A while ago, I mentioned that my digital camera had a nasty fall which killed its IBM Microdrive. Any day now, I should get the repaired camera back from Canon (whose customer service leaves something to be desired next to our favorite car stereo vendor...), so I went poking around some web sites to notice...

CompactFlash cards have gotten really cheap! You can get 1GB SanDisk cards for $259 (at Adorama). The Lexar 1GB 16x card would be $299.95 if it were in stock.

This leads me to wonder: how fast is the SanDisk card? I've poked around the usual suspects of the photo review sites, but I haven't found any recent performance comparisons between these various cards. Anybody seen something I may have missed? Part of me is tempted to buy Lexar, if for no other reason than I like the fact that they publish actual speed ratings rather than making you wonder.

eCost have the standard-speed units even cheaper. a generic card is $199 after rebate, or the sandisk is $219 (no rebate).

as for the transfer rates, i believe these so-called "16x" or "24x" ratings are relative to CD-ROM speeds (150kB/s). the 16x media are roughly double the speed of the standard compact flash cards, if i remember right.

--dan.