Olympus E410 / E510

[taxmantoo]

Does anyone have experience with CF cards in either the Olympus E410 or E510 instead of the recommended XD cards?

Is a 2GB CF card better than a 2GB XD card?

Which CF card would work better with Olympus? Are 8GB CF cards such as SanDisk Ultra II a good alternative to several 2GB XD cards?

[pierces]

I did some research and turned up very little on xD card speed. Olympus's site rates type H at 3x as fast as type M depending on what camera you have, but gives no indication as to the speed of type M in MB/sec. Another source stated that xD-H cards write at 3MB/sec and read at 5 MB/sec. This is about the same as a standard CF card. Sandisk Ultra II cards read/write at 10 MB/sec while the Extreme III and Extreme IV cards read/write at 20 and 40 MB/sec respectively. A lot of CF cards rate their speed in X numbers with 66x equalling about 10 MB/sec, 133x equalling about 20 MB/sec, etc.

 

Someone did a fairly exhaustive comparison and found that since the E-510 cannot take advantage of the highest read/write speeds available, the new xD-H cards write nearly as fast as CF in the e-510 while the normal xD are three times slower. Chart is here: http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/c5050/c5050-card.html

 

There is another fact to consider. Since the xD cards do not have a controller built in, there can be compatibility issues when newer versions come out. I would assume that the E-510 will handle type H, but check you manual.

 

Hope that was helpful.

 

Dave

[chipmaster]

Does anyone have experience with CF cards in either the Olympus E410 or E510 instead of the recommended XD cards?

Is a 2GB CF card better than a 2GB XD card?

Which CF card would work better with Olympus? Are 8GB CF cards such as SanDisk Ultra II a good alternative to several 2GB XD cards?

 

 

XD is a smaller niche format compared to SD and CF. I've always been surprised at Olympus dedication to this format, kind of like Sony to Memory stick.

 

I think I would always go with CF. There are multiple vendors and some very high performance CF cards out there. I find it interesting they didn't even test XD cards :eek:

 

Here is a link to review of performance of the E410 tith CF:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/OlympusE410/page11.asp

[taxmantoo]

Thank you very much...exactly what I was looking for...

[taxmantoo]

...before I head out to the store.

 

The E-410 specifications mention CF Type I or Type II as being compatible with the camera.

 

The tests for the E-410 refered to by chipmaster actually tested Type Extreme IV and Extreme III cards which I assume to be more recent and perfected versions. Is it just that these cards were made available after the specs were written or should I really not buy anything but a Type I or II?

 

Thanks again !

[pierces]

Type I or II refers to the physical dimensions. Type II is a little thicker. The E-410 will use any current CF card.

 

Dave

[Drifting Away]

I just purchased the E-510. Before I did I emailed Olypus to find out why the two chips and if the camera needed both to operate. Their response was the xd is mainly used for the panoramic shots. They also recommended the Extreme III cf for read/write speed. The other advantage was that when one fills up the camera automatically switches to the other chip.

My friend has the 410 and also uses both chips. She has the cf Ultra II in hers.

There is some difference in the cf speeds but nothing that noticable.

Happy shooting.

[pierces]

 

a. Their response was the xd is mainly used for the panoramic shots.

 

b. The other advantage was that when one fills up the camera automatically switches to the other chip.

 

Did they elaborate on "a"? The panorama stitching function only works on Olympus branded XD cards since it contains the software in system area of the card's file structure. Unless you buy an Olympus card...no panorama function! Just an FYI.

 

"b" is a nice feature, especially if you are using smaller capacity cards for a long day of shooting.

 

Dave

[MeadMkr]

Does anyone have experience with CF cards in either the Olympus E410 or E510 instead of the recommended XD cards?

Is a 2GB CF card better than a 2GB XD card?

Which CF card would work better with Olympus? Are 8GB CF cards such as SanDisk Ultra II a good alternative to several 2GB XD cards?

 

Unless you have other cameras that use xD cards I'd say buy 1 xD and multiple CF cards.

 

There are lots of discussions on big card vrs several smaller cards. It all boils down to personal preference and time of purchase. I've been shooting a pair of Oly E300's for several years and have collected a variety of 1-4gb Sandisk II/III cards. Size was a factor more of when I bought them, mostly on sale or when I needed more capacity. For best performance/speed CF is better than xD. I _always_ carry 2 cards so that if something were to happen to one I can still shoot. The 2nd slot is a nice option to switch over to even if the xD is slower! Sandisk updated the speeds of their cards last year and the older cards were heavily discounted. There is also a surplus of flash memory so many manufactures aren't discounting their cards but rather increasing the size for the same price. As long as you keep to a 66x or higher brand-name card its hard to go wrong (don't buy via ebay!). Don't forget to have a spare battery for your camera as well!

 

Cheers,

Chris in VA