Storing your memories, when you've long forgotten (Olympus 256 MB xD-Picture Card)

Member Name: kingseany

Product:	Olympus 256 MB xD-Picture Card
Date:	31/05/05 (1119 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tiny, Large Capacity

Disadvantages: More expensive, Easy to lose

XD Picture Cards are a fairly recent introduction to the memory card market. Developed by Olympus and Fuji, these tiny cards can store hundreds of megabytes of information (or images). When I say tiny, I mean, you could probably easily swallow one - although it's better to put them into a camera instead. If you get out your ruler, you'll see that the card is 20mm x 25mm x 1.7mm, with a weight of only 2 grams - you could almost stick one on a letter and post it.

Don't let the physical size put you off though, as capacties are ranged from small 16Mb or 32Mb cards (typically bundled with cameras) up to much larger 512Mb and now 1Gb, released earlier this year. If you think this is big, let me tell you that capacties up to 8Gb will be possible in the not too distant future. This is due to the multi-level cell (MLC) technology, which basically doubles the amount of information that can be stored in a single memory cell, and increases storage capacity and cost effectiveness. So small really can be large.

Prices for the Olympus cards vary from supplier to supplier. I'll take www.digital-depot.co.uk as an example, who, in my opinion are one of the most competitive UK on-line companies for camera supplies.

1Gb £55.82
512Mb £38.54
256Mb £21.19
128Mb £11.68
64Mb £9.35
32Mb £7.12
16Mb £6.99

If you are an Ebay user, you'll probably find prices to beat these, especially if you buy from the US or Hong Kong. Compared to other types of memory card, prices are on the high side. Typically a 512Mb Compact Flash card for example would be nearer £25 online. I expect prices to fall further however as the format becomes more popular, and through competion with other brands and formats.

So just how many images can you store on a card so small? Well it depends on the camera compression rate, but as a guide a 512Mb card (recommended) will store 638 images on a 3Mp (megapixel) camera, 478 on 4mp, 386 on 5Mp, 347 on 6Mp, 329 on 7mp, and 259 on 8mp. An average snapper will find a 512Mb card fine for general use, you'll probably only ever need the one card. A long vacation with a powerful camera may require a couple. You'll need to check the specifications of your camera to see what the maximum sized card it takes is. The Fuji E550 for example, takes up to 512Mb. Many of the later Olympus D series cameras will take a 1Gb card, some may need firmware updates, so check your suppliers website for any updates available.

Storing video is also possible, with 512Mb holding almost 10 minutes at 640x480 or 25 minutes at 320x240. Fine for small clips to send to your friends, but for anything else, you're better off with your video camera, and a tape/DVD.

If you've another camera which uses Compact Flash cards, it is possible to buy an adapter which allows you to insert the XD card into it. These adapters aren't cheap at around £40, and considering Compact Flash cards are cheaper anyway, I can't see any benefit in doing this. A PC Adapter card is also available which will allow the use of the XD cards with your laptop. Most modern card readers now support the XD card, so there should be no problems reading the data into your computer reasonably fast. Many printers also have slots which will allow direct printing without the need for a PC (albeit basic capability).

Write speeds are important for any memory device, and whilst I'm not able to accurately test this, and results may vary from camera to camera, from my finding have found that it should be around 3Mb per second. This shouldn't hold you up to much, even on high megapixel cameras. Read speed is around 5Mb per second. This is signifigantly slower than for instance a Lexar 80x Compact Flash, but do we really need it to be this fast?

Although other XD brands area available, such as Sandisk, Fuji and Kodak - the Olympus xD-Picture Cards are the only ones that enable the Panorama function on Olympus digital cameras, allowing up to 10 images to be stitched together to create incredible vistas! Although I've not been able to try this feature (due to having a Fuji camera), this sounds like fun.

The 512Mb Olympus card I have comes with a 2 year warranty. I'd expect a 5 year warranty really, although have no reason to believe that the card will become faulty. After time though, all things do wear out, and at some point in time, if heavily used, replacement will be necessary. These little cards look like they'll stand up to being dropped, probably stood on, perhaps even driven over - although I've not tried. I'd say though that your're best off to take care of them, keep them clean and they'll give you a reliable trouble free life, storing your memories, when you've long forgotten.

Summary: