Xd has the controller in the card, so the camera does not need to have any
firmware info about it.
----------------------------------------------------
John Hermanson www.zuiko.com
mail: omtech@xxxxxxxxx
Camtech, Olympus Sales & Service since 1977
21 South Lane, Huntington NY 11743-4714
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----------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck Norcutt" <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Olympus mail list" <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2003 6:48 PM
Subject: Re: [OM] Smartmedia - was A quick E-1 poll
> John H said:
> Newer Olympus cameras (like the 5050) have SM and xD slots, NO CF.
> Though isn't SM limited to 128M due to thickness? Or wouldn't we have
> seen a 256M SM by now?
> ---------------------------------------------
> Both SM and CF cards think they are ATA disk drives. The principal
> difference between an SM card and a CF card is that the CF card does
> actually "think". An SM card is simply a logical drive mechanism. The
> CF card also contains its own controller.
>
> With an SM card the controller resides in the camera. If the controller
> in the camera was designed for, say up to 64 MB media, that camera will
> never be able to use larger media.
>
> With a CF card the camera doesn't need to know anything about the inner
> workings of the drive since the controller is within the drive. There
> may be some hiccups in the range where certain magic numbers (like 4 GB)
> come into play but, for the most part, cameras which acccept CF cards
> should be able to keep moving up on storage size as the cards get larger.
>
> The moral of this story is not to buy any camera that only understands
> SM. I don't know much about XD other than it looks like too small, too
> slow, proprietary technology with no advantage over its competition.
> Oh, I forgot, they're smaller so we can lose them easier.
>
> Wish I knew what's wrong to cause the 64 MB format compatibility
> problem. I thought at first that the camera might be using a 12-bit FAT
> (ala floppy disk) and non-standard 16 KB cluster size to reach 64 MB
> whereas Windoze would choose a 16-bit FAT and 4 KB cluster size. If
> that were true though I don't think Windoze could read the camera's
> format just as the camera seems unable to recognize the Windoze format.
>
> These kinds of stories are not uncommon though and any of us using
> digital storage media should probably understand what's going on. The
> answer is undoubtedly out there in the ether somewhere and I will report
> back if I find out what it is. Anyone got the definitive answer already?
>
> Chuck Norcutt
> Woburn, Massachusetts, USA
>
>
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