Seagate 8 GB CompactFlash Photo Storage Hard Drive ( ST68022C-RK )

 Awesome!
WARNING! Whatever you do, do not use pliers to remove the card! This is a spinning drive you can easily crush one of the heads, put pressure on the disc, etc!!! The best way to remove this card is to just put a little tape on it, that acts like a tab. If/when you want to remove the card just pull on the tape and the card will come out.

I use this in my Axim x50v and all I can say is wow! The battery drain when using this card (which is a microdrive) and TCPMP compared to my 512MB compactflash card and WMP is about the same. I get a little under 10 hours of music(I have the 2200mAh battery) with the microdrive, and about exactly 10 hours of music with the CF card.

 Capacity is great, but write delay is TOO SLOW!
I have a Canon 20D firmware version 2.0.3 and I formatted the Seagate drive in the camera. This operation took a long time, about 6-7min. I usually format my cards in-camera to wipe them clean before shoots. This length of time isn't practical. Then, I proceeded to take some test shots. I timed it started from shutter release to the time the red LED on the back turned off: 24.1sec

Then, I formatted the disk using Disk Manager in Windows XP. I formatted it using FAT32 and 64K clusters because most memory cards gain a speed benefit from the larger cluster size (less clusters to read, see http://robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007). The write speed this time was 29.4sec!

Then, for comparison, I did the same using a 4yr old 8x standard Kingston 256mb CF card. This time, write speed was 6.8sec.

I am really disappointed because I read that the lag time was just marginally slower but from my experience, it's alot slower than just marginal.

Another reviewer said he downgraded his firmware to 2.0.2. Canon doesn't keep old firmwares on their website so I'm stuck w/the latest firmware and a very slow but large capacity microdrive.

There were no tests on the Seagate at Rob's site above so I took a chance on this because of the price. It didn't work out. 8gb's are still relatively new, I wouldn't buy this drive and wait till Hitachi comes out w/an 8gb. I have a Hitachi 4gb and it is only slightly slower than CF speeds unlike this Seagate microdrive.

 Difficult to remove from the slot
Most CF cards and microdrives have a little tiny lip on the outer edge so that you can use a fingernail to push the card out of the drive. This one does not - we have had to use pliers to pull it out when necessary.

 Good for the money. eagate 8 GB CompactFlash Photo Storage Hard Drive ( ST68022C-RK ).
I use this compact flash drive on my Canon 5D. I timed it against my ATP 40X compact flash and the Seagate is slower. I filled the 5D's buffer and timed how long it took to write all the data. The ATP took about 30 seconds, the Seagate took about 40 seconds. But the price for this can't be beat. Compared to other 8GB drives that cost twice as much (or more), this is really incredible. I haven't owned it long enough to determine reliability, but if the Seagate name holds up, then this deal can't be beat.

 Good value for the price
Installed quickly, worked well.
Seems to be reliable, no problems as of yet.

 Great upgrade for your PDA
I have an x50v and have been using this drive for several weeks now. I subscribe to Audible.com, listen to about twenty podCasts, play movies, and keep map data on this drive. When used with TCPMP in microdrive mode and PocketHack Master I get great audio performance with this drive. A read benchmark test of this card using Pocket Mechanic with the processor set to Maximum Performance showed it at .06 MB/s. This seems a bit slower than I perceive. However I do my sync of podcasts using my card reader. A great link showing an easy way to do this is at http://www.yorkspace.com/2005/09/30. Overall, I am very happy with the performance/price break this affords.

I strongly recommend this for the Axim owner who is a road warrior or commuter that requires storage capacity for long trip.

Kemo

 How else are you gonna get 8 gigs for $200?
I was skeptical about this card. I put it in my Canon 1D Mark II N and was completely relieved. It works great. If you are shooting excesively at 8.5 fps then you have a little lag time. If that is the majority of your photography, than this might not be the best bet (I will use a seperate card for sport sequences). Aside from that, it is perfect. No pauses or standby for normal photography. I have three photo jobs this weekend so if anything goes wrong I will post. If there is no post after 02/06/06 then one can assume that all went well.

 NOT recommended with DSLR
This card is SLOW, very slow. I tried this with my Canon Rebel XT and the camera was forced to wait for the CF card's storage drive (it's actually a hard drive in CF case) after just 3 pictures in a row, --and the wait was 20+ seconds. This makes the card NOT usable even in the most average of conditions. My Kingston 2-gig standard-speed CF cards can take 13 photos before a 3-second pause.

Even if you consider the amount of storage for the excellent price, --it isn't usable and isn't worth the money.

 Poor Reliability
Buyer Beaware. This card is HDD based. If you use it in a digital camera for frequent use outdoors, jerks, shakes and an occasional fall will reduce the life of this card or abruptly cripple the disk forever. Flash memory based cards will handle any amount of shaking or falls. Your pictures stays safe. You make the decision now!

 Seagate 8 GB - Answer to prayers!
I know this is supposed to be a photo flash drive, but I have used it in my Dell Axim X51V and it works flawlessly! I now have more than enough space for mp3's, movies, maps, and ebooks with over 3 gigs left to spare! This beast is just what the doctor ordered!! The drive has quick response, the battery drain seems to be about the same as using a smaller CF card. The only negative I can say is that the card is an bright orange and stands out against the black and silver of the Axim. And if that really bugs you, you can cover it with black tape, just make sure you don't cover the little hole on the bottom of the drive...