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footdoc
12-20-2004, 05:48 PM
What is advantage of getting a unit with a CF and SD slot vs. SD slot only

Deus
12-20-2004, 07:06 PM
In addition to the ability to add more memory. There are more accessories which can be used via CF slot

MROX
12-20-2004, 07:38 PM
I'm new in PPC world, but I heard CF is taking a good chunck in your battery life (compare to SD).
Personnaly, I will manager to get a PPC with both of them.

ADBrown
12-20-2004, 07:51 PM
I'm new in PPC world, but I heard CF is taking a good chunck in your battery life (compare to SD).

That's incorrect. There's no noticible power difference between the two. They're both inconsequential.

V-iPAQ
12-21-2004, 12:22 AM
I duno. My new ppc doesnt have CF. Ive never had anything other than memcards anyway.
0X

shawnc
12-21-2004, 12:32 AM
I'm new in PPC world, but I heard CF is taking a good chunck in your battery life (compare to SD).

That's incorrect. There's no noticible power difference between the two. They're both inconsequential.

He may be referring to a microdrive, which fits into the CF slot. Anyway, I think the advantage is more than offset by the increase in the physical size of a unit with both. Especially if you have a unit with wireless capability built-in. Just my opinion.

ADBrown
12-21-2004, 03:06 AM
Anyway, I think the advantage is more than offset by the increase in the physical size of a unit with both.

To each their own. I find the ability to add four or five gigs of storage on the cheap to be worth the extra twelve hundredths of an inch.

Menneisyys
12-21-2004, 07:01 PM
What is advantage of getting a unit with a CF and SD slot vs. SD slot only

In the past, I'd have said that go for a mnodel equipped with a CF slot too. Now that SD's cost the same and, more importantly, the latest (VGA) batch of machines accesses SD cards faster than CF cards (ppl at AximSite and my own measurements all back this up), I'd say buying a PPC without the CF slot isn't a big problem any more.

Flash-based memory cards consume very little power even in thge worst scenario - that is, consistent writing to the card for hours, with, for example, an app like NoteM, the MP3 recorder app. Then, the CF cards I've tested only caused some 5-10% battery consumption increase. Kingston SD cards even less ; however, my SanDisk 256M card consumed as 'much' as my regular Ridata 40* CF card.

Very few accessories SHOULD be bought as a CF card, if your PPC already has both BT and Wi-Fi. GPS, because of the tremendous power consumption of the CF-based souldtions, only should be bought as a separate BT unit. CF-based GSM/GPRS cards should be forgotten altogethger, mostly because they're very awkward to use for voice cards and they're only GPRS multislot class 8, as opposed to Class 10, which is a pre-requisetement for using apps like MS Portrait. It's only VGA-output CF cards that have no other form.

Of course, if you have a digicam that uses CF cards, it's much better to go for a model also containing a CF slot.

maximus
12-22-2004, 07:07 AM
What is advantage of getting a unit with a CF and SD slot vs. SD slot only

The more, the merrier.

In addition to all the posts above, I would like to add one small thing :
When you have 2 slots, it is always better than having 1 slot. You can use the slots for more combination -- i.e. GPS + flash memory, Camera + flash memory, flash memory + flash memory, etc.

And some peripheral came only in CF form, hence CF slots are very important (to me, personally).

Kowalski
12-22-2004, 10:09 AM
if you are planning to use your expansion slot just for storage card, and nothing more, than only one slot will be just fine.
As the others said CF has some advantages over SD
microdrives have 2-3 gigs of storage capacity, there exists a USB host for CF slot
keep in mind that if you have two storage cards and just one slot, it wont be practical to them

Menneisyys
12-22-2004, 10:48 AM
And some peripheral came only in CF form, hence CF slots are very important (to me, personally).

Sure they do. It's a completely different question if they are worth buying at all.

CF/SD-based cameras? Nope, even the cheapest (non-noname) digicams will win hands down over ANY CF/SD camera. Ever seen the "quality" of the "latest&greatest" HP Photosmart camera? (OK, that's SD, but you get the point.) You could get a decent low-end (but still with excellent pic quality, as with almost all Canon cameras, even the cheapest ones) Canon camera for only slightly more than the HP Photosmart. And, their quality just can't be compared.

CF USB host cards? Yeah, that IS true, albeit, especially in Europe, where it's priced at 180 euros (!), a quite expensive one (e.g., the Ratoc CFU1U card, http://www.ratocsystems.com/english/products/subpages/cfu1u.html ). The solution: only buying a PDA that also has USB hosting functionality (Toshibas, Fujitsu-Siemens PL 720, Asus 730(w) etc.) or making other PDA manufacturers build in the same functionality in their PDA's (/pointing at HP).

shawnc
12-22-2004, 12:27 PM
Anyway, I think the advantage is more than offset by the increase in the physical size of a unit with both.

To each their own. I find the ability to add four or five gigs of storage on the cheap to be worth the extra twelve hundredths of an inch.

Yeah, because everyone knows that adding a CF slot ONLY adds 12/100's of an inch to a device :roll: .

maximus
12-22-2004, 03:44 PM
CF/SD-based cameras? Nope, even the cheapest (non-noname) digicams will win hands down over ANY CF/SD camera. Ever seen the "quality" of the "latest&greatest" HP Photosmart camera? (OK, that's SD, but you get the point.)

That is like comparing a BB gun and an Automatic Dual-barreled Shotgun, right ? :)

Menneisyys
12-22-2004, 04:15 PM
CF/SD-based cameras? Nope, even the cheapest (non-noname) digicams will win hands down over ANY CF/SD camera. Ever seen the "quality" of the "latest&greatest" HP Photosmart camera? (OK, that's SD, but you get the point.)

That is like comparing a BB gun and an Automatic Dual-barreled Shotgun, right ? :)

Well, as long as the price is concerned, not (if you mean the two weapons' price/size greatly differs - I don't know much about weapons). Low-end, but still high-quality Canon digi cameras don't cost significantly more than the HP Photosmart SD camera. The size? Well, standalone cameras are sure bigger/heavier, but if you buy a belt clip, they can be with you all the time. And, they DO give you something current CF/SD "cameras" won't ever: picture quality, flash (except for the Pretec megapixel CF), sometimes optical zoom etc.

Kati Compton
12-22-2004, 07:21 PM
The upshot is that it depends on how you want to use your PPC. For example, I like having SD/CF because my current camera is CF but my next will likely be SD, and because I want one card "constant" in there, and another "swappable". All for storage.

On my X5 I installed programs to the SD card, and the CF was the "swappable" one. On my X50v, so far I've been able to install everything to built-in storage, and I "only" have a 4GB CF card (flash, not microdrive). I plan to keep regularly used music/video on there, and then swap in and out an SD card with documents, photos, more music, etc.

surur
12-22-2004, 07:53 PM
I "only" have a 4GB CF card (flash, not microdrive).

A chap with a 2G CF card (not microdrive) noticed his ppc running down a lot faster than usual, and started up slower than usual. Have you noticed any of this with your large cf card?

Surur