Remember when memory cost an arm and a leg?

[xpatUSA]

Maybe like me you still listen to 'records'? . . . sourcing a new Audio Technica AT-33Sa Cartridge, is fun.

WW

No, Bill, all my records stayed in UK along with the Garrard AP76 "turntable" with an elliptical diamond stylus.

Classic immigrant, me -a couple of suitcases and about 40 bucks in cash ...

[DanK]

CF cards are more expensive than SD cards, but they certainly aren’t hard to find, at least in the US. Large camera stores stock them.
They aren’t obsolete; some current models still use them.


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[DanK]

That takes me back. My turntable was an AR—belt-driven. My recollection is that the most common cartridge was Shure but that some serious audiophiles bought Ortofons. I’ll have to hunt in my basement and see if I still have the turntable.


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[William W]

CF cards are more expensive than SD cards, but they certainly aren’t hard to find, at least in the US. Large camera stores stock them.

I thought so too, and not limited to the USA... as a result pure curiosity relating to Post #16 got me earlier this morning and I searched "Camera stores in Singapore" - I couldn't find one bricks and mortar store that listed CF Cards on their website.

WW

[William W]

Aside
Dan, et al - when I was a poor student I could just afford a Shure V15: I still have them. I think I got to the MkIII, before moving to Audio Technica, nowadays and that was via Ortofon.
We still 'listen to records', we have a few turntables: all are required because I have collections of both 78 rpm and 16⅔rpm discs. The most used turntable is a Technics Direct Drive (45 and 33⅓ only).

[hytam]

1. I see no point in this option: unnecessary to buy 'an adapter' when the 5DMkIII has two slots
2. I see no point in this option: I understand the EOS 5DMkIII has UDMA7 Compact Flash Protocol allowing up to 90MB/sec of write speed with high performance CF cards
Further, I understand the EOS 5DMkIII does not support the faster UHS-1 for SD cards. This means no matter what SD card is used, the 5D MkIII reverts to 20MB/sec.
3. I see this as the option if you need fast speed.
4. If you do not NEED fast write/buffer speed, then buy inexpensive SD Cards.

WW

Thanks for the info. I had no idea that faster speed SD cards are not supported; stupid me

[hytam]

+1 to Bill's comments.

I have never had any issues finding CF cards, but they have always tended to be available only at camera retailers as they tended to be used in higher end cameras, whereas SD cards were always used in consumer cameras. When I check my favourite camera stores, they still stock them.

Obviously online retailers carry them as well, but one study I read a number of years ago suggested the majority of memory cards sold through Amazon or eBay were either counterfeit or were mislabeled (slower read / write speeds).

The other issue with CF is that this format is obsolete and has been replaced by XQD and CF Express formats, which are not compatible with CF slots. The CF Express is an updated XQD card.

Thanks for the info. I made some calls to some camera speciality stores and found that their CF cards were still expensive and now understand that it's because professional photographers or others who can afford the pro level cameras use them hence the high cost. Even the official Canon website list them high. Well looks like I just have to live with it unfortunately. Thanks anyway.

[William W]

Thanks for the info. I had no idea that faster speed SD cards are not supported -

Additionally, as I understand - IF there are two cards being used then, once an SD Card is identified the write speed for both cards defaults to 20MB/sec.

This is was/is a big argument for NOT always using the redundancy of Dual Card Slots for Wedding Photographers: yes many were surprised by this information.

***

BTW - it was assumed that the comment 'stupid me' was humour, but as a comment to that: I think that you are not stupid.

One great piece of learning which was bestowed upon me was -

1. You know all of what you know
2. You know only some of what you don't know
3. It is what you don't know, that you don't know, which will trip you up.

WW

[dje]

Aside

We still 'listen to records', we have a few turntables: all are required because I have collections of both 78 rpm and 16⅔rpm discs. The most used turntable is a Technics Direct Drive (45 and 33⅓ only).

Bill I think you need to get with the times old son. There's this thing called Spotify that all the cool dudes like me are now using. Google it if you haven't heard of it. It requires the internet of course and can be used on Smart Phones and tablets. Then you need to connect it via Bluetooth to a suitable wi-fi enabled amplifier

Dave

[DwightRichardson]

I still remember booting into MSDOS from 5 1/4 floppies... and as for digital cameras... never gonna happen... blender gimp audacity

[xpatUSA]

I still remember booting into MSDOS from 5 1/4 floppies... and as for digital cameras... never gonna happen...

Aaah ... endless "bad command or filename" ... And then along came the Macintosh and WYSIWYG ...

[Manfred M]

I seem to remember 8" floppies that could hold a whole 180K (later upgraded to 360K (180K on each side)) of data that I used on a DEC PDP 11/03 micro computer with a whopping 56K of RAM. The OS resided on one floppy and the second one was for data. That was back in the Fortran and Pascal days.

[Tronhard]

I have enjoyed this thread very much and the perspectives and, as a living fossil, these reminiscences have prompted me to offer my own response.

I started learning about microcomputers back in 1984, when I arrived in Canada and had to do make-up classes to recertify for my engineering. One of them was an introduction to PC's and DOS, another looked at the main apps at the time: WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3 and dBase III. I was hooked, blasted through a diploma in computing and ended up teaching for the college.

As to cameras... both in terms of pricing and capability they are massively changed. When I got serious about photography I was living in NZ and planning my big OE (Overseas Experience) to travel overland around the world (as you do...). Cameras were EXTREMELY expensive due to import duties and and taxes, so I could not afford anything. I bought John Hedgecoe's "Photographers' Handbook" and devoured it for a year before heading to Australia to work in the outback and save up to travel for a year in Asia. When I left NZ, I got a Nikon F3 and Canon A-1, with Tamron Adaptall SP lenses. I the chance to shoot with my new gear for a while before getting a job building a dam in Moe, Gippsland to increase Melbourne's water supply. At the interview, after they confirmed I was hired in my engineering capacity, they asked what I did for fun - considering the construction village was fairly remote. I responded "Photography", of course, whereupon they asked if I would like to add a job as site photographer to my role, and I agreed immediately. On arriving at the site I was taken to a little shed and introduced to my B&W dark room. I had assumed that the images would be taken on transparency or colour film, and thus not be part of the processing. This was a bit of a shock as I had not read that part of the book on developing and printing (knowing transparencies were the medium of choice to sell). Luckily, I had the book with me, so after a number of disasters that decreased I was churning out Monochrome images for their reports and PR stuff... I one more of each of the bodies I already had plus some more gear while I was working and it kept me going for many years.

Fast forwarding to recent times, I was trying to explain to someone why I jumped ship from my Canon gear and bought Nikon Df bodies (two of them, actually). They had just read a particularly ill-informed review of the Df and could not figure out why anyone would not want the latest tech. I referred them to my response to that same article (here, quoted in part):

The intent of the Nikon Df is to re-create, as much as possible, the experience that photographers had when using a film camera. But it recognizes that digital photography has other elements that film did not have and it has tried to deal with those without losing the analogue interface. The experience of using film required a discipline of approach that one does not have to have today and what some regard as shortcomings, I see as a recreation of those conditions, and I'm fine with it. The clues to the Df name lie in its fusion philosophy and are in the whole design ethic.

To respond to common criticisms of the Df:
FIRST: It's a STILL photographers' camera.
That deserves no apology, there are many DSLRs out there that do video just fine. Film SLRs did not take video either.
SECOND: It doesn't have a built-in flash.
Neither did the film cameras until the very end, but it has a perfectly serviceable flash hot shoe with all the capabilities of any Nikon camera built-in.
THIRD: The unit does not have enough focusing points.
It has a lot more that film cameras did and it works fine depending on how one shoots.
FOURTH: There is only one card slot.
Film cameras could only hold one film at a time. In the days of film I could carry only a limited amount of film and that had a finite life in very hot conditions. When I took a photo I would not know if it came out for maybe a month before it was developed. The temptation was to take several bracketing shots, but then there was the limited film capacity to consider. It generated a discipline of being sparing and very careful with my settings and composition. I still do that today with digital and shoot a lot less than my contemporaries who only knew the digital environment.
FIFTH: The controls have lock on them - yep and so did most of the film cameras, it's about learning to get used to them, once you do it's automatic.

