5GB Hard Disk On A PCMCIA Type II Card

chopkins1 writes: "Toshiba has managed to squeeze 5GB of storage space into a PCMCIA Type II SAN disk. I'll take this over a Sony Memory Stick any day. Faster storage and faster copy to and from a computer. Considering that I'm about to get a camcorder that supports both, I think my decision is made (128M Memory Stick for $240US or Toshiba 5G for $400US), I'm going for the Type II card." As the article points out, that's more than typical DVD.

Comments

5GB in a camcorder card slot? Why?

[hatless]

I hope you don't think the card slot on your camcorder is for recording video. Unless you're getting a new camcorder Sony hasn't announced yet, those Memory Stick and PC Card slots are both for storing still images. Lousy, low-res ones.

Even the $2500 Sony camcorders max out at 640x480 for stills, which look nice on a computer screen or a TV, but they won't make for anything bigger than a so-so 3"x5" print640x480 digital still cameas sell for $70 these days. And on a 128MB card or Memory Stick, you can fit about 1300 images at that resolution. Isn't that enough?

There are camcorders now out there that can do 1280x960 still images, but I don't think Sony makes one, and in any case, that's still bottom-of-the-line by digital still-camera standards these days. Remember: digital video cameras are terrible still cameras, and digital still cameras are terrible video cameras.

If you could dump video to the PC Card slot in the camcorder the 5GB drive would be nice for that. But you can't.

On the other hand, if you have one of those new Nikon D-1x or Kodak 760 3000x2000 resolution still cameras ($4000 or $7000, respectively, without a lens, flash or AC adaptor), something like this is good indeed, since the raw, lossless images take up about 18MB each. A 5GB card would hold a couple hundred such images, or a couple thousand minimal-loss JPEGs. That's pretty nice. A 5GB device would even be good for the "3 megapixel" 2000x1500 class of cameras, with plenty of room for a month or more of heavy shooting. But for the 640x480 images camcorders put out?

Caching?

[artdodge]

For most media devices, a "serious built-in cache" won't have much effect, since cache is only useful when you're re-reading/re-writing the same (relatively small) regions over and over, and that's not the standard access pattern for most digital media devices.

Repeat after me: caching is not a panacea.

Re:Previous Article

[Drakino]

This is a Type II PCMCIA card, and the PDA had a Type II CF slot. There are converters, but as it stands, the iPaq with PCMCIA sleeve is one of the few PDAs that can use this card.

RoadPr0n!

[grub]

I've been holding out on buying a hand held unit until I would be able to bring some pr0n with me on the road.

Thanks Toshiba!

:)

Reliability will be one of the key questions

[fetta]

I have a Casio digital camera and use a 340 Meg IBM Microdrive in it, and its great to have that kind of capacity. The problem has been reliability - I've already had to have it replaced under warranty once after only a few months of use under gentle conditions.

The article talks about carrying these new drives around "in a shirt pocket," but I'd like to see some data on reliability before spending too much money on one.

Having said that, I still want one :-)

Oh they're in trouble now!

[Docrates]

Didn't IBM patent the concept of large hard drive space in small packages?

Toshiba is in deep shite now!

First Generation Tech ?

[q-soe]

Now this is an intersting development and worth a look, my only questions (which the article doesnt mention) are simple.

How hot does it run (PC Card slots are notoriously cooling innefficient ?
How Noisy (maybe silent but worth asking) ?
How Reliable (MTBF Rating or similar) ?
How Robust (Shockproof) ?
What drivers are required (if the device is driver independant or self installing on Win then that makes it an ideal presentation storage device, simply plug in an off you go)?

I cant seem to find this info around the web - then again maybe im blind so if someone finds it can they post it ? this is the sort of info i would use before making a purchase - and this device is something i would use and at a low enought cost (us$400 UNIT is AU$800 (rough) but thats launch and for around AU400-500 this would serve a usefull purpose for road warriors).

COol piece of tech really - cant wait to see one