Why Pentax dumped the aging CF card

"tony cooper" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Mar 2010 21:20:36 -0400, "Peter"
wrote:

"tony cooper" wrote in message
. ..
On Sat, 27 Mar 2010 11:53:29 -0400, Alan Browne
wrote:

On 10-03-27 7:19 , Neil Ellwood wrote:

Finally, we heard complains from several photographers about
bended pin issues with CF cards that, considering the main target
usage
of the camera, we wanted to avoid also.

This sounds like advertising speak. The apparent target customers
would
be
advanced and professional photographers who already know how to
handle
CF
cards. Advertising folk never seem to know anything about their
target
audiences.

When some claims are made (bent pin) in advertising, it is a fear tactic
aimed at the inexperienced. I used to have the same concern over CF and
it's turned out to be a non-issue.

Watch advertising (of all kinds) closely and you will see a lot of it
based on selling to people's fears rather than needs.

The GOP is doing quite a bit of that in the US presently.



I strongly suspect Fox is behind it. Even the former moderates Republicans
seem to be afraid to speak out.

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato...-republican-pr

IMHO The Republican party has sold out to Fox, which doesn't care for the
good of our country. It only cares about its advertising revenues.

If anyone cares, you can Google this. Just Google Fox Republican sold.

Most of our friends are conservative Republicans. They're good
people, but we don't share the same political ideologies. Glenn Beck
spoke here in town today, and some couples asked if my wife and I
wanted to go with them. Cheek-biting time.



Many of our friends are liberal Republicans. Compared to them, I am
considered conservative. However, labels are deceiving. I thought it
strange when despite being a registered Democrat, I was contacted by our
Republican party about my possible interest in running for office as a
Republican. I declined after giving it less than 1/2 a second of thought.

The problem is that Glenn Beck and sister Sarah do not really speak for the
good thoughtful conservatives. Their radical, scary ranting attracts the
thoughtless, the ignorant, economically dissatisfied and the selfish who
just vote their immediate pocketbook.


--
Peter

On 2010-03-27 19:43:14 -0700, "Peter" said:


The problem is that Glenn Beck and sister Sarah do not really speak for
the good thoughtful conservatives. Their radical, scary ranting
attracts the thoughtless, the ignorant, economically dissatisfied and
the selfish who just vote their immediate pocketbook.

So you know Bill Graham?

--
Regards,

Savageduck

"Savageduck" wrote in message
news:2010032719490657944-savageduck1@REMOVESPAMmecom...
On 2010-03-27 19:43:14 -0700, "Peter" said:


The problem is that Glenn Beck and sister Sarah do not really speak for
the good thoughtful conservatives. Their radical, scary ranting attracts
the thoughtless, the ignorant, economically dissatisfied and the selfish
who just vote their immediate pocketbook.

So you know Bill Graham?



I left off the wannabees and deluded.


--
Peter

"Peter" wrote in message
...
"tony cooper" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Mar 2010 21:20:36 -0400, "Peter"
wrote:

"tony cooper" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Mar 2010 11:53:29 -0400, Alan Browne
wrote:

On 10-03-27 7:19 , Neil Ellwood wrote:

Finally, we heard complains from several photographers about
bended pin issues with CF cards that, considering the main target
usage
of the camera, we wanted to avoid also.

This sounds like advertising speak. The apparent target customers
would
be
advanced and professional photographers who already know how to
handle
CF
cards. Advertising folk never seem to know anything about their
target
audiences.

When some claims are made (bent pin) in advertising, it is a fear
tactic
aimed at the inexperienced. I used to have the same concern over CF
and
it's turned out to be a non-issue.

Watch advertising (of all kinds) closely and you will see a lot of it
based on selling to people's fears rather than needs.

The GOP is doing quite a bit of that in the US presently.



I strongly suspect Fox is behind it. Even the former moderates
Republicans
seem to be afraid to speak out.

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato...-republican-pr

IMHO The Republican party has sold out to Fox, which doesn't care for the
good of our country. It only cares about its advertising revenues.

If anyone cares, you can Google this. Just Google Fox Republican sold.

Most of our friends are conservative Republicans. They're good
people, but we don't share the same political ideologies. Glenn Beck
spoke here in town today, and some couples asked if my wife and I
wanted to go with them. Cheek-biting time.



