Altec Lansing Compact Flash CF 80 80 MB

Advantages: Small, handy size, good for a few photos, or important data
Disadvantages: Low capacity for modern cameras

...CF cards have to be one of the most boring things to write about, and they are all much of a muchness in terms of manufacturing quality and durability, so I'll be brief. Altec have a good reputation, as far as I am aware, for products like these - and of the dozen or so of the memory cards I have, none have had any problems. An 8MB card will hold approx 8 hi-res photos from a decent digital camera. This is obviously not a lot, but if you were doing portraits of people, or a few quick shots of certain places, keeping them on distinct cards could have its advantages. Furthermore, just because you mostly see these being used by cameras, doesn't mean you can't use them for other things. I carry some important data - encryption keys, email address books, and important documents on one. You can use readily available (and cheap... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Price, Capacity
Disadvantages: Reliability, Speed

...The massive success of digital cameras has driven demand for bigger and better portable storage formats and Compact Flash is just one of a number of portable, removable digital storage media available. While it is undoubtedly compact, it is certainly not the smallest format available, XD, SD and SmartMedia are all physically smaller devices. It's at this point that it's worth mentioning that there are two types of Compact Flash named, imaginatively, Type I and Type II. The only real difference is in their thickness, with Type I cards measuring 3.3mm thick and type II cards measuring 4mm. What this means is that a Type I card will work in a Type II compatible deice, but not the other way round, simply because a Type II card will not physically fit in a Type I slot. The big benefit of Compact Flash is not the physical size, it... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: You Will Never Lose It & It IsCheap
Disadvantages: Extremely Big & Extremely Slow

...I have an Archos AV420, and I needed some extra memory. It has an external Compact Flash (CF) slot, so I bought a 1GB CF card for £14.99 from a website that I found on google. This may be cheap, but I would not have bought this format if I could have bought anything else. I have found some problems with the card. Firstly, the card is extremely big. This meant that I had to buy an extra external card reader, because my normal one couldn't accommodate the size. Luckily it came with a carry case because the card caboodle that I have was not big enough. So I now have to carry it around it another card holder which is a bit of a pain. It is roughly double the size of an MMC card, and nearly twice the thickness. Secondly, it is painfully slow when transferring any sort of data from you PC to the card. I have Lost on my PC, and I... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful