Sony To Sell... CF Microdrives?

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.sel.sony.com/pressrelease/5361' target='_blank'>http://news.sel.sony.com/pressrelease/5361</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Rounding out its line of removable media, Sony Electronics is introducing the Sony Microdrive®, a one-inch removable hard disk drive that will meet the increasing storage needs of many portable digital devices such as digital cameras and PDAs. Designed to fit the Compact Flash+ Type II interface, Sony Microdrive offers a cost-effective solution for expanding consumer storage needs such as high-resolution digital photos and MPEG video. Microdrive also features a high-performance 97.9 Mbps data transfer rate to accommodate rapid shooting and moving picture data."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20041123-SonyMicrodrives.jpg" /><br /><br />This is unusual on several levels. Does it mean that: a) Sony has either rapidly developed CF technology or actually rebranded a competitor's product; b) Sony has admitted that Memory Stick isn't the end-all, be-all; or both? I guess I should... welcome... Sony to the memory world for a change. Confusing! 8O

[lapchinj]

...Microdrive also features a high-performance 97.9 Mbps data transfer rate to accommodate rapid shooting and moving picture data.
I just retired my Zip 750 used to backup my daily code for a couple of 1gig 80x CF cards from Lexar. I'm really happy with these - no spin up time. Click on the icon in Windows explorer and the directory structure expands instantly. I use this setup with a USB2 CF card reader from Sandisk. It's as fast as the zip drive (seems that way watching a copy), really small and compact and no power supply like the Zip drive. I used to use a Zip 250 which had no power supply but it became too small. Now I'm hooked on CF (I'm fooling around with SD but I think that there's more of a choice in CF since it's the card used most in cameras.

Anyway the real question is how do these microdrives compare to the above setup. I know you mentioned that it has a 97.9 Mbps data transfer rate but to me that's a little intangible. If I would use one of these drives in my reader how would this compare to my 1gig CF card or even a larger 4gig card? Does the drive always spin to give the transfer rates? What does it do to the battery life in the average camera?

Jeff-

[Ripper014]

Well I guess all those polsters were right... SD has killed the CF card format...

[Felix Torres]

This is unusual on several levels. Does it mean that: a) Sony has either rapidly developed CF technology or actually rebranded a competitor's product; b) Sony has admitted that Memory Stick isn't the end-all, be-all; or both? I guess I should... welcome... Sony to the memory world for a change. Confusing! 8O

Not really.
All it means is that "there's gold in them hills". ;-)

You can't stuff a hard drive in a memory stick, after all.
(or much of anything useful.) :twisted:

And Sony has already been selling USB-based HD storage so its a small leap from that to selling a CF HD.
And, since Sony's Clie's have on occasion sported CF slots (albeit crippled ones) they do know it is a viable solution to adding mass storage to PDAs, which they still sell in Japan.

[Mexico]

Let me see... 1GB Compact Flash card or SD Card for $70 (at Sam's Club, if anybody is interested), or 2GB Microdrive for $179... Naaah, I'd first buy 2 SD cards and save some battery.

M

[Sven Johannsen]

Let me see... 1GB Compact Flash card or SD Card for $70 (at Sam's Club, if anybody is interested), or 2GB Microdrive for $179... Naaah, I'd first buy 2 SD cards and save some battery.

M

Yes, but a 4G microdrive for $150 (Hitachi after rebate) and I have a pretty passable part time iPod.

[lapchinj]

...You can't stuff a hard drive in a memory stick, after all.
(or much of anything useful.) :twisted:
Sony got stuck with their own stick. I think they built the CF card microdrive since they couldn't figure a way to make an oval HDD platter spin in the stick's case :roll: .

Would a 4gig CF microdrive perform better than a 4gig CF card? And does anyone know whos microdrive performs better in the real world?

Jeff-

[TheZodiac]

It means nothing. They have a few cameras with CF cards, so why not rebrand hitachi's....... duh.

[Sven Johannsen]

Would a 4gig CF microdrive perform better than a 4gig CF card?

Checked the price of a 4G CF card recently? Still a bit steep IMHO. I have no issues playing music and videos off of my microdrive, and that's what I got it for.

[rmasinag]

I see this as a way for Sony to squeeze more cash from their prosumer camera purchasers, .i.e f828

Nothing more

[Damion Chaplin]

I see this as a way for Sony to squeeze more cash from their prosumer camera purchasers, .i.e f828

Nothing more

Exactly my thoughts... except I would phrase it like this: Sony now offers the f828 camera, which takes microdrive, so consumers are of course looking for the card that goes with it. You know Sony: They'd never sell something that doesn't say Sony on it, so in order to get that add-on sale, they need to start offering cards for their new cameras.

Thus was born the Sony MD.
(hmmm... MD really means something else in Sony world...)

[LarDude]

Personally, unless there is an order-of-magnitude advantage (price/capacity), I wouldn't want to bother with having moving parts in my portable storage media. Furthermore, the price per MB is changing so quickly for CF and SD cards that I'm not going to worry that a 4GB CF (or SD) card is "expensive" this month.

[lapchinj]

Checked the price of a 4G CF card recently? Still a bit steep IMHO. I have no issues playing music and videos off of my microdrive, and that's what I got it for.
Yeah I just looked at the price of a Lexar 4gig 80x CF card and it was a whopping $660 retail from their site. The specs are not so good for the microdrive - 12 mb per second for the Lexar 80x pro CF card compared to 7MB/sec for the microdrive. I think I have to try one of these in my camera and iPAQ 3850. Any opinions on any of the ones that are out there. I'm not thrilled about buying a version 1 of any product and you did mention earlier that a Hitachi microdrive is going for $150.

Jeff-

[lapchinj]

... I wouldn't want to bother with having moving parts in my portable storage media...
With a CF card I have no problem just throwing it in my briefcase of shirt pocket. I've droped them in the house and in the street but I would be a little paranoid carrying around a microdrive. But I would still try one in my camera since the specs for sustained write speed is much better for the microdrive. (So far I havn't dropped the camera :D .)

Jeff-

[The PocketTV Team]

> Sony has either rapidly developed CF technology or actually rebranded a competitor's product

They most likely licensed the Microdrive technology from IBM, like Hitachi did.

By the way, 5GB Seagate Microdrive can be found on ebay for less the $200 (got one today for $185). I heard they have a larger data buffer and better performances than the 4GB.

Yes, one of Sony's best and best-selling camera is the F828 (I have one) takes the Microdrive, so it would seem natural that they sell some for this camera.

[ADBrown]

They most likely licensed the Microdrive technology from IBM, like Hitachi did.

Actually, Hitachi bought out IBM's hard drive business, which included the microdrive design.

[Numsquat]

Let me see... 1GB Compact Flash card or SD Card for $70 (at Sam's Club, if anybody is interested), or 2GB Microdrive for $179... Naaah, I'd first buy 2 SD cards and save some battery.

M

Yeah, especially when you can pick up 1GB CF cards from places like buy.com for $40-$45 (I paid $40 for my Kingston card), 2GB cost you $80-$90, 4GB $160-$180. I wouldn't mind a 4GB anything but since I use mine mostly for music, splitting it up in 1GB cards doesn't matter.

Any more space and I'll just buy a 20GB+ HD player.

[Zathras]

PocketTV Team, the Seagate 5gb drives on Ebay, were they taken from a MP3 player or is Seagate selling them seperately now? As far as I know Seagate isn't selling their drives separately with a warranty yet. I want one that way.