NikonWeb.com

Apparently, many people have been successful using ordinary (?) compact flash cards with their older DCS cameras.

I know there's a voltage issue with the Nikon E-bodies, and I assume it's the same with the Kodak cameras? I haven't tried very hard, put simply putting a 80MB (or 128MB) CF card into my DCS 420 (using a standard Canon PCMCIA adapter) doesn't work.

Any suggestions?

I also tried this based on this google hit on Rob Galbraith's site:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/ubbthreads/ ... art=1&vc=1

I did not have any luck with the simpletech CF cards that I use with my D1x and D1. My Iomega "Click" PCMCIA type 3 ATA card did work either.

I was able to find PCMCIA ATA Sandisk 110mb cards on Ebay for $6. The Telcos equipment made use of them from the mid to late '90s to distribute firmware. They now show up as "surplus/Pulls" on EBay. As they were used to distribute firmware, they have very low use.

Hi,

At least as far back as the 400 series, anyway. The Kodak units are newer and don't need to have the old hi-voltage PCMCIA cards.

I will note that the 400 series has a 512 MB limit, which is hardcoded into the things. That means that your cards have to be smaller than 512 MB, which lets out most (I won't say all, since I haven't tried them all) 512 MB cards. Sigh.

I used both a 256 MB solid-state CF and a 340 MB microdrive with adapters in my 460 when I had it.

Stan

_________________
Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer

So I should have no problems using a 'SiliconTech 448MB ATA Flash Storage PCMCIA' card (model 'SLATAFL448') then?

Found a cheap 110 MB card on eBay yesterday (for my E2), but it cost $28 to send it to Norway using USPS Global Express Mail. I told the seller it was too much for a $6 item and asked if they could arrange something less expensive (I don't need any tracking for such a cheap item). Unfortunately, they would not, "due to many items getting lost or taking well over a month to finally arrive." Needless to say, I'm still looking.

Jarle

Hi,

The DCS 400 series bodies ought to work OK with that 448 MB card.

What I'm uncertain of is if that 100 MB card would work in the E2N or not. The largest card I tried in my E2 is 128 MB, and it does *not* work. The next largest card in my collection is 80 MB, and that one is OK.

There appears to be a 128 MB limit in the E-series, but it also appears that some of that address space is used for something else, and so the card needs to be smaller. I'd bet that the actual card limit is 96 MB, but have no way of telling for sure.

Actually, I don't know what is using the memory space in the E2. Normally, I'd think of buffer memory, but my E2 is bufferless, so that can't be it. This is one of those cases of trying and seeing, unfortunately.

Nothing like being on the trailing edge of technology!

Stan

_________________
Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer

Remember that not only was there a 512 MB limit but it only recognizes 8 bit FAT. The cards may not work until they are correctly formatted in the camera while tethered.
There may be other issues with the speed of the logic chips, i.e. the camera's controller may not recognize them.

I am using a 260mb PCMCIA hard drive formatted as FAT-16 in my DCS420c. I will try it in the E3 as well. There should be a difference in memory address limits and disk size. A Flash-Disk emulates a disk, and does not need to be memory mapped by the camera. Some people in Rob Galbraith's forum report using 2GByte cards in their DCS420. It may be a matter of updating the firmware. For example, the last DCS200 firmware upgrade allowed use of SCSI drivers bigger than 160MBytes.

Jarle, I had the same problem as many sellers wouldn't even ship worldwide, with some patience managed to get a NOS Viking 128 mb card for $10 plus $4 for shipping.

Sometimes these items are listed with so different names so searching for a bunch of words 'flash, ata, etc' or even for specific brands may help...

Welcome Oscar!

Hope you get the DCS420c soon! Mine arrived from the same seller and works just fine. Visit DSLRexchange to see some shots. Now you will just need a Nikon E2 or E3 to use for wide-angle shots and you are done!

I found that the CF card in the PCMCIA adapter worked in my DCS420c after updating to the latest firmware, dated 1998. The firmware rev date is in each Kodak .tif file. Mine were originall dated 1997, and the CF card did not work. The firmware is at the Kodak website, but you will need a SCSI card and cable for the update.

Yeah hope it will arive soon, at least before I leave in August !

Thanks for the info on the firmware update, I have a 256 mb CF and the 128 mb flash card so being able to use the CF could be interesting...

Oscar

Hello,

I also had problems finding a working CF card for my Canon/Kodak DCS-1, DCS-3 and DCS-5 cameras, but in the end I found a solution (DCS 3 (1995) is the Canon equivalent to the Nikon/AP NC2000e, the DCS-1 (1995) seems to be the Canon version of the Nikon 460).

