Memory Cards quandries

So right now .. if i count all my devices I have CF cards, SD cards and Mini SD cards.

I have 1gb cards in each type and 512 in CF and SD and some standard 32mb cards that came with cameras.

It seems to me that SD is the way forward and mini versions of the same cards for smaller devices.

why would you use a large CF card when an SD card works the same !

Obviously I have no preference, i just buy deivces then realise i need a new card because I am a moron like that.

But if i was a manufacturer I think I would settle with SD as a standard as it is alreadymore popular than Xd and much more useable than CF.

This all came as a massive rant in my head todaywhen looking at DPreview.com's Pretec review of an 8GB SD card.

In this day and age .. size iand capacity is amazing .. speeds are right up there ... and all we need now is reliablility and compatability IMO

isn't that what Mu-Card was meant to bring ?

I'm not 100% sure but I believe the advantage of CF is write speed. I know XD is the smallest of the chips but doesn't quite offer the burn speed of the superfast CF cards. I'm not certain about SD cards. With the size of buffers in the new DSLR's these days, write speed is quickly becoming a thing of the past as well. Maybe its another thing to keep you loyal to a brand of camera where you already have 10GB of cards. Olympus DSLR's use both SD and Compact Flash...a decided vote in favor of waiting to see which one wins the war.

I agree. I made similar comments back when I was commenting on the D80 including SD cards instead of CF. I think this is the way the market is headed. They seem to be making some serious progress against CF and the size allows for smaller cameras. The size issue is most significant to me because it means that we could be back to using the same media in our compact cameras as in our SLRs.

There are two of three areas that they need to improve upon before they have really can replace CF.

1) Capacity. It now looks like they have caught up with the new 8 GB cards but 8GB CF cards are widely available in very reliable SAndisk and Lexar varierties whearas the SD is just an announcement from 1 company.

2) Price. I noticed that the 1GB Sandisk Ultra cards at Costco were the same price as the CF cards. So it seems they are on par now.

3) Speed. CF still has a significant advantage. Sandisk Extreme cards are at 40 mb/s even in the 8GB sizes. The 2GB SD cards from Sandisk are 20mb/s and the article hints that the 8GB cards will be slower. So not quite there yet.

I do really like the idea of the plus cards having a USB card slot available in the card. Despite my investment in media I think the cange to SD at the pro level will be inevitable in a year or two.