Why do some DSLR's use compact flash memory cards and other DSLR's use SD cards?

I'm looking around at San Disk memory cards and just thinking, why are there different types of memory cards for DSLR cameras? Why not just keep everything using the same style memory card? You would expect that would simplify things on the manufacturing side of things.

Cost & space available in the cameras I would guess.

And yet you havent asked why there are so many battery types? Lens Mounts?

Its simply because each company manufactures/designs their products so that you use their accessories. Memory cards however have had clear popularity in their use. First it was Compact Flash, and now its SD Cards. All the rest now are pretty much niche products for whatever requires them.

geoffellis wrote: And yet you havent asked why there are so many battery types? Lens Mounts?

Its simply because each company manufactures/designs their products so that you use their accessories. Memory cards however have had clear popularity in their use. First it was Compact Flash, and now its SD Cards. All the rest now are pretty much niche products for whatever requires them.

Mounts are brand specific, batteries are brand specific. Memory cards are not a 32GB San Disk SD card will work just the same in Nikon, Canon and Sony. So I get the question and often wonder why the need for both today. If SD is newest technology, why not just make the leap to 100% SD cards vs both.

As Frost said it is a matter of space and design. The smaller bodies have less space so they get the SD, the larger bodies have more so CF. The other thing is function CF cards are faster and transfer more data through larger busses, this means they flush the memory buffers in the cameras faster. I prefer CF over SD any day.

Joves wrote: As Frost said it is a matter of space and design. The smaller bodies have less space so they get the SD, the larger bodies have more so CF. The other thing is function CF cards are faster and transfer more data through larger busses, this means they flush the memory buffers in the cameras faster. I prefer CF over SD any day.

I suspect in 5 years both of these will be on their way out or replaced already

Mayo wrote:

geoffellis wrote: And yet you havent asked why there are so many battery types? Lens Mounts?

Its simply because each company manufactures/designs their products so that you use their accessories. Memory cards however have had clear popularity in their use. First it was Compact Flash, and now its SD Cards. All the rest now are pretty much niche products for whatever requires them.

Mounts are brand specific, batteries are brand specific. Memory cards are not a 32GB San Disk SD card will work just the same in Nikon, Canon and Sony. So I get the question and often wonder why the need for both today. If SD is newest technology, why not just make the leap to 100% SD cards vs both.

You missed my point that batteries do not need to be brand specific. nor do lens mounts. the manufacturers make them brand specific.

And there are several memory cards that are brand specific. xD springs to mind... which is used/developed for Olympus and Fuji cameras. there is also Memory Stick Select/Duo/Pro whatever that is developed by Sony for their own products. Toshiba isnt a camera manufacturer, but they had their own as well (dont recall the name). Believe there are also one or two more specifically for cameras, but i cant recall them off the top of my head.

The only reason CompactFlash and SecureDigital is the most popular is because SanDisk corp released CF with open standards so that anyone may use the technology royalty free and Toshiba (developed with Sandisk) licensed the SD standard (unlike other formats). In fact SanDisk had a hand in developing many of the proprietary cards that are used. Which is why there are so many "SanDisk" cards.

So basically manufacturers have a choice. SD cards are smaller, so as cameras get smaller, the smaller cards make more sense. the sd cards are also cheaper. However as SD took over the market... it only makes sense that photographers were starting out with them. When they were moving on to better cameras they were expecting to find the better cameras with the same formats. not to mention that overall the market penetration for SD has been very high. from cameras, to laptops, to mobiles... just about every device ive seen in the last 6 years has an sd card slot of some size on it. CF might be faster/better, but its not necessarily the winner as far as market penetration is concerned.

+1 on CF vs SD

Screamin Scott wrote: +1 on CF vs SD

Sorry... maybe im out of touch... but what does this mean??

Higher end camera and the reasons they are used require more assurance of quality and reliability. So although SD may be more popular right now and flooding the market doesn't mean it's the best card for the job. I've had more SD cards fail me over the years compared to the one early CF card that failed on me. If I'm going to get paid a lot of money to photograph a wedding, or some other one chance gig, then I'm going to feel a lot better having memory more geared towards the task. Also there are adapters for those bother enough by it all to only want to get SD. They are slower than the CF by itself, so although I've tried one of them I don't use it anymore.

An SD in a point and shoot makes sense because a point and shoots biggest selling feature tends to be compact size and affordability.

It is the same reason there is more than one type of battery in the world (alkaline, lithium, Ni-Ca, ect.... ). Different things work better in different situations depending on their purpose.

That's my take on it all at least.

SD cards are smaller and cheaper. They are common in entry level DSLRs and compacts.

CF cards are more reliable, durable, heat resistant, and faster at the high end. They are common in cameras for pro or heavier use.