I've used microdrives in the past, mostly in the early days digital. I had a 340 MB drive when the largest CF cards were 16 MB and 32 MB. It made a big difference having that kind of reserve capacity. I never had a drive failure, but I was always extra careful when handling the drives. I gave them up over time as CF cards grew in size. I was in Ritz camera recently and saw they had the Hitachi 4 GB cards for $249 with a $50 mail-in rebate. I couldn't resist.

After shooting with it for over a week, I really enjoy the freedom of having a total capacity exceeding 450 Raw files. I'm still using CF cards for critical work for clients. But if the microdrives prove reliable, I'll phase it in as my primary storage medium.

what cam do you use...do you notice lag

I use the 20D and I notice no lag at all. It's actually faster than all my other cards as most are several years old or more. In fact on that camera the 4GB microdrive is rated very high by Rob Galbraith. (http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-7303) When I looked at replacing my aging CF card collection the Microdrive became very attractive.

Please keep us informed as to how the microdrive holds up.
I went out and bought a 1 gb CF for 149 at best buy. Ouch!

I went out and bought a 1 gb CF for 149 at best buy. Ouch!

Double ouch! Buy.com has a 1GB CF card for $55 after rebate and a good many more under $80 with no rebates. Prices have been steadily coming down but of course you're not going to get a 4GB CF card for the price Jeff paid for his 4GB microdrive.

Wow, I might have to go the way of microdrive myself. I see that BananaPC (http://www.bananapc.com/products/productInfo.aspx?category_id=1208&product_id=14340) has the 4GB Hitachi for $155 with free shipping after the $50 rebate. They seem to have an above average rating on resellerratings.com.

Hmm, wasn't it just yesterday that people were ripping open Mini iPods to salvage the 4gb microdrive because it was cheaper that way...? Falling prices of media and drives, just unbelievable.

I just bought a 500 gb FW drive to back up all of my video media (after losing an internal drive, I realized I was just courting fate). $450 delivered. This time next year, that would buy me a terabyte...

Media prices have really tumbled this year, despite rising petroleum costs. I bought a 200GB drive for around $80 after all the rebates, coupons etc. Mine was internal, but still I see 200GB FW drives for around $150. I like to remind people that around 10 years ago I bought two 9GB SCSI drives for my Avid Media Composer for around $3500 each. If you could even buy a 9GB drive today, what would it be, maybe $10 to $15. Compare the old SCSI drive to the 4GB microdrives and it is just amazing.

The free-falling price/capacity ratio for both solid-state and conventional storage devices over the past 10 years, and particularly the past 5 years, has been absolutely breathtaking. But it has really taken a toll on the profitability of manufacturers such as Western Digital and SanDisk. It seems ironic that such a successful industry segment cannot seem to sustain financial health.