MS Pro slot nonsense

[Javelin]

HEH! Hell will freeze over for sure if a whole Sony Camera lands in your bag !

Cars have little to do with cameras!
I think we have enough formats as is I know hell will freeze over before a sony format card is in my bag

[bakubo]

Much as I would love an A700 I feel a bit of resistance because I'd have to buy a MS to be safe... It just grates.

Why would you need to buy an MS? I have had an A700 for 8 months and don't have an MS. I use CF. Having said that, I don't have anything against MS and for a long time I have been thinking I would buy one to put in the slot. Apparently, you have heard some bad info though. The A700 works fine even if you don't have an MS in the slot.

[KevinBarrett]

Sony a900

Once again Sony has included that professional photography essential, the Memory Stick Duo slot (in addition to the arguably more useful CompactFlash slot). This vestigial slot will undoubtedly appeal to PSP touting hipsters prepared to pay over the odds for a proprietary memory format, but for the rest of us it's doomed to remain a small, narrow place to keep dust.

They sell little plugs for that small narrow place at most every electronics retailer, plugs that hold pictures. I have noticed, however, that DPReview has cleaned up this little insult. I'd say "kudos for doing the right thing," but the right thing would have been not to publish the first version.

Either I missed something and it was never changed, or else the goofs at DPReview changed it back. The offending remarks are here under "Dual Storage Formats." I take back all those kudos I didn't give them before!

[bfitzgerald]

The only issue with SD is the SDHC one, and that was unfortunate. Some card readers will not read the higher capacity cards, though I have one on the pc that won't, I have an external that will. I could update my internal reader, but not much point really..as I mostly use non SDHC cards anyway. Most card readers should now support SDHC, and that includes laptops, all the recent ones I have used or tried do not have problems.


Javelin, I have no beef with sony, if I felt that way I would have dumped my entire gear on ebay and bought something else. I do have a beef with sony restricting the use of 3rd part batteries, I have a number of those for my 5d, all work just great. So that is one reason I have not jumped on a sony DSLR of late. And I am fussy..so the A100 I passed on, I felt the high ISO was not up to par, and flash exposures seemed problematic..A700 had the bionz raw, which is now gone, I may check that out next year. A300/350 I have no interest in LV, so those models are not much interest to me, A200 I had a hands on, and came away somewhat unimpressed, though there are some nice things about it, I felt the handling and removal of some features was a shame, but it is cheap, just not sure it's the right one for me. So the lithium battery beef, is based around sony locking people into their own brand of battery, even getting a grip won't help, as sony don't want to let you use AA's. I think they deserve some stick for that.

Onto MS, no you don't have to use them fair enough. And I believe the fact Sony do not put MS as the only card option into their lower end models, shows that they know it's more a liability, than a great card format. Fact remains, MS is limited to sony only products, sure they fit many things like printers and readers etc. But if you have a house full of non sony stuff, you won't find much additional use for them. David might not like SD, but they fit just about everything in the world, and not just one brand.

[David Kilpatrick]

Your right there are too many formats. and it sure looks like CF is going to be the first casualty.. or second behind Xd .. then what are you going to do? only buy cameras based on SD cards ?

I'd probably buy a Nikon.

Nikon split their DSLR into CF card and SD card models, just as Canon has done. As a camera reviewer, I find it frustrating - I had to buy my first large SD cards purely to be able to test a couple of cameras which had changed from CF to SD. Also, I could not compare write speeds with the earlier models (as these are always card-dependent). Nikon and Canon users are not that happy; many own CF card models like the D70 or the 30D, and then find that a new additional or replacement body like the D90 or 450D uses SD cards instead.

Sony has, at least, made all its DSLRs compatible with CF cards as were all KM DSLRs and all Minolta Dimage 7/A models. Minolta kept the A1/A2 battery type for the 7D and 5D; Sony have kept essentially one battery type, though in the A100 they clearly ended up with a transitional battery - the current type fits all, from A100 to A900, and the battery chargers from A100 onwards are all the same. Also, Sony has been very good to owners on the software front compared to say Nikon and Fuji (Canon has also been OK). Buyers of the Nikon D700 as a second camera to the D3 were pretty amazed to find that they had to buy a uprgrade to their already-expensive Capture NX program just to process the files - Nikon did not offer a free upgrade, made the D700 files incompatible with D3 'NX', and used the launch to secure more upgrade buyers to NX2.

So far, Sony has provided IDC3 free to all owners even allowing upgrades without a new camera purchase, and has given away its tethered shooting software (where applicable) instead of charging for it. Overall, their approach to consistency (card, battery type) and providing value for owners is worth remembering when weighing up reasons to dislike Sony!

David

[bfitzgerald]

That is a fair point, I never understood why Canon and Nikon moved to SD for the lower end cameras, better off to just stick to CF for all of them. As it is, users of previous cameras will find themselves using 2 formats, and not being able to interchange cards. Course in 10 years it won't matter, but still. I let Pentax/Samsung off though, as they are just SD through the range.

Back to the battery thing, I for the life of me have no idea why there are apparently still no 3rd party batteries around, that is the only issue I have with that.

