Short version: For $22 including shipping, the PNY SD-to-CF adapter lets us extend our accumulated 1.5 GB supply of SD cards to =all= our CF devices. Adding the same capacity in new CF cards would have cost 6-8 times as much, depending on the speeds involved. Better yet, the PNY adapter lets us take advantage of the card format with the cheaper going $/MB ratio when it comes time to add capacity. (CF and SD seem to go back and forth in that regard.)
Long version: Over the last few years, we've tried to stick with CompactFlash (CF) devices but somehow managed to pick up ~1.5 GB worth of SecureDigital (SD) cards along the way -- including a pair of 512 MB SDs purchased as Christmas stocking-stuffers for the kids' new MP3 players.
So much for thinking you know what kids want. The players never caught on -- the kids still prefer CDs -- and those big SD cards gathered dust.
Fast forward now to last week, when I finally got my hands on a new CF-only 8MP Canon 20D DLSR purchased, among other reasons, to capture an upcoming family trip.
o The good news: The 20D's truly a pleasure to use, and the photos it takes are nothing short of stunning.
o The bad news: It gobbles up 1 GB CF cards like so much popcorn, and the retooling costs -- new lenses, filters, dedicated flash, remote, batteries, car charger, monopod, yada, yada -- added up to a small fortune. "You never told me it'd cost =that= much!" Who knew? Well, I kinda knew... 8^J
At that point, I knew 2 more things for sure:
1. My ~4 GB arsenal of CF cards would carry at most 80% of the trip.
2. I'd be looking at some serious doghouse time if I had to pop for another GB or so of CF memory between now and then.
What to do? Hmmm, if only I could make use of those SD cards...
Enter the PNY SD-to-CF card adapter. Pop an SD card into the side of the adapter and use it as you would any other CF I card. It's as simple as that -- my camera and card readers never knew the difference. No drivers, no fuss. Better yet, read-write speeds don't seem to suffer.
A previous reviewer complained about the side-loading, but to my mind, that's precisely beauty of the PNY design. A glance at an SD card sitting on top of a CF card should convince you that holding a top-loaded SD card =completely within= the CF I form factor just isn't feasible.
Complete containment, of course, is what you want to insure the broadest possible CF compatibility. None of our CF devices -- including cameras, handheld PCs, notebook PCs, etc. -- would willingly accept an SD-to-CF adapter leaving part of the SD card hanging out in the breeze.
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