qb] When we made our recent digital camera purchase (Minolta), we were told to stay away from Sony because they use unique memory systems. As we are travelling with my sister & hubbie, it made more sense to have memory cards that were inter-changeable.

007 [/qb]

It's interesting to note that Sony's recent "high end" cameras can now use both memory stick _and_ compact flash memory cards. Even Sony themselves now seem to have realised that "proprietory" memory cards put people off buying their cameras!

Regards,

Chris

quote:

Originally posted by meechy:
[qb] We have finally decided to buy a digital camera as supposed to film! All of our cameras are Nikon, so we're going to stick with Nikon, and get the 5 meg. Our concern isn't so much the memory cards but the batteries. We hear it's not long until they run out!!! [/qb]

It shouldn't be a problem. I'm not familiar with Nikon's digital cameras, but none of the many other digital cameras I've owned have had battery life problems. As long as you recharge the battery every night, you should be just fine.

Regards,

Chris