dearest techophiles,

I have a olympus c-50 camedia camera and I am planning to buy a few memory cards for my upcoming summer trips.

I have a 128 and its okay. However, I am thinking that I need another --

would you buy two 256s or one 512? The price isn't the issue here, its having a back up? Am I being paranoid?

Thanks for your help.

lala

One card can break, but with 2 cards you can lose or drop one.

Personlly I've not seen a broken card yet, so going with one would be a pretty safe bet.

However, as with all cards it does help to make regular backups to a pc or the internet...

Get the 2 256mb cards, in case one dies.

I'd also go for two 256 MB cards instead of one 512 MB. You say price isn't an issue, but the 512 MB might be more than two times the price of one 256 MB.

Either way, doesn't matter much.

FewMiles..

I say get the single 512MB card. Use your current 128MB card as a "backup." The real question is whether you are going to actually download the photos from the card regularly or whether you are going to wait until you get home.

I'd go with whichever is cheaper. I haven't had any card problems, and 512MB is not that huge. Now if you were saying two 512MBs vs one 1GB, then maybe I'd say two 512s for sure.

Anyway, your C-50 uses xD Picture Card as I recall, and I don't know if you can yet get one 512MB card for cheaper than two 256MB cards. So I'd simply go with whichever costs less at this point in time.

Do cameras have a software or similar limit regarding memory cards....? I remember having problems with an old Nikon coolpix after buying a larger card made by some other manufacturer. I havent had similar problems with my newer Canon, though.

Possibly it depends on the type of card. I have an old Olympus digital that takes a SmartMedia card, but it can't take a card above 32MB (apparently a different FAT is used on the larger card or something). SmartMedia may be unique in that it depends more on the camera electronics than other memory formats.

The other issue specifically for Olympus is that the Olympus-branded cards have a header in the formatting that enables the panorama function in the camera. Without an Olympus card the function is disabled (well, you can hack the card format, but that's another thread). I think this restriction applies to newer memory formats as well.

I would go with the 512, as long as it isn't much more than 2x the 2x 256MB. As well, most 512 cards run faster than their older 256MB brothers.

I have never lost a card, since it is usually in the camera or the computer. And, in five years never had one die. MAn, I remember the 8MB card that came with my first digital camera. Scary. Now I have 4GB Microdrives and portable 20GB storage devices for archiving while away from a computer!

Good 512's should be had for 80-100$ try searching on fatwallet there is a CF, SD, MD thread for all that stuff, best deals and all. Many people will say, stay away from Sandisk, but I have had pretty good luck,

If you are looking for actual test specs for cards, head over to www.dpreview.com and search their Card Roundup. they test pretty much all of them for write, read and trasfer speed.

A single 512mb card is about the same cost as 2x256mb ones. Since it's going to remain in the camera most of the time you shouldn't have to worry about losing it. Actually I'd say you are more likely to lose one if you have two!

The 512MB xD cards are quite recent.

Your Olympus C-50 needs a firmware upgrade in order to use them, unless it is very new:
http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/popup_xd.asp

Unfortunately, it appears you need to send the camera in for this trivial update, unlike many other brands.

Two 256MB cards may be the easier and more reliable solution.

I personally don't trust those new small form factor cards as much as the older, sturdier CF cards. Had trouble once with an SD card (card no recognized), and so did a friend (corrupted mpeg file). The frustrating thing was that both cards have worked fine since.

I washed and dried an XD card and the pictures were still on it, I don't think you can kill them.

I'd vote for the two cards. Just in case something went wrong, you formatted it by mistake or something like that, then you have the other one.

I am trying to figure out how to download the pictures I take. I am going to Iran, I am not taking a computer and I'm not sure if I will have access to someone's home machine.

Is there a mechanism for downloading your photos onto some storage device while travelling. I do not have an i-pod.

lala

Best thing is a CF or SD PC card adaptor, if you carry a laptop. This will just show up as another DRIVE on the laptop, so just copy and paste. I really don't like the connection software that most cameras have and it requires cables, etc.

Or, get yourself a small storage backup solution, like i/o magic, or the databank devices. Google will get you there.

These are small laptop drive based backup appliances with a battery, and slots for all memory card formats. You just stick you CF card in, or SD card, and it copies the images to a hard drive, 5GB, - 40GB depending on your prefernce and $$.

They can be had for as little as 80$. Nice if you don't want to carry a laptop with you, I carried one to Peru and Machu Pichu last year and it flawlessly stored about 10 GB of photos that I was shooting.

I don't know too much about the technical specs of Ipods. Is that a capability they have?