Will compact flash
stand up to a million connects and disconnets? How many years will the
internal battery last? And so on.
Compact Flash has a Mean Time Between Failures of over 1,000,000 hours,
and a data retention figure of 100,000 hours - far longer than anyone
would actually keep the data on one. They do not have an internal battery.=
As far as data reliability figures go - average is 1 non-recoverable error=
in 10 to the power 14 bits read- a very large number indeed. These are not=
my figures, but the actual testing data from CF manufacturers. Insertion
figures are usually about 10,000 inserts minimum. I have a hard time
believing an MD would stand up to any more than 10,000 inserts ( and
wouldn't like to be the person who had to test this :) !! )
In fact, $1000 of MD's is many, many years supply, some 380+ disks. Your
solid state unit will have been replaced long before I'd use up that
many disks
I think to be honest your MD machine would be replaced before a solid
state unit. MD recorders have moving parts which are extremely susceptible=
to wear, and an optical mech which also wears out. Given that many people
on this list also use consumer MD machines, they would be replaced even
before a dedicated pro MD recorder.
Then we shall find out just how durable a Compact Flash card is when
dropped into a mudpuddle
Dropping a CF, except from a great height, would have no effect on it.
Neither would immersing it in water, as long as it is dry before it is
re-inserted. Dropping a MD into water or from a great height would also
damage it, so I don't really see the logic in that argument.
The price issue is worth considering here. Admittedly the large capacity
CF and Microdrives are currently expensive, but as someone else pointed
out, these are doubling in capacity and halfing in price every 12 months
so that won't be an issue for long. The most important point is that it is=
not the archival medium. MD may be cheap, but how many will you buy during=
the lifetime of the product ? I have done the maths and for professional
recordists in any recording field who spend five days a week, 5 hours a
day recording, and their recorder last five years, the likely cost of
media over this period at UK media prices would be somewhere around
=A312000. With DAT this figure goes up to over =A324000. Even if you bought=
five 4 GB CF at today's prices, it would still be a significant reduction
in media cost over the lifetime of the product.
BTW, with reference to Oryoki's mail regarding battery time, we are
currently investigating some external battery pack solutions which would
give over seven hours recording time on a single battery. We hope to have
some solutions available later this year.
Best Wishes
Matt
Matt Jarvis
Product Marketing Manager
Marantz Professional Europe
Walter Knapp <>
2003-03-27 23:31
Please respond to naturerecordists
To:
cc: (bcc: Matt Jarvis/LGD/CE/PHILIPS)
Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] Re: flash memory /duration =
of recording
Classification:
qukza wrote:
> --- In Walter Knapp <>
wrote:
>
>
>>Minidiscs are so cheap I don't reuse.
>
>
> But isn't that the point? People attracted to using CF Cards
> over MD usually desire fast digital transfer to PC and archiving on
> another medium (CDR or whatever) They reuse their original storage
> medium (just as digital photograhers do). If that's the case the cost
> comparison isn't valid.
Those who wish to can reuse MD, I just happen not to as I like to keep
my original. And I can afford to do so easily because the cost is so
low. In fact you can reuse a MD disk a million times. Will compact flash
stand up to a million connects and disconnets? How many years will the
internal battery last? And so on.
In fact, $1000 of MD's is many, many years supply, some 380+ disks. Your
solid state unit will have been replaced long before I'd use up that
many disks. And $1000 is just one compact flash, capable of storing 6
hours. I carry more recording time than that with me every trip. How
many compact flash would you need for a extended trip? How many
thousands will that cost?
You really quickly get to having to chain your computer to you on trips.
I've been there, done that, don't care to do it more. Especially as
the average laptop will not have the capacity for very many compact
flash worth of sound, so you then get into burning CD's or something out
in the field.
> I think the valid point one could make in favor of MD is that because
> the original recording medium is cheap it may be a much better
> solution in field situations in which one might not have frequently
> opportunities to offload onto cheaper storage. But there are also
> solutions to that issue.
There are several things in favor of MD's for field nature recording. We
have been over that ground. There is a whole lot more than price.
But, let's see a bunch of those who have endlessly advocated compact
flash recorders for nature recording put their money where their mouth
is and buy and use them in real field recording. Talk is cheap. I sure
don't see many of the advocates buying and using.
and all the other fun of field recording. We
shall also find out if the recorder wrapped around it is any good. And
how durable the system really is. What it's real pricetag is.
Or is this all talk and no action. Something people advocate but won't
buy. Grass is greener stuff.
Walt
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