Product Description

Small size and enhanced 4GB capacity permits you to carry an entire continent of maps or 1,000 songs in your pocket. Reliable storage for data, photos, music, and videos from digital cameras, PDAs, handheld PCs, MP3 digital audio players, laptops and other portable handheld devices Hitachi's new 4GB Microdrive is designed to the Compact Flash Type II industry standard and is compatible with a wide variety of devices that accept CF+ Type II media. The 4GB Microdrive is formatted at the factory using the FAT32 file system to remedy the 2GB limitation of the FAT16 file system.

Product Details

• Brand: Hitachi
• Model: HIT4GBKIT
• Dimensions: 1.00" h x 1.00" w x 1.00" l, 4.00 pounds

Features

• Store thousands of high-resolution images
• High speed means less delay between shots
• Weighs less that a roll of film
• Best choice for digital cameras
• Kit includes Hitachi 4gb microdrive retail packing, Pro card reader, & Opteka cleaning kit

Customer Reviews

Works Great, and at High Altitude
I bought this microdrive a year ago for my new Nikon. I guide on adventure travel trips and wanted a way to store a bunch of high resolution photos. I have not regretted the purchase one bit. I have used it often at high altitude and in sub zero weather. How high? Base camp at Kanchenjunga, Nepal, the third highest peak in the world, 18,500 ft. And, on the top of Kilimanjaro, 20,000. The drive is slower at those altitudes, but then again, it was below zero. The first time you start up the camera in very cold weather, it SEEMS to get a little longer to fire up the microdrive.

My drive needed formatting. I read somewhere that its better to do it attached directly to the computer. So, I plugged the drive in a memory adapter plugged into a USB port of my computer. Worked like a charm.

After 40,000 shots, 2 cameras, and 1.5 years
After 40,000 shots, 2 cameras, 1.5 years and many drops, this chip still performs perfectly. I've used it heavily and aggressively and have had a great experience at a great price. Its almost as fast in write speeds but slower in read speeds during computer upload. There are some myths about the chip that its slow and fragile, which I'll explain below is just totally wrong.

Speed:

On my old Canon 20D, I got its full claimed buffer in RAW and JPEG. On my newer Canon 5D (12.8 megapixel), I get 17 instead of the 19 claimed RAW pictures during continuous shooting, and I pretty much can't run out the JPEG (well over 50). I've used the Sandisk II, and after some testing, I found that the write speed was almost the same, but the read speed is about 1/3 slower when loading onto the computer. Not a big deal, since the write speed is a bigger priority while shooting. Yesterday, I loaded the whole 4gb chip into Apple Aperture in 14 minutes.

Space:

On the 20D or 30D, you'll get almost 500 in RAW, but on my 5D, I get under 280, so I'm now shopping around for a 8gb chip. You might try the 6gb rather than the 4gb since its getting cheaper.

The "Fragile" Myth:

People always say that the microdrive is more "fragile" than the compact flash, which I can say with absolute certainty is B.S. Most people who criticize the microdrive have never used it or known anyone who used it - last time I checked, judging without knowing is called ignorance, no offense.

Anyway, I shoot my college football team, for the college newspaper, and frequently I do landscape and wildlife photography, so I'm frequently taking the chip in and out of my camera and dropping it on occasion. I've have used the camera at 20 degrees, in the hot and humid Florida sun, and have had a light sunshower, but yet the chip keeps going after 1.5 years.

Also:

All microdrives are made by Hitachi, even from Sony. Hitachi bought the division from IBM a few years back, and Hitachi will sell under other names for more market share. Don't waste your money on stupid brand image, just buy the one you find cheaper, which is probably the Hitachi.

Many people say, this chip doesn't work with this camera, especially on older reviews. If the firmware on your camera is old, it may not support any large chip, so update your camera first.

Bargain for big storage.
Works flawlessly in my Nikon D-70. I still use my 60x write speed CFII card for action photo's but this is a great backup card for non-action photography.