350d + Microdrive

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Can anyone say for sure if the EOS 350d can use a microdrive over 2GB.
(Seagate ST1 5GB drive for example).

The official specs are a little unclear: "CF card (Type I or II)
*Compatible with Microdrive and 2GB and larger CF cards".

This makes it sound like the camera can handle CF cards of any size,
but microdrives up to 2GB. However, I suspect this isn't the case and
its just a translation from Japanese problem!

The reason for my question is that I have just bought a seagate 5GB
microdrive and am having trouble - the camera and my PC card reader
cannot access the drive, but my compactflash 256mb card is fine in
both. Sounds like the drive is faulty, but could the camera have
damaged it? (I suspect not).

 

[GT]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Well I know it works with CF card smaller than 2GB (as we would
expect), as I have a 256mb card now. However I agree with the
interpretation - any size of microdrive and CF cards greater than 2GB!
This was my reason for wanting something bigger.

I know if you drop any hard disk (microdrive or otherwise) while it is
being used, the heads are likely to hit the drive surface and render it
useless, but when a microdrive is not in use, it should be able to take
the odd shock!

I have returned this drive as my PC cannot read it either - shows up as
'unreadable', so perhaps it has been dropped from 2 inches or more
during transit!! (I have watched parcel chuckers, sorry I mean parcel
sorters, so suspect this may be the problem!)

Incidentally, they test microdrives by dropping them onto concrete or
metal surfaces from 1m, so perhaps the surface they dropped it onto was
at fault, or they just didn't drop it from high enough!!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On 6 Apr 2005 04:52:45 -0700, contactGT@hotmail.com wrote:

>Can anyone say for sure if the EOS 350d can use a microdrive over 2GB.
>(Seagate ST1 5GB drive for example).
>
>The official specs are a little unclear: "CF card (Type I or II)
>*Compatible with Microdrive and 2GB and larger CF cards".
>
>This makes it sound like the camera can handle CF cards of any size,
>but microdrives up to 2GB. However, I suspect this isn't the case and
>its just a translation from Japanese problem!
>
>The reason for my question is that I have just bought a seagate 5GB
>microdrive and am having trouble - the camera and my PC card reader
>cannot access the drive, but my compactflash 256mb card is fine in
>both. Sounds like the drive is faulty, but could the camera have
>damaged it? (I suspect not).

Fron dpreview.com:

• Compact Flash Type I or II
• Microdrive supported
• FAT 12/16 and FAT 32 support
• No CF card supplied

This says, to me, that *any* CF card, type I or II, MD and all, using
FAT 12/16 and FAT 32 will work.
And that no CF card is included in the package from Canon.

--
Bill Funk
Change "g" to "a"

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

contactGT@hotmail.com writes:

>The official specs are a little unclear: "CF card (Type I or II)
>*Compatible with Microdrive and 2GB and larger CF cards".

>This makes it sound like the camera can handle CF cards of any size,
>but microdrives up to 2GB. However, I suspect this isn't the case and
>its just a translation from Japanese problem!

The statement is just assuming you know that *all* cameras that take CF
at all will work with Type 1 CF of 2 GB and smaller. It's telling you
what additional media the camera will work with.

Some cameras won't work with Type 2 CF because it's physically thicker,
but the 350D will.

Some cameras won't work with CF cards larger than 2 GB because it
requires FAT32 filesystem support, but the 350D will.

And some cameras won't work with microdrives, because of one of the
reasons above, or because microdrives draw more current than flash
memory. But the 350D will.

>The reason for my question is that I have just bought a seagate 5GB
>microdrive and am having trouble - the camera and my PC card reader
>cannot access the drive, but my compactflash 256mb card is fine in
>both. Sounds like the drive is faulty, but could the camera have
>damaged it? (I suspect not).

It's very unlikely that the camera could have done anything to damage
the microdrive. (An overvoltage could do that, but in that case the CF
card would likely have been damaged too along with the camera itself).

Dave

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

<contactGT@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1112788365.383806.277220@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Can anyone say for sure if the EOS 350d can use a microdrive over 2GB.
> (Seagate ST1 5GB drive for example).

Sorry to bear bad news, but see the bottom of this page.

http/www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-7699

> The official specs are a little unclear: "CF card (Type I or II)
> *Compatible with Microdrive and 2GB and larger CF cards".
>
> This makes it sound like the camera can handle CF cards of any size,
> but microdrives up to 2GB. However, I suspect this isn't the case and
> its just a translation from Japanese problem!

My reading of the English is that it promises to work with any microdrive,
but not with CF cards _smaller_ than 2GB<g>.

But this reminds me of my two favorite Japanese words "ijou" and "ika". "11
ijou" means "11 and over" and "11 ika" means "11 and smaller". I often see
"In mode 7, only use values of "11 ika". Setting this register to "11 ijo"
will cause <something really bad>."

> The reason for my question is that I have just bought a seagate 5GB
> microdrive and am having trouble - the camera and my PC card reader
> cannot access the drive, but my compactflash 256mb card is fine in
> both. Sounds like the drive is faulty, but could the camera have
> damaged it? (I suspect not).

"Midway through testing, this card was accidentally dropped from a height of
no more than 2 inches onto a wooden desk. The drop was fatal."

Oops.


David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan