Customer Reviews

Pretec Smart Media Compact Flash Card Adapter

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Wish I'd read the other reviews.

This is a nice device as long as you only have 32mb or smaller SmartMedia cards. It won't read anything larger. I had hoped to use it with 64mb cards (perfect size to hold a CD worth of MPEGs on), but no luck. Don't believe the technical data provided by Amazon on this one. Pretec says in big red letters that 32mb is the largest card it's been able to translate so far. They'll get there someday, hopefully soon.

This appeared to be an ideal convertor tool from smart media to CF. However, having purchased one, I find from consultation with Pretec that it is limited to a max of 32Mb smart media card - hardly sufficient for many peoples needs today. In addition this is not mentioned on the Amazon description - in fact the implication is that it can support 64Mb cards.

A product I wish I had not bought!

When I got the Pretec Smart Media Compact Flash Card Adapter, I didn't realize how bulky it was. I put in my pocket pc and it stuck out about two inches. I tested it with the Sandisk 32mb Smart Media card and it worked fine. I also tested it with the Viking 64MB Smart Media card, but it wouldn't recognize the card. I decided it wasn't worth it, so I returned it.

With some of the negative reviews, I thought I'd add one for the positive. It works just fine. I'm using a 32M Smartmedia card from my digital camera. I can easily view images taken with my digital camera as well as using the Smartmedia for extra storage. The form factor isn't a big deal to me. So what if it sticks out an inch or so. If you want smaller, then go buy compactflash and sacrifice the ability to swap media. The only real negative was the lack of documentation.

This product worked as expected. It fit easily into the compact flash slot of my IPAQ 3650. It does stick out almost 1 inch. It isn't anything you would want to leave in place. However it is easy to slip it in and copy my pictures from an Olympus 8 mb flash media card. I remove it when I am done. It saved me from having to get another digital camera because of card incompatibility.

I didn't buy one of these, but I've seen similar adapters elsewhere on the internet. Descriptions say that they only work with 8mb, 16mb and 32mb SmartMedia cards.

Compact Flash cards have their own built-in controller, while SmartMedia cards don't, so the best I can figure is that this is basically a card controller (with a serious design deficiency).