On Tue, Dec 22, 1998 at 11:58:07AM +1100, Simon J. Gerraty wrote:
> > Don't do that.  SmartMedia media are way more expensive than CompactFlash
> > media and the floppy adapter is unlikely to work well, if at all.
> 
> No the answer I wanted to hear :-)
> 
> > Just get a camera that uses CompactFlash media, buy name-brand CompactFlash
> 
> Unfortunately I like the Olympus cameras and they use SmartMedia.
> 
> > media (some off-brands are totally broken) and use a PCMCIA or, better, an
> > IDE card caddy (we use the Adtron (note only one 'd') brand IDE caddy, which
> > plugs directly into the IDE port on your motherboard) to read them.
> 
> I'd prefer a solution that would work with my laptop and even
> non-intel machines... 

Let me try again:

A CompactFlash card is *both* an IDE disk *and* a PCMCIA IDE controller.  It
will work with your desktop as an IDE disk.  It will work with your laptop
as an IDE controller.

SmartMedia cards are supposed to do the same thing, but there's more smarts
in the physical adapter widget which makes them PCMCIA-sized and less in the
card itself.  I have never tried to get a SmartMedia card to work either way
as an IDE disk or controller (though they're supposed to) so I can't tell you
that I know that it works.

Both the media (because few companies make it) and the adapter (because it's
got smarts in it, instead of just changing the physical form factor) for
SmartMedia are more expensive than CompactFlash, so I've never bothered
trying to use them.  In fact, *not* using SmartMedia is one thing I've
shopped for as I try to decide on a digital camera. :-)

-- 
Thor Lancelot Simon	                                      tls@rek.tjls.com
	"And where do all these highways go, now that we are free?"