Many of our friends are liberal Republicans. Compared to them, I am
considered conservative. However, labels are deceiving. I thought it
strange when despite being a registered Democrat, I was contacted by our
Republican party about my possible interest in running for office as a
Republican. I declined after giving it less than 1/2 a second of thought.

The problem is that Glenn Beck and sister Sarah do not really speak for
the good thoughtful conservatives. Their radical, scary ranting attracts
the thoughtless, the ignorant, economically dissatisfied and the selfish
who just vote their immediate pocketbook.


--
Peter

As a lifelong Republican, I'm considering options. I don't believe that the
party will come back my way any time soon, and they seem to be drifting
further off to the land of Fringe. I am not a Democrat, and Independent
seems flatulent to me (and would also take me out of voting in the primaries
here). I feel abandoned.

BUT, getting back to the topic, it seems as though I should be stocking up
on CF cards now, as they are being left behind (as all aging tech does). Two
of my cameras, including my not-so-old 50d, take CF cards, while my ancient
S3 IS uses SD. But I can see the writing on the wall.

The one format I don't care for at all is the micro-SD. My fingers don't
like handling (or trying to handle) something so small.

Still... I sit here looking at my USB flash drive (less than 1" wide and
holding 4 gigabytes of data), look at my micro-SD card in my cellphone (also
4gb), and consider how far things have come in so short a time. I would
never have believed that anything smaller than a matchbook could hold
anything more than 256MB, and it now looks like a single matchhead can store
considerably more.

As someone pointed out, the only limiting factor in the size of removable
storage is the human hand. CF cards are great, and I wish they'd stick
around forever, but that's just not the case. After all, LPs were great,
too, until I heard my first CD...

dwight

On Sun, 28 Mar 2010 05:57:18 +1000, Doug Jewell
wrote:

It seemed that almost every week, we'd have customers (often
professionals) bringing in high-end Nikons and Canons with
bent pins. Neither Nikon or Canon would fix them under
warranty, average repair bill for a Canon was about $300 and
about $500 for a Nikon.

[snip]

Interesting...my personal experience is exactly the opposite. I always
worried about bending a pin. But in over 11 years of CF usage, I have
NEVER had a SINGLE bent pin.

Still, it is nice to get the pins out of the way with the SD cards, but
I will be left with a personal inventory of about 72-gigabytes of CF
cards! :-)

Gary

On 10-03-27 19:39 , Robert Sneddon wrote:
In messageuYSdnd8n8sgu8zPWnZ2dnUVZ_uCdnZ2d@giganews. com, Alan Browne
writes

A woman I know did it to her D70 and it cost $2-300. I've not heard of
anyone else doing this (I know a lot of photographers).

Sony implemented a cover over the pins that only retracts if the card
is inserted properly. Tabs on each side need to engage so that the
cover retracts. (a900). If you put the card in sideways, the cover
cannot retract.

What happens if the cover mechanism breaks or gets out of alignment? I
suspect that pushing a CF card into the socket really hard the wrong way
round would break it. It's quite small and fiddly, built down to a cost
and it adds something extra to go wrong which can prevent the camera
from working when you really need it to.

Well first off Sony have addressed the issue a degree further than
others. Secondly, anyone with common sense would not force something so
hard that it breaks the metal mechanism protecting the pins. If they
do, then I'd blame them for stupidity.



That's an engineering solution to a CF card weakness.

There's a whole raft of engineering reasons that CF is being overtaken
by SD cards as the preferred data storage format for all types of
devices, not just cameras.

One minor reason is the physical size of the SD and the mini and micro
form SD cards. Space in camera bodies is at a premium and an SD card
socket takes up less physical space than the CF card socket does.

Seems to be ample room for a CF card (sometimes 2) in DSLR's. Isn't a
real issue at all. CF also seems to the be the lead in capacity and
speed as well. With 24 Mpix cameras this is important.


Another reason is that the SDHC holder with nine wiping contacts is
cheaper to make and more reliable than a CF card holder with its 50
individual pins all of which have to remain in perfect alignment for the

We don't need a lecture on the why - we're very cognizant.

tedious stuff snipped

--
gmail originated posts are filtered due to spam.

