I found that there are 3.3 volt and 5 volt smart media cards in the different capacities.. ie . 8MB, 16MB etc.. What is the difference in them and why? How does one determine which should be used in a given camera.. I don't recall seeing any reference to this in the reviews of the different cameras.. I am interested in the Oly C2000z. Which is applicable to this camera? Thanks for all your help in the past.

-- Chip Harding (buflerchip@sisna.com), May 13, 1999

Answers

3.3V and 5V refers to the voltage which must be applied to the card by the camera's electronics. The newer standard is 3.3V and you probably won't see newer models requiring 5 volt smartmedia, though some will still support it. As electronics evolve and the manufacturers produce equipment with more tightly integrated on-chip circuitry the voltage will typically decrease. It's a very good bet that all the newer models will support the 3.3V standard. Some models support both 5 & 3.3 Volt units.

The best way to determine what voltage media your camera will work with is to look for the specs page on the manufacturer's site or consult the camera's manual. You should also check these same specs for memory card size capacity. Many older cameras won't support the newer(16 or 32MB), larger, cards. You also need to bear the voltage and size questions in mind when selecting external card readers used to quickly transfer images into your computer rather than using the much slower serial port method.

Perhaps, the best approach is to wait until you get the camera or can peek at a manual if you can't find information on the manufacturer's site. Most cameras come with some media to get you started anyhow. Then you can see what you need and shop around for a good deal.

I imagine the Imaging-Resource doesn't get into this too far, since it's really a kind of workaday type thing easily solved by a look at the manual and that the newer models invariably support the newer 3.3V standard. I imagine they're also under pressure to return units as quickly as possible and that the newer units may only come with preliminary docs anyhow. Possibly also because they are more concerned with the bigger issues that set one model apart from another and increasingly strive to bridge the gap between Digital and 35mm.

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@francorp.francomm.com), May 14, 1999.

Hey Chip, I followed the link from Dave's review to Olympus's site and they have a data sheet online that says the camera uses 3.3V smartmedia cards in sizes from 2 to 32MB. Sometimes you have to do just a bit of digging on your own, only took me a minute or two. There is a lot of additional info on their site. I think I saw the above info under brochures. You'll need the adobe acrobat plug-in to view it. If you don't have it, when you try to download the file you'll get a message that'll let you download a copy for free. Good Luck.

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@francorp.francomm.com), May 14, 1999.