This camera is all about taking time to enjoy the process of taking a photo, as well as the final outcome.

In a similar situation my daughter's boyfriend asked about my record turntable and asked why I would still have one of those when an MP3 player was much more efficient. My response was that the process of playing a record became an occasion in its own right and that was a big part of the enjoyment for me - in exactly the same way as taking a photo with the Df does.

Now I face another dilemma: whether to migrate to the new R-series bodies and RF lenses or to stick to my older DSR and EOS M mirrorless gear. I had intended not to change, but the IBIS and tracking of these bodies seems to be amazing, especially since most of the wildlife I can shoot in NZ is birds...

[Chataignier]

I seem to remember 8" floppies that could hold a whole 180K (later upgraded to 360K (180K on each side)) of data that I used on a DEC PDP 11/03 micro computer with a whopping 56K of RAM. The OS resided on one floppy and the second one was for data. That was back in the Fortran and Pascal days.

You had discs ? Such luxury ! My early experiences of computing involved clattering teletypes and punched paper ribbons for loading and outputting data ...and this was for real time supervisory control and data acquisition of industrial process plant.

[xpatUSA]

I have enjoyed this thread very much and the perspectives and, as a living fossil, these reminiscences have prompted me to offer my own response.

I started learning about microcomputers back in 1984, when I arrived in Canada and had to do make-up classes to re-certify for my engineering. One of them was an introduction to PC's and DOS, another looked at the main apps at the time: WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3 and dBase III. <>

As to cameras ...

<> the process of playing a record became an occasion in its own right and that was a big part of the enjoyment for me - in exactly the same way as taking a photo with the Df does.

Now I face another dilemma: whether to migrate to the new R-series bodies and RF lenses or to stick to my older DSR and EOS M mirrorless gear. I had intended not to change, but the IBIS and tracking of these bodies seems to be amazing, especially since most of the wildlife I can shoot in NZ is birds...

I recently went both ways, Trev:

For shots that (for me) need a lot of camera assistance, I bought a high-end micro four-thirds model. Magnified live view, focus peaking, dual stabilization (body and lens), superb EVF, fully articulated LCD, na-ni-na-ni-na.

For masochistic purposes, I recently purchased a new-in-box 17-year old Sigma 3.4MP SD9 house-brick with none of the above. Raw only, anything over 100 ISO a waste of time, and USB 1. The PASM knob rarely moves from the 'M' position and AF comes from a single center point only good for vertically-oriented stuff and that only good down to +2EV with a 50mm f/1.4 lens (like I have one of those, LOL). AE a bit hit and miss, and no spot metering, so I rely on incident light metering with the trusty Sekonic L-398 original -says ASA on it .

[Tronhard]

Hi Ted! Great to catch up.

I concur with your position. I was reading a book by the photographer and writer Tom Ang (who, I discovered, actually lives in Auckland) "Photography, The Definitive Visual History". On one double-page spread was a write up on the Canon EOS D30, the first APS-C digital sensor (and also the first one not to have Kodak internals) camera that came out in late 2000 - so 20 years old as I write. I found a virtually new one and it did an amazing job for a 3MP camera. I got the next unit, the D60 (6MP), and that was a cool unit too. I use both of them from time to time and they are perfectly acceptable for uploading to web pages that downsize the images anyway.

Still, I DO have lustful thoughts about the R6, RF 24-105 f/4 and RF 100-500. Prices are high because it's new and supply is very limited, so it's a sellers' market. I shall wait...

[Tronhard]

The current high expense of the new CF Express cards will probably be a similar topic of conversation in a few years time. While I understand why the did this, Canon killed any interest I might have had in the R5 by having one of these in their camera. Sure, they need it for the 8k video throughput, but since I don't have aspirations to shoot 8k or even video at all for that matter, the R6, with dual SD cards and about 60% the cost is looking much more attractive...