

First-generation xD cards (Type S) have a maximum capacity of only 512 MB.

May have a shorter life span than comparable cards with FTL wear levelers if the file system used does not take into account wear leveling. Directly derived from the SmartMedia card.The fastest xD card offers less than 10% of the speed of current (2009) CompactFlash cards. Has not kept up with the transfer rate, or speed, of other cards, notably CompactFlash and SD, but also the later versions of the Memory Stick.
OLYMPUS XD XD PICTURE CARD READER FREE
In contrast, the CompactFlash format is described by completely open and free specifications. No public documentation was available (see below for reverse-engineering results). Card format is proprietary to Fujifilm and Olympus, just as the Memory Stick format is to Sony.Modified XD readers can be used to read arbitrary NAND chips. Better-designed flash file systems can directly access the NAND flash hardware. Contains no flash translation layer (designed to emulate the block device structure of a magnetic disk drive).Certain final Olympus cameras using xD cards are also supporting microSD cards with a special, included adapter.įuji released its last digital camera accepting that card, namely Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR (a variant of 2008 FinePix F100fd), being released back in Q2 2009, as being moving away from xD format since Q4 2008.Īmazon Best Sellers in xD-Picture Cards reports no products offered with a Date First Available since 4 August 2009. The higher-end DSLR cameras such as the E-3 and E-5 among others continue to use CompactFlash cards as well.

This changeover to the SD card format has never been officially announced by Olympus Corporation. As of Spring 2010, all new Olympus cameras announced at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show and Photo Marketing Association International Trade Show can use SD cards. Olympus began to move away from the xD format with the mid-2009 announcement of the E-P1 camera, which supported only Secure Digital memory cards. Because of its higher cost and limited usage in products other than digital cameras, xD lost ground to SD, which is broadly used by cellular phones, personal computers, digital audio players and many other digital cameras. Previously, xD competed primarily with Secure Digital (SD) cards, CompactFlash (CF), and Sony's Memory Stick. xD cards were sold under other brands, including Kodak, SanDisk, PNY, and Lexar, but were not branded with the respective companies' logos, except for Kodak. Toshiba Corporation and Samsung Electronics manufactured the cards for Olympus and Fujifilm. The cards were developed by Olympus and Fujifilm, and introduced into the market in July 2002.
