Steve wrote:
I have a 2GB mini SD card for my mobile phone that would be handy as
temporary storage with other devices I use. How reliable are the
full-size SD-carrier/adapters that would allow me to use it
occasionally in my camera or as data backup for my laptop while out
and about? Has anyone had a failure with such a combination?

I've used the adapter and card for data and photos for years with no
loss of data due to the adapter. The adapter is just a signal
pass-through with no electronics:
http://www.camerahacker.com/Digital/..._Adapter.shtml

In other words, are the contacts reliable after repeated insertion of
the card in the carrier/adapter? With the plummeting price of flash
memory is it false economy to share cards between consumer products?
Another £25 or so against losing an unrepeatable photo opportunity is
probably trivial - yes?

It is probably a false economy if you never have to share a single card
with two or more devices. If you have two mobile devices that must
share data, then you don't have much choice.

As a supplementary, I recently bought a USB card reader rather than
download pictures using the camera's (slower) USB umbilical interface.
Is there a conclusive opinion on the robustness of reconnecting a mini
USB cable to a camera rather than removing from, and re-inserting the
SD card into the camera? It just strikes me that cables and sockets
have better mechanical design than cards and card slots - and that the
cable, if damaged, would be far simpler and cheaper to replace.

I have tens of cards and several digital cameras, mobile devices, and
computers. I have seen no failure with cables and card slots. I insert
and remove cards all the time. I do have a few cards that just plainly
died. So I've developed a philosophy to store photos and data on
multiple cards, not just a single card:
http://www.camerahacker.com/Digital/Eggs.shtml

Chieh