Which Memory Type for Oly 5050?

Great Forum! Several days ago I read a year and half's worth of posts on the Oly 5050 after it was recommended to me by a friend. I maxed at the potential of my DSC P1 in the MPK P1 housing and I'm looking forward to what new technology can do?

The Oly 5050 has four storage options:

XD

Compact Flash Type 1 / Compact Flash Type 2

MicroDrive

Smart Media

Which is the best choice for a Novice shooter looking to move up a notch. My budget is for a 512/1gb card.

With my previous camera I would shoot 1280x960, 215 shots on 128mb.

I averaged about 80-110 shots per two tank dive.

Where am I going to find the best price/performace in my memory purchase?

This review seemed helpful, but now I think I'm more confused. But at least I see money does not = speed and performance.

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/mediacomp...mpare/page4.asp

Thanks,

--Matt

Well, I almost answered my own question!

http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/c5050/c5050-card.html

What cards to buy?

Most cameras don't give us much choice: you are limited to the card type which your camera accepts. However, if your camera gives you a choice, then my recommendation would be:

For a fast-writing camera (like the C-5050Z) use a large-capacity xD, and a fast CF (like PNY in my small roundup);

For a slow-writing camera (like the E-10 or E-20) the card speed does not matter. Use whatever is on sale.

Actually, if you store your images in the JPEG format, you will not notice speed differences between most of the recent-vintage cards.

I would just buy the largest capacity available at a reasonable price: for example, the 512MB CF cards are now nearing the $100 price barrier, and 256 MB ones are already well below that line. A 256 MB xD card can be bought at $100 or so; this means that at the expense of $200 you may put 750 MB of storage in your camera, which is enough for almost 700 pictures in full-size HQ storage mode (or more than 200 in SHQ). Not too shabby.

Ahh its fun to be a novice again.

So to refine the question in todays memory dollars. Do I want to mix and match media or get a 1gb card for $200?

--Matt

I would recommend a fast 1gb CF card. They are relatively inexpensive and there are many fast cards to choose from.

I have an article about this almost finished - it should be out next week.

Cheers

James

Hi Matt,

You will have to mix them if you want to use both storage slots in the Camera. Personally, I have the 1 gig CF card, write time in RAW is about 3 secs. And a 512xd card in the other slot. I shoot Raw exclusively and to this point, not had to switch to the xd card. But it's nice to have in reserve if you need it.

Rand