On 10-03-28 7:40 , Alfred Molon wrote:
In article6OudnXkuxo5ktDPWnZ2dnUVZ_oednZ2d@giganews. com,
says...
Watch advertising (of all kinds) closely and you will see a lot of it
based on selling to people's fears rather than needs.

I have a card reader here which won't take CF cards anymore because of
bent pins. Granted it was a cheap card reader, but I couldn't manage to
solve the problems.

In any case, if you think a bit about it, it is insane that a memory
card has so many pins. And everything is moving to serial interfaces
these days - the printer port on computers which used to be parallel has
been replaced by USB, PATA has been replaced by SATA etc.

Yes, the trend is set, but it's driven by small appliances (P&S cameras,
small video cameras, and so on).

I too have a "cheap" card reader - and I'm extra careful when inserting
my CF's into it.

DSLR's (most) have ample room for a CF card slot. CF cards have more
physical room in them for more memory devices (which is why they
typically lead the capacity numbers).

With 24 Mpix cameras, shooting raw (and sometimes both raw and JPG) the
need for higher capacity is clear enough.

I'm not resisting the demise of CF, I'm just not all that worried about
the pins issue - one simply needs to treat it with a modicum of respect.

As I've mentioned, in the a900/850 Sony have even put in a simple metal
door mechanism deep in the CF card well that covers the pins until the
card is near the bottom where small tabs at each edge engage only when
the card is properly inserted. Whatever risk of damaging the pins has
been reduced manyfold.

My camera also has MemoryStick slot, so maybe I'll buy a 32 or even a 64
GB card for that if such comes out; add a 64 GB CF and carry a 32 and 8
GB card as spares and I'd have about enough memory for a 2 week
vacation, even shooting raw.

--
gmail originated posts are filtered due to spam.

Kennedy McEwen wrote:
In article , Alan Browne
writes
On 10-03-27 15:54 , Allen wrote:

Predates M$ by many years. I first heard it before there was such a
thing as M$, applied to IBM's tactics in warning people away from third
party peripherals, but it might go back much further.

Probably on Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Written on a wall in Thebes:
"Those Israelite slaves will drown you in the Red Sea before you can use
your pyramid - only use authorised Philistine slaves for your pyramidal
needs to be sure Anubis protects you in the afterlife."

Excellent translation!

--
John McWilliams

On 10-03-27 21:23 , Kennedy McEwen wrote:
In article , Alan Browne
writes
On 10-03-27 15:54 , Allen wrote:

Predates M$ by many years. I first heard it before there was such a
thing as M$, applied to IBM's tactics in warning people away from third
party peripherals, but it might go back much further.

Probably on Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Written on a wall in Thebes:
"Those Israelite slaves will drown you in the Red Sea before you can use
your pyramid - only use authorised Philistine slaves for your pyramidal
needs to be sure Anubis protects you in the afterlife."

And "Do not cast pearls before swine - cast them into thine wine for
better digestion."

--
gmail originated posts are filtered due to spam.

"Alan Browne" wrote in message
...
On 10-03-27 14:15 , Pete D wrote:
"Alan wrote in message
...
On 10-03-27 7:19 , Neil Ellwood wrote:

Finally, we heard complains from several photographers about
bended pin issues with CF cards that, considering the main target
usage
of the camera, we wanted to avoid also.

This sounds like advertising speak. The apparent target customers would
be
advanced and professional photographers who already know how to handle
CF
cards. Advertising folk never seem to know anything about their target
audiences.

When some claims are made (bent pin) in advertising, it is a fear tactic
aimed at the inexperienced. I used to have the same concern over CF and
it's turned out to be a non-issue.

Watch advertising (of all kinds) closely and you will see a lot of it
based on selling to people's fears rather than needs.



LOL, no it is probably because some people have bent pins, just like lots
of
people lose SD cards because they are so small, personally I have never
done
either one.

I know precisely one person who has bent their pins on a D70.

Further, on some devices (incl. my a900) it is impossible to insert the
card except the right way. (card edges have to engage tabs on each side
of the slot to uncover the pins).

But, you can be sure that this bit of advertising is aimed at the fear-of
more than the reality.

I have also seen a couple of D70's with bent pins, the D70 I expect is a
slightly under engineered design.