256MB CF cards

[tog]

I'm amused to see that Sandisk are now selling 256GB Compact Flash cards. When I bought my first DSLR, an EOS-1D back in 2003, I bought 256MB cards with it since they were less than half the price of 512MB cards. If you wanted a GB card for sensible money you were looking at Microdrives... 1000 times capacity in 10 years.

[Simpo Two]

You rather messed that up by putting 'MB' in your headline

[Lucas CAV]

My first digital camera took a floppy disk in the side....

[The Nur]

I thought this was a nostalgia thread

Disappointed

[tog]

The Nur said:

I thought this was a nostalgia thread

Disappointed

Sorry!

I still have them I think if you want them

[williredale]

I chucked a handful of old 256MB cards out over the summer. How times have changed!

[...Mole...]

I have a 16MB one at work, just used for loading software on to rather aging touchscreen computers.

[Simpo Two]

...Mole... said:

I have a 16MB one at work, just used for loading software on to rather aging touchscreen computers.

My first digital camera, an Olympus Mju300, came with one of those. IIRC it held about 30 photos - not dissimilar to the 35mm Olympus XA-2 it replaced so I was quite happy

And now that we have more storage than we need, and more pixels than we need, maybe we can concentrate on photography!

[markmullen]

Lucas CAV said:

My first digital camera took a floppy disk in the side....

Sony Mavica.

I sold a boatload of them to the MoD.

[baz7175]

...Mole... said:

I have a 16MB one at work, just used for loading software on to rather aging touchscreen computers.

They're still very common in many modules used in the PLC/logic sector wherein they hold the programmable side of things that the end user wants

[Lakelord]

Crazy how storage prices have changed over the years. I remember the first IBM Mainframe Computer I worked on had 8Mb of storage
Think I'll stick to using smaller capacity cards though rather than run the risk of losing a gazillion shots if the card goes bad.

[LongQ]

Lakelord said:

Crazy how storage prices have changed over the years. I remember the first IBM Mainframe Computer I worked on had 8Mb of storage
Think I'll stick to using smaller capacity cards though rather than run the risk of losing a gazillion shots if the card goes bad.

The only downside to that is that, typically, the Read/Write times of the large capacity versions of card 'ranges' tend to be somewhat better than smaller sizes.

If that is of no consequence to your shooting needs then smaller might be fine.

Tempting fate .... the only problems I have ever had with memory cards related to a CF card and an SD card from the same manufacturer both of which showed up intermittent problems from new. In both cases the cards became unreadable except by recovery software (no images lost other than a couple that had failed to write completely thus seemingly causing the problem.) I returned the SD card as I had only had it a week and the manufacturer kindly swapped the CF card with the replacement working perfectly for the past 2.5 years.

The only things that put me off the latest greatest cards are that - they are relatively expensive, and; I really don't yet have a justifiable need for them. If I obtain a newer body producing larger files that might change things but for now I can't quite justify the investment.

Totally agree with your point about prices though. A refurbished 5Mb storage platter (about the size of a frying pan) used to cost something like £800 if you could get a good deal back in the mid 80s. It took quite a few to backup even a small system using a cyclical backup plan plus a room to store them and a lot of admin hours for the system admin people.

Fortunately the same sort of business system has, thanks mainly to bloatware, managed to find way to keep the total costs up even while the per-unit of storage cost has shrunk to a value almost indistinguishable from zero.

[bigrich4]

markmullen said:

Sony Mavica.

We had one of these at secondary school. It was so cool at the time!

[williredale]

bigrich4 said:

markmullen said:

Sony Mavica.

We had one of these at secondary school. It was so cool at the time!

I worked in a secondary school and bought some. They did ones that recorded to CDs as well.

[Zod]

My first digital camera came with an 8MB CF card. What would I even use that for now? It will not even hold one shot from my 5D Mk II.

[GetCarter]

<sorry for the re-post> I got the first CD burner one could buy. Silly money. No blanks available in the UK. So got 10 from USA... £320. Yep. £32 each for blank CDs (inc P&P). They are now not even good enough for coasters.

Still. I was the first bloke in the UK that submitted demos on a CD. I'm sure it was that rather than the music that got me the gigs!

[Lucas CAV]

GetCarter said:

<sorry for the re-post> I got the first CD burner one could buy. Silly money. No blanks available in the UK. So got 10 from USA... £320. Yep. £32 each for blank CDs (inc P&P). They are now not even good enough for coasters.

Still. I was the first bloke in the UK that submitted demos on a CD. I'm sure it was that rather than the music that got me the gigs!

When was that?

[Nimby]

Lakelord said:

Crazy how storage prices have changed over the years. I remember the first IBM Mainframe Computer I worked on had 8Mb of storage

I was involved in one of the first IBM 370/158 upgrades from 8MB to 16MB (1982 or thereabouts). The extra 8MB was the size of a double wardrobe, water-cooled, and the whole installation (h/w and s/w) took a team of 12 engineers a whole weekend.

[dudleybloke]

kingston now make a 1tb usb stick.