What's The Biggest CF I Can Use For My SIGMA SD-9?

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On Mon, 2 May 2005 01:33:20 -0700, Logan Spitznauer wrote:

> I've seen some CF's advertised saying to make sure your camera can handle
> FAT32. Can't find anything in the SD-9's owner's manual about this. Anyone
> know? I want to get the HITACHI Pexagon MD4GBBP 4GB MicroDrive 3K4.

The SD9 can handle only FAT16, so the *theoretical* limit is 2GB. However I
can confirm from personal experience that the SD9 works correctly with
non-standard cluster sizes, and will utilise all of a 4GB CF that has been
formatted FAT16 (with non standard cluster size) on a WinXP PC. The SD9 will
not be able to format the microdrive itself but it will work perfectly
otherwise. I used a Hitachi 4GB microdrive in my SD9 (when I had it) with no
problems at all.

--
John Bean

Great spirits often meet violent opposition with mediocre minds (Albert
Einstein)

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Mon, 2 May 2005 16:58:02 +0300, Dimitrios Tzortzakakis wrote:

> Don't you think that 4 GB is an overkill?Even my 128 MB SD is too much for
> me, I don't think that even in a holiday I will be able to fill it, as my
> rate is 1/10 (I take 10 pictures and keep 1).For you 21st century guys 1 GB
> seems something natural, but for me,been a teenager in the '80s, 128 MB in
> the size of a stamp and almost as thin seems a miracle.

Well, apart from the fact that your SD card wouldn't fit the Sigma SD9, even
if it did you'd get about 16 images on it... 4GB isn't unreasonable,
speaking as one who was a teenager when JFK was still around ;-)

--
John Bean

To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer (Farmers'
Almanac)

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

JFK is still around, I flew in there last month. )

> 4GB isn't unreasonable,
> speaking as one who was a teenager when JFK was still around ;-)

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On Mon, 2 May 2005 08:06:38 -0700, Logan Spitznauer wrote:

> So if I understand you correctly, if I format the CF on my computer, a 4GB
> should work, but not if I format it via the camera?

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying, but you must have Windows XP to do it.
The microdrive will come formatted FAT32 and the camera won't even recognise
it, but once formatted to FAT16 on the PC the SD9 can - and does - use the
existing format, even the very non-standard one that WinXP does on devices
bigger than 2GB, but it still can't format it.

XP allows you to specify FAT16 with "default" cluster size even on devices
bigger than 2GB. When you do this it bends the rules and allocates a
non-standard cluster size to make the 4GB fit within the address space of
FAT16. The Sigma SD-9 reads the actual parameters from the disk and uses
this format correctly, unlike many cameras which simply assume a "standard"
format without checking. I no longer have the camera but I seem to remember
the camera indicated about 650 when a blank 4GB microdrive was inserted -
the very large cluster size isn't very efficient, there's a certain amount
of "slack" space on the disk so you don't get quite as many images compared
with (say) 4x1GB cards. I had no problems whatsoever with the combination
though.

--
John Bean

Times fun when you're having flies (Kermit the Frog)