The E-1 was introduced in 2002 so I assume it is FAT32 compliant. If so, then FAT32 allows for 16 terrabytes - which would be a really camera.

I believe that Hitachi makes a 4 GB micro drive which can be used on the E-1. If that's true, then the camera is FAT32 compliant and the world is your oyster in terms of what size CF card you can use.

because another alternative is to stick with the cards I have and buy a P-5000. The thing that is interesting is that Epson don't quote the limit of the CF card size that the P-5000 can cope with (they do quote limits for other cards)

I tried an 4GB Hitachi microdrive (white labeled) with my E500 but not worked :( So using that to backup.

Well, it took me a while.

If it's a question of how large a CF card you can use, then there shouldn't be a problem - within the limits of how much memory that is - as to the size of the CF card - wither Type I or II - why anybody would use a Type I I have no idea.

The E-1 just writes in sequence until it can't write anymore - its self-limiting in that respect. I'm not familiar with the E-1's display, but if it has a shot counter, you might run into a unable to display count error (which would just produce gibberish) or it might just count to whatever limit the firmware allows it to count to, but that has nothing to do with the actual writing I believe.

The E-1 is FAT32 compliant (as are the other 4/3s DSLRs) so you can use the CF based microdrives.

Here's the deal... CF cards fail. SOMETIMES anyway, but they still fail. That makes me nervous. So I only shoot to 512 or 1 gig cards, both of which the E1 supports. I'm sure the E-1 supports all the CF cards out there, but you really don't need anything all that big. Even if you're going on a huge trip and wont be back for years to come, I'd feel safer with my images put to several smaller cards than 1 huge one.

I've never met anyone who uses a microdrive for their DSLR. I have, however, met people who link up to their iPod and transfer files over to it. If you're looking for a sweet and easy back up device, the iPod is a quality choice. If you don't own an iPod, this is your excuse to buy one.

I did not know that about the iPod! Perhaps that is the best reason yet to buy one. Thanks for that info.

EEE

As Epson didn't give a limit for the CF card going into the P-5000 I emailed them and they said there is no limit. I guess 16 Terrabytes is the equivalent of no limit! I also guess that as the E1 doesn't mention a limit anywhere it is following the same principle! So I decided that I would buy the P-5000 as new cards to cover a long weekend trip were half the cost of the P-5000. My old CD burner had become untrustworthy. I'll let you know how I get on.

Here's what i normally do : carry a few 1gb cf cards on a shooting trip, not larger since i don't want to lose lots of images should the card go bad or should i lose it; when i go back to the hotel , i upload the images to my laptop so i can view / edit in PS if need be; then the card is reformatted and ready for the next day; i'm sure most people already have a laptop so why the need for a separate image viewer; and yes, the E supports FAT32 which basically is unlimited (ref here http://www.dpreview.com/news/0310/03102102biggestcfs.asp ... Cheers ;-))

DeeVee: Laptops are a lot heavier than those viewers and external hard drives. Easier to carry the viewers around (not all people drive cars when they are going somewhere). There is also a limit to how much hand luggage you can bring on planes and when I have put all my stuff in my camera bag, there is no room left for a laptop. I could get a hard case, but they cost about the same as a viewer with 80Gb hard disk in my country. Besides checked in luggage is sometimes delayed for days and sometimes even get lost forever.

Yes I have a laptop and in the UK or with the car in Europe then the laptop is great.

When I have to use an aircraft the laptop becomes a burden due to security, fragility, bulk and all the new hand luggage limits.

So I bought the P-5000 and I will write a bit about my initial findings in an article.

Yes I have a laptop and in the UK or with the car in Europe then the laptop is great.

When I have to use an aircraft the laptop becomes a burden due to security, fragility, bulk and all the new hand luggage limits.

So I bought the P-5000 and I will write a bit about my initial findings in an article.

I have been using 1Gb and 2Gb cards with my E300 with no problems. On a shoot I carry a P-2000 which fits in my bag well and avoids the problems with a laptop, giving plenty of storage on its 40Gb hard disk.

However, one down side of the P-2000 is that it can't display RAW images full screen - only thumbnails. So I shoot RAW + JPEG allowing me to take advantage of the rather good screen on the P-2000.

But this takes a lot of memory (~20Mb per shot) giving around 100 shots on a 2Gb card, so I need to download to the P-2000 more frequently. I use fast cards (Extreme III) to minimise the download time, and allow faster shooting when necessary.

I agree with en thirty-one el about cards failing, although I have never experienced this YET with CF, but I have with Smart Media in an earlier Olympus camera. But how many shots are you prepared to risk on a single card? On a similar note, the hard disk in the P-2000 (or a laptop) could fail with much greater consequences!

Rex, I have used 4GB and 8GB solid-state CFs, as well as 4GB MicroDrives, in the E-1 without problem. The 8GB card took several minutes to format the first time I put one in the body and I feared for a minute that it was not going to work. But it does, without a hitch. The E-1 image counter only goes to 1999, so you'd have to calc how many images you can pack on one of these, which I haven't bothered to do. It's a lot, which is great when you're on an extended trip, packing light and blazing through ORFs like Sherman through Atlanta.

As to reliability and carrying around multiples of 512's or 1GB's, I could but I don't consider the risk very high. Not as high as my proclivity to lose tiny little pieces of plastic anyway. All devices can fail, but the failure rate of CF's is without doubt orders of magnitude lower than that of iPods! These are not suitable failover or backup devices IMO. Except for the Nano and Shuffle they are HD-based, and they are somewhat legendary for sloppy quality control and high failure rates (something I've experienced personally and repeatedly). I would NEVER trust my images to an iPod alone.

One important thing to remember is that, no matter what the failure rate of CF cards (or any other device) carrying two instead of one immediately doubles the chance of a failure!

And. actually, I think it probably more than doubles the failure rate, since "failure" could include bad things that happen to your card when it's outside of the camera, such as getting lost or damaged.