FAT32 - Are YOU Compatible?

I've purchased many SD Cards, most recently a cheap slow http://www1.epinions.com/content_417046171268 and a cheap fast A-DATA. My favorite was a $27 A-DATA 4GB microSDHC card that comes with a SD card adapter. This was cheap for the size, it's super fast, and being a microSD means it is more versatile (works in both standard SD and microSD slots). I haven't really purchased Compact Flash cards in a long time, since many of my devices don't use them.

Of course, I still have an old favorite camera of mine, the Nikon Coolpix 995 that uses CF cards. I also have an old Gateway DC-M42 camera that uses the same cards. The Gateway is a cheap 4 MP camera that doesn't take very good photos. It was meant to be used as a cheap point-and-shoot that I won't care if I loose or break.

I have two CF cards that I used on those cameras - a no-name 128 MB card and a Lexar 256 MB CF card.

I still use my Nikon Coolpix 995 once in a rare while. I since bought a Canon Powershot A640, so the 995 is stowed away. With the 2008 Chicago Auto Show already in full blast, I decided to break out the Nikon for one of my friends so we can get more photographic coverage. Despite the lower resolution, 3 MP is very good for professional quality pictures. The Nikon had great reviews back in 2001, and still continue to impress. Even with the low resolution, 256 MB will limit the amount of photos we will be taking. Thus, I decided to upgrade.

Lexar 8GB 300x Compact Flash
Compact Flash cards used to be inexpensive back in the day. They were popular until SD Cards started to win over gadget manufacturers due to their physical size. Unfortunately, now that they aren't in demand, the cost of a CF card is more than a similar capacity SD card.

This 8GB Lexar is a good example of that. While the SD version of the card (same line, same speed) cost $160, this CF card made me spend $200 for the same capacity!

Performance
The performance of Compact Flash media is still much faster than SD, however. For the Professional line of Lexar CF media is 300x, while the SD media is only 133x. Although these numbers are misleading, I can tell you that the CF card I tested wrote at an astounding 16 MB/s! That's way faster than the fastest SD card I've tested, which is the 11 MB/sec A-DATA microSDHC (4GB) card! The read speed is very close to the speed of a laptop hard drive, at around 40 MB/sec using an EIDE reader.

One of the things about CF cards is that it is really an EIDE device, which is the same interface that hard drives uses. This eliminates the bottle neck that a USB 2.0 card reader would have.

The performance of CF cards is the real reason why they are more expensive, and why professional digital cameras are still using this format. There are many professional cameras that allows the use of both CF and SD cards, which makes them versatile.

Cons
The only problem with this card is that because it is larger than 2 GB, it requires you to format it in FAT32. Older cameras (my Nikon Coolpix 995) or non-pro cameras (my Gateway) did not recognize the card when formated for the full 8GB (at FAT32). FAT16 (or simply FAT) only supports 2GB. The Nikon was able to format the card and use it, but only sees 2GB of space while the Gateway just refuses to recognize the card, even when formated as a 2GB FAT CF card. Another old CF camera (my friend's Kodak 1MP camera) didn't even recognize it either. Both cameras still complained that there is no storage media after using the Nikon to format it as a 2GB FAT CF card. Windows XP did not allow for me to format it as FAT, either, making this card difficult to work with older devices. Then again, it was an old Kodak 1MP camera.

This is a waste of money for me, since my devices can't really use this card. Instead, I decided to purchase a 2GB CF card.

Conclusion
Sure, CF cards are not considered big and bulky, but if you are a professional photographer, the speed affords you less missed shots. That is really the only real reason why you'd want a fast CF card nowadays.

Another use for this card is to use an EIDE adapter and install your favorite OS on it. Make your PC boot from this card, and you have the perfect storage device for your low-power PC project! It is Ultra DMA compatible, so it won't slow down your booting process.

Make sure your device fully support the FAT32 file system to fully utilize this card, however.