On Tue, Dec 22, 1998 at 05:48:10PM +1100, Simon J. Gerraty wrote:
> 
> Yes, it looks very much like SmartMedia will eventually die a death,
> and I'm sure Olympus will _eventually_ bring out a CF model...
> 
> In the mean time I'm not sure which if any of the CF cameras to
> choose, or to just stick with the "camera" choice and put up with the
> media problem.

Someone at work here has the Nikon with the zoom lens and 1152x900 (IIRC) CCD
and it looks *awfully* nice.  Kinda pricy, though.

I looked at the Agfa with the huge CCD, myself, but it has no optical
viewfinder and I can't *stand* to compose on an LCD... cameras like that
really suck batteries, too, since the LCD is on all the time.

> Just to clarify, should I expect to be able to simply plug he CF card
> into a pcmcia slot in my laptop and be able to access the pics?

If you're running NetBSD new enough to support hot-plug of PCMCIA IDE
controllers, yes.  Otherwise you may have to have the card in when you boot.

> And there is an adapter that will plug into my IDE port too... and
> both approaches should work ok with NetBSD?

Yes.  I have 10 machines running from CompactFlash cards on their IDE
controllers.  I had trouble with a couple of off-brands so I've standardized
on SanDisk.

> If the answer to both the above is yes, I might wander up to the local
> camera shop (who only handles SmartMedia camers btw :-) and ask to try
> the SM->pcmcia adapter...

I think it's worth trying.  I expect it'll probably work.

> Thanks again for the info.

No problem!