5050 memory cards

[DrSteve]

A long time ago it was the case that the CFII and the other cards were not fast. But now they all appear to be speeding up and many appear to be faster than the xD cards.

So...with a 5050, is it worth sticking to xD? Will the CFII work at similar speeds? Also does anyone know of any incompatiblities with the larger cards and the 5050? I heard that only the Sandisk and Lexar 1GB xD cards were supported.

 

[maractwin]

I'm using a 2GB Lexar card in my 5050. It's "write accellerated" 80x. It's somewhat faster than the xD card that came with my camera.

-Mark

 

[Detonate]

I used a 1 gig 40x Lexar and a 1 gig Sandisk Ultra II in the 5050, and both worked well.

One of the cool things about the 5050 is the ability to have 2 cards.

I would normally put in one 1 gig CF card for pictures, and then I had a 256 meg SD card that I put in there for video clips. You can take continous video for the entire size of the card. Not anything you can slap onto DVD and watch on the big screen, but viewing on the computer is more rewarding than you might imagine.

 

[jakubson]

Also does anyone know of any incompatiblities with the larger cards and the 5050? I heard that only the Sandisk and Lexar 1GB xD cards were supported.

I tried an off-brand 1G card (can't remember than brand, but if you search my posts you can find it) and IT DID NOT WORK. If I were you, I'd stick to sandisk and lexar.

 

[Scubatooth]

i use both CF and XD cards in my 5050. im using a lexar 1gb 80x and a 512 xd and i can say that the XD card about half to 2/3rds the speed of the CF but its still not slow as i can shoot pics after pic with only a 2 second gap

FWIW

tooth

 

[BioG]

What is the highest volume that the 5050 can recognize? I thought that it was 1 gb, but maractwin is using a 2GB card. I seem to remember someone mentioning that the camera can only process up to 10x before it starts to bottleneck.

Here's a website with memory card speed tests (and where I read about the 10x bottleneck)
http://myolympus.org/5050/index.html#MemoryCards

Incidentally, I'm using a 512mb Lexar 12x Compact Flashand a 256MB Olympus xD card and the lexar is MUCH faster. CF is also cheaper, so I bought that a while ago, and just recently got the xD card as an additional "emergency" space.
-Steve

 

[Scubatooth]

bio G

the largest most non pro cameras can address is a 2gb card due to the way the bios are written for the cameras(im not sure if its the 16 bit or 32 bit limit) as after that you need a higher bit rate bios for the camera to see larger cards.

so technically you could have a 2gb CF and 2gb Xd card and be able to see all 4gb on both cards

does this help

Tooth

 

[2 Bar]

I'm no expert, but an 80x is superfluous. With any card, you need to research how fast the camera can write to it. The 5050 can't write as fast as 80x.

I also read it can only access up to a 2GB card. xD has just come ut with a 1GB card recently. So, you could use a CF 2GB AND an xD 1GB. That would be metal!

I like to use www.steves-digicams.com for research. Try that.

 

[RonFrank]

A long time ago it was the case that the CFII and the other cards were not fast. But now they all appear to be speeding up and many appear to be faster than the xD cards.

So...with a 5050, is it worth sticking to xD? Will the CFII work at similar speeds? Also does anyone know of any incompatiblities with the larger cards and the 5050? I heard that only the Sandisk and Lexar 1GB xD cards were supported.

Take a look at the DPREVIEW C5050 timings and File Sizes section.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympusc5050z/page10.asp

The XD is not even as fast as CFI OR CFII type cards as discussed, in fact almost 2X slower when it comes to writing larger files.

CFII is NOT a faster format. The CFII supports the IBM microdrives, and larger CF cards (like 4 gig). CF II is a slightly different form factor, and the type has little or nothing to do with performance.

XD is more expensive, and not available in near the capacity vs. CF, so why would anyone opt for this storage?

PnS camera's in general are NOT fast enough to take advantage of even 40X cards, but maybe there are some sites on the web that measure performance using various cards with the 5050.

 

[BioG]

just checked: The 5050 (and all FAT-16 cameras) can read up to 2GB. 5060 and later can read higher capacities. Also the hardware bottleneck occurs about 17x -any card faster is wasted (in the camera anyway, it will be faster in a card reader).

-Steve