I was wondering which memory card was better; the compact flash or the microdrive? and how many gigs would you recommend? i just ordered the Canon 20D digital camera and wanted to know which card to get. TIA!

Well, i have heard a few schools of thought on this subject from photographers about cards. One of the guys I shoot surf contests with actually has several 512 cards he uses. His reasons are 1)if a card goes bad there are less photos you lose & 2)the camera process images faster. I have found that the 2nd really holds true. I have a few 512 cards and 2 1 gig cards and I like using the smaller ones better. Especially when I'm shooting portraits and contests. All of my cards are sandisk except for one lexar gig card.

Just my $.02, hope it helps.

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Hi I have the Canon 20D and loving it, btw. I did get the 1 gig Compact Flash Card. With a 1 gig, at full scale photos.. taking pics with it's highest resolution of 8.2 mpx, you will have at least 220 shots! Well that's what I got, havent tried the microdrive. This is what I've found in most discussions between comparing the two:

comparison

Alright.. I hope you have un taking pics! Please share them with us as well! Have a good day!

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I looked into that question myself and pretty much came to the same conclusion as the others. Microdrives are mini hard-drives and have moving parts = more chance for breakage do to vibration and bumps. Since you now can get CF cards 1 gig and higher there seems to be no more reason for the microdrive (used to be the only way to get a lot of pictures).

So I recently purchased a 1 gig CF card that was high speed for less than $75. It is great and I'm keeping my old 512 as a backup.

I would not get a CF card bigger than 1 gig because they can go bad occasionally and then you won't lose that many pics. And the price difference is not that great between 2 1gigs and 1 2gig. I can now take over 80 RAW format pictures on my CF, which is great! And if I were to take regular jpegs then WHOAH NELLY I am probably going to have to change my batteries before I change my card!

Hope you enjoy your new CF card!

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I bought a 1 Ultra 512 CF card to start. It holds around 133 fine full size pixtures. For me that is plenty for now. I have yet to fill up the card so have not found a need to buy another yet.

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Thanks so much for all of the replies! I ended up buying the 1 gig sandisk ultra II CF card. I can't wait until my camera comes in so that I can start shooting pics!