How durable are these cards, exactly? I have a 256 & a 128mb card now, and looking to pick up a 512mb card. But how many do I really need? I mean, there's plenty of space on just a 256mb card, and backing up to a computer is no problem.

Any experience with failed cards?

go with quality brand names,

cheapo cards have a tendancy to eff up.

Quality brand or not, I never had one dying on me yet and I'm using Compact Flash cards for over 8 years or so. I'd say they are pretty durable, with the exception of about three times where one froze during loading/copying files and needed to be formated before I could use it again.

Compared to hard drives, it's the next best thing!

Good to know! One of the reasons I asked is that I have a RS7000 which uses Smart Media, and they do get worn out I hear. Well, Compact Flash cards won't last forever either, obviously, but they do seem a lot more robust and durable than Smart Media. I guess I'll pick up one or two more and settle for that.

btw: which brands would you recommend?

The less moving parts, the more durable. I'm not sure if a Smart Media card would be less durable, but I think it isn't a world a difference.

Of course, compact flash cards are still more common and easier to get than Smart Media. Those cards have sky high prices, I've seen 4mb cards go for 200$, it's crazy.

As for brands, well... most brands are good. Fujifilm, Sandisk Ultra and so on. If you want to go safe, go for the more expensive brands, but do not go for those special cards which are supposed to work at very very high speeds. I'm not sure why, but some of those Sandisk Ultra III (don't remember which one) apparently don't work flawlessly.

There's a thread on this forum about compact flash cards brands and people's experience with them though, go do a search, it's worth it.

Man, FUCK cf cards, i can't find any under 2 gb.

Yeah, tough luck but anything under 4Gb won't be easy to find these days. I'd suggest Ebay, Craiglist, websites like that instead. Some online webshops seem to still have some stock left, but it's getting worse. Don't pay ridiculous amounts for secondhand cards though, it's not worth it.

I think one of the problems with the Smart Media cards is that the surface is exposed to a higher degree to scratches, sunlight etc.
And thanks for the advice on CM cards

Yeah, I suppose you are right about that.

I was in search for 1GB compact flash cards for my 555 and end up asking my friend who is pro photographer if he has some smaller CF's.
We made a deal. I bought one brand new 4 GB and he gave me like 15 smaller cads for it and we both were happy. He didn't use those anymore because one picture takes like 8MB and he takes like 150-300 photos per session.
Ask pro photographers, that's my advice. Peace, Crumb.

@crumbsucker:
That's a brilliant idea! Thanks for sharing

i managed to cop 2 more sandisk 1gb cards of amazon uk. got 3 now, think thats enough!!

once a 1gb card fucked my sp-404 for some moments. then i used that with my mpc1000 and i used the 128mb cf labeled akai with my sp-404. now it works.
i didn't bought that 1gb card, it was sold with the sp-404 so i don't know the label of this cf card. nothing is written.

tip for huntin' cf cards 1gb and under: look in weird places like supermarkets and pharmacies