[Javelin]

There are some counterfeit batteries out for the Sony. the only reason they were discovered is they expanded with heat inside the bodies and had to be mechanically removed. until this happened and were compared to the originals the users had no idea they had a copy. Considering the damage involved with bad Li-Ion batteries I can certainly see why Sony won't allow 3rd party options. Sony themselves had to recall millions of laptop batteries because of contamination in the manufacturing process caused them to rapidly discharge and cause a great deal of heat which ruptured adjacent cells and ruined whatever they were in. Prior to that there was only scant evidence that this could happen so people weren't really beleiving it. Also lithium is pretty poisonous

[David Kilpatrick]

That is a fair point, I never understood why Canon and Nikon moved to SD for the lower end cameras, better off to just stick to CF for all of them. As it is, users of previous cameras will find themselves using 2 formats, and not being able to interchange cards. Course in 10 years it won't matter, but still. I let Pentax/Samsung off though, as they are just SD through the range.

Back to the battery thing, I for the life of me have no idea why there are apparently still no 3rd party batteries around, that is the only issue I have with that.

The intelligent 'Stamina' lithions which report the exact percentage are pretty useful, even though the technology prevents third party clones being made cheaply. I bought third party batteries for my D7D/D5D etc. Now, with still a few originals and a few third party left, the third party ones are almost useless while the originals are holding a decent charge. No doubt I should replace them all at intervals. The third party ones were nearly as good as Minolta originals when bought, but clearly do not have the same life. So far all my Sony 'Stamina' cells are proving good, can't tell any difference between the latest ones and those from Sept 07.

David

[bfitzgerald]

There is a difference between "counterfeit" and "3rd party"
The ist is to make a fake and sell it at the same price, passing it off as the "real thing". 3rd party means compatible, not attempting to mislead buyers into thinking it's the original makers product, but an alternative one.
I have a number of 3rd party ones for the 5d, and after over 2 years, yes, I agree the original KM one is better, but the 3rd party ones seem to still hold a decent charge...not a huge difference in it..and they are far from useless. But I suspect quality will vary of course, I picked a better source, not the cheapest I could get hold of.

[David Kilpatrick]

There is a difference between "counterfeit" and "3rd party"
The ist is to make a fake and sell it at the same price, passing it off as the "real thing". 3rd party means compatible, not attempting to mislead buyers into thinking it's the original makers product, but an alternative one.

I don't think I have ever bought a counterfeit battery. Delkin and others have provided them - even Jessop. The Hong Kong sourced cheap ones have been just as good as the other third party ones and test out exactly the same on a meter, and charge in the same time, and do not show any signs of excess heating - etc. But they do not last as long even when new as the original Konica Minolta expensive NP-400s (I reckon the best of them yielded about 80% of the shooting time) and they simply have not lasted as well. I even have some KM cells sent to by someone, with no knowledge of their age or history, which are impossible to tell from any others.

The third party batteries I bought cost between £6 and £20 when the KM batteries were generally around £40. I have one Sony replacement - not a counterfeit in any way - which claims slightly higher capacity than the Sony NP-FM55H for the Alpha 100, but in practice runs down a little faster.

If someone did produce some InfoLithium 'Stamina' compatible batteries, I'd probably buy a couple, because even a slightly inferior battery is better than running out of power.

The one thing which annoys me about the Sony DSLRS versus the KM DSLRs is the change from a generic coaxial power input for external DC batts, to a dedicated connector. My useful emergency battery packs like PowerRunner or my Quantum Turbo - for which I bought a cable to use with the D7D - are now useless, as I've not yet found adaptors or cables for the Alpha DC input.

David

[Dr. Harout]

Just 2 questions for all:
1- do you have a USB flash stick (or whatever it is called) in your pockets (the capacity doesn't matter)?
2- is there an adapter for MS to that USB thing, which putting/fitting inside, you can just plug to the PC (I am not talking about those universal card readers, just a small one for MS)?

(to be continued)

[Gianluca]

Just 2 questions for all:
1- do you have a USB flash stick (or whatever it is called) in your pockets (the capacity doesn't matter)?
2- is there an adapter for MS to that USB thing, which putting/fitting inside, you can just plug to the PC (I am not talking about those universal card readers, just a small one for MS)?

(to be continued)

1 - Yes, I have a 8GB usb-pen drive.

2 - Something like this?


No, I don't have MS nor MS-Duo, but after reading this interesting thread I wonder: why not?!

[Javelin]

Hi Doc

I carry one. theres data I need at unexpected times and it's the best solution. There was a MS adaptor that had a USB plug on it back when the first memory sticks were out. haven't really seen them around since then though. They have an MS reader but it's not something you want to carry in a pocket. Lexar has a nice little one that does MS/SD/XD I didn't buy one when I saw it because it's a type with a removeable cap and I prefer the retractable type. there not expensive. maybe 15-$20.00 if memory serves

[aster]

Hello Dr. Harout,

I didn't buy any of the the Sony micro USB adaptors yet because my HP laptops have slots that acccept Memory Sticks and some other memory cards. Therefore the need never arose. I either use my USB cable connection to the camera or insert the MS into the appropriate slot and all runs perfectly.

But here are the adaptors that Sony provides and I can buy in Istanbul,Turkey :



and

[Dr. Harout]

Thanks for the replies.
So here goes part 2 of the questions:
1- would it be convenient to have in your pocket such a USB-MS pen drive dual purpose and just in case of need copy your camera pictures on it and continue with your work. Remember you might be somewhere finding only PC with no other possibilities.

I apologize if I begun with questions, but here's where I'm getting at:
If the answer for the aforementioned is yes, then the title of this thread is not right, and we ought to change it or rephrase it to: "MS PRO SLOT NONSENSE?" (just adding a question mark).
So after all, MS is not nonsense, as I see it and IMHO. Just my 0.2 drams

Oh, and that is just one of the aspects...