which type of memory?

[Spanish Fly]

besides size, what is the difference between SD and compact flash for digital slr cameras? i mean why is SD frowned upon by some as oppsed to compact flash?

[Cope]

IMO, the main consideration is what most DSLRs use, and the high end cameras use CF.

[Daniel W.]

(From personal experience), SD is much less durable than CF. I've had SD cards fall apart, snap in half, and it's contacts are exposed. I seem to have more card corruption with cards that have exposed contacts (i.e. SD, XD, and SmartMedia... which I use rarely) than CF. CF cards are mostly metal construction, and other than sometimes pins getting bent, they're pretty durable.

It's also a bit harder to lose a CF card...

[Riff Raff]

CompactFlash has been around for a long time, is durable, and seems to have almost limitless possibilities as far as capacity. I have 512MB CompactFlash cards from about four years ago that I can still use in a pinch, as well as the 16GB card I just got. I believe a 48GB card was introduced recently (primarily intended for video cameras at this point I assume). The format has actually been flexible enough to handle microdrives as well as flash memory. Also they've been able to consistenly improve the speed of CompactFlash cards over time. They're always improving, basically.

The smaller format cards generally seem to be more fragile and less flexible as far as capacity. I'm not sure about SD cards as of yet (have never personally used them), but I can vouch for SmartMedia cards being pretty bad. I had about a 30% failure rate on SmartMedia cards (compared to 0% thus far on CompactFlash), and they capped out as far as capacity at only 128MB. Bleh, those cards were wastes of money.

[Rcowan]

I have run at least two of my CF cards through the washer and dryer with no detrimental effects. I just knew they were toast (literally). I only have one SD card for my GPS and hardly ever use it. SD seems awfully easy to lose to me.

[Howard Barlow]

Originally Posted by Cope

IMO, the main consideration is what most DSLRs use, and the high end cameras use CF.

Canon 1D series uses both cf and sd.

[Daniel W.]

And the new Rebel XSi will be SD, Nikon's models up to the D80 are SD. Pentax bodies except for their first body, were SD.

The main point being SD is cheaper, it's cheaper to produce and most people (read, "consumers") are not putting their memory cards to the treatment we do... most people are content with one card and the USB cable.

[auswipe]

I prefer SD just because there are no pins to bend. I once bent a *single* pin in a Rebel XT. Boy did that suck.

But the repair was only about $180. I actually found a guy via eBay that did the repairs and he was fantastic. He promptly e-mailed me after each question I had and didn't have a "SELL!SELL!SELL!" mentality.

[toverman]

The SD cards being smaller, the cameras that use them can be made smaller. This can be good if you're sight-seeing and want a tiny camera without wearing yourself out.

The rest of us are already used to lugging at least two camera bodies, five lenses, tripod, monopod, lighting accessories, ham sandwiches ... weight is no longer an issue. I've never used SD cards, but I've also never had a problem with my CFs.