Compact Flash/Secure Digital Adapter with 16 MB SD Card

Manufacturer:	PNY
List price:	~~$99.95~~
Our price:	that is 100% off!

Compact Flash/Secure Digital Adapter with 16 MB SD Card

Average rating: Stars

cheap way to make the most of your CF and SD cards

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.

Compact Flash/Secure Digital Adapter with 16 MB SD Card - PNY

Nice in theory; does not work

I bought this device in order to be able to use SD cards for my phone in my Canon camera. It does not work. I have tried it with the SD card with which it was sent as well as three others. None work.

Moreover, none of the four SD cards including the one with which it came was not recognized by my XP (operating system) computer.

It would have been a nice idea but it just does not work, at least in my camera or on my computer.

PNY - Compact Flash/Secure Digital Adapter with 16 MB SD Card

Very nice item, works perfectly!

The PNY adapter is great! An SD card fits right into this adapter, and this adapter is exactly the same dimensions as a Type I CF so it fits into ANY CF slot. It basically turns any SD card into a CF card. The only thing that keeps it from being perfect is the SD card slot is in the side. This means the adapter has to be removed from whatever device it is inserted in before you can swap the SD card. Perfection would be if the SD card were inserted through the back edge of the adapter so the SD could be removed from the camera (or PDA, etc.) without removing the adapter itself.

It is a little pricey, but there seems to be more SD deals these days, SD seems to be faster than CF (in my experience), plus if you carry around a lot of memory cards, there will be a weight savings using SD instead since they are so much smaller. Not to mention so many other devices use SD (PDA, MP3 players, etc.) so using this adapter, you can use the same cards in everything. So overall, it may be a worthwhile buy.

I do also wonder why they couldn't just shave the price down a little and omit the antiquated 16MB SD card that they send with it.

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