Originally these cameras used old Callunacard harddrives (that firm does not exist anymore, I presume) up to 1040 MB (also 520 MB and 360MB). They also do work in my camerabodies without any problems. But they are difficult to handle. If there is any problem with the connection between the cardreader and the computer or if the connection is terminated before all files are stored back to the harddrive there will be an error. Most the time it is impossible to get them working again, sometimes the formatting is helpful (better in the camera than in the card reader), sometimes with the restore function in the camera (SCSI connection necessary) or with a recovery tool in the reader, and sometimes nothing can help.

Due to these problems (and because drives need so much battery power) I tried to find a working CF card, that is much better to use in most of the card readers available on the market.

( (I managed to find one of the rare USB-Cardreaders with a PCMCIA-Type III slot (make of Datafab), but there are driver problems and power problems because the PC does not supply enough mA at the USB port (the callunacard harddrive needs 600mA, most USB ports and HUBs give only 100mA)).

After testing a lot of cards and after a lot of phone calls (many homepages tell you that their CF cards should work in the DCS-cameras, but they dont) I found out, that yet the Kingston CF cards (I tested only the elder orange white label, not the new blue-white one) and Cards of Toshiba make really work. I tested a 256 MB Kingston in all my DCS cameras and there was no problem. I was told that 512 MB work also but I am going to buy one to test it by myself. If 1024 MB works to, that will be a good solution for the 6Mp-DCS-1 because there is room enought for 159 pictures...

The important thing is, as I found out, that these cards use a dual voltage: they work with 3.3V and with 5 V.

I also bought some ATA Flash Storage cards from Silicon Tech with 448MB (SLATAFL448) and they work without problems. But it was hard to pay 18 USD for three cards and 63 USD for shipping and custom fees to europe.

Other cards that came with my DCS cameras and were once working:
-San Disk Flashdisk PC Card ATA 60MB (PCMCIA Type II made in 1998
-Harddrive Microtech DPA 340MB (5 Volts, 0.5A (means 500mA, doesnt it?)) made in October 1997
-Harddrive Datacard 340MB Simple TechnologyIncorporated (made in Sept 1997, label on the back is the same as on the Microtech).

Although the old harddrives look good and fit to the "old" cameras, they are difficult to handle (dont drop, dont hit) and I prefer CF cards and flash cards because of easier handling.

These are only personal experiences but I hope they can help.

Regards, Thomas

Hi,

The older Nikon-based Kodak 460, 420, 410 series, which is the same as far as the Kodak parts go as the older Canon-based EOS-DCS 1, 3 & 5 series, have a 512 MB limit.

So, you won't be getting a 1 GB card to work, I'm afraid.

I have had no problems with getting any smaller-than-512 MB CF card to work over the years in a DCS460, which is the same as your EOS-DCS1. I have had some issues with 512 MB cards that happened to be slightly larger than advertised when formatted, and the 460 choked......

The Kodak units are not nearly as fussy about what card they're fed as the Nikon E2 is, that's for sure.

Stan

_________________
Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer

Just for the record, the later E3 models are much better.

I've used both 128 MB and 512 MB CF cards in my DS-565 (E3S). These cards will NOT work in the DCS 420 (or E2N).

Jarle

I have been reading others experiences with compact flash cards and would like to share mine,I have owned my dcs420 for approx 2 months. Initialy using the original lexar 160mb pcmcia card, this would work intemitantly sometimes writing the frame to disk and at other times showing e2 error message. I think this improved after upgrading the firmware, but not totaly cured.This may be due to a bad contact in the card's connector. I bought a non branded pcmcia to compact flash adaptor and tried a 512 mb san disk ultra 2. this worked ok. I have bought a cheap 128 mb integral cf card and this works perfectly ,when using the adaptor I no longer get e2 error messages. Now to put the cat among the pigeons I recently sent off the battery from my D70 to Nikon for replacement due to the recall. This morning I downloaded the images from the D70's card to my computer and deleted them. I then inserted the card straight into my dcs420 and took about 10 images about the house ,I then loaded them into Photoshop. Hey Presto they appeared on my screen. The caed was still formatted for the D70, and its a 2Gb card.It would seem that the firmware update is a requirement for this camera. My only problem with the camera is inconsistent results regardless of card,I ocasionaly get lines about 2/3 up from the botton of the image .
Mike

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Mike

My testings:

Card adapter: microlight brand (cheapass ebay brand) cost: about 4$.

CF cards tested:

Sandisk 256 MB (from the canon giveaway for eos 20d users) Don't work, the camera likes it and stores images, but in the PC side no images at all, but the space reduces accordly with the pics stored... Odd

CF extrememory 512 MB (cheapest brand from my local comps store) Works sweet, about 306 pics available , my Computer reads fine the card. In the camera side the card is a lot faster than the disks...

Edited: NO, the 512MB don't want to work today, yesterday worked fine, it fails w/out any logic, smetimes works, then says "E2", you put again the card and says "full", the put it again and "E2", put it again and works fine for two frames or so, then again "E2". I trown the towell and resigned to use Callumas and use the CF to take the pics from my laptop to the desktop.