I'm considering purchasing the Fuji MX1700 camera. It uses smart media. What is involved in using one of those floopy adapters to read in the images? Do you have to load drivers into the PC? Are they compatible with Windows 98/NT/2000? Will it work in an Imation SuperDisk drive? Thanks for your suggestions

-- Mark Foersch (mfoersch@zygo.com), February 25, 2000

Answers

The floppy adapters are SLOW. The best way to download is to use a reader that connects to your USB or Parallel port.

I recently purchased a FlashGate(tm) SmartMedia Reader/Writer for USB, HBC-US10 from pcline.com $69.95. It's a nice little box that I mounted into an unused bay of my pc. And it is superfast - as fast as the access of a hard-drive. What's more, you can write to it as well. This is a plus when reviewing archived photos on my big screen that have been stored on my pc. It comes with an installation CD and has been trouble-free.

Regards,

Ray J.

-- Raymond Johnson (cosmos@lakeozarks.net), February 25, 2000.

Yes, they work quite well. I have 2, that I use if I'm going to someone elses house, and am wanting to download some pictures onto their computer. They do come with an installation floppy that needs to be installed before they will work. They will work on Win 95 or 98. I don't know about NT or Win 2000, but I suspect they will work there as well. I don't know about the Imation Disk Drive. I've had no experience with it.

The other poster was right. They are slow. If your in a hurry, get a SmartMedia Card Reader instead. Much faster. If your not in a hurry, they work great.

Steve Buttram

-- Steve Buttram (swb@mac.com), February 26, 2000.

Floppy disk adapters fit into your standard 3.5" floppy disk drive. They come with all necessary drivers either on floppy disk or CD-ROM. If the Imation SuperDisk Drive can read 3.5" floppy media, I suppose it would work, but if the Imation is anything like the Iomega Zip Drive, the formats are totally incompatable. You simply install the supplied batteries , put your SmartMedia card into the adapter, then insert into the floppy drive. Other (very important)factors that determine the speed of the file transfer would be your processor speed, available Ram, and hard drive space. Although nothing beats USB transfer (which I don't believe is built into the Fuji cameras, but is available via USB card readers) a floppy disk will run sufficiently for most people's everyday needs, and I have yet to see a retail configuration styled computer without a floppy disk drive as standard equipment!

-- Pat S (tanfgirl@gambling.com), February 27, 2000.

I have MX 1700 and serial port file transfer is very slow. After I tried my friend's FlashPath, I think this is my solution, 8M in about 4 mins. Not too bad :-) Not to plug something behide someone's else computer is a good feeling.

-- Joe (N.Onparn@exeter.ac.uk), March 01, 2000.

I've owned a Flashpath and a SuperDrive for about 2 years. Downloading time is a directly related to the size of the memory card and youe computer processor/ram. (Ya no brainer!) I have had no problem with the Flashpath operating with a 1.44 or Superdrives ( both the 120mb and the 240mb) What I like about this device is that you can use it to transfer info on to anyones computer without carring cables. All you do is load the correct OS software into the persons computer an it a few seconds you transfering stuff. The OS software for the flashpat is found on the net and fits on to a single 1.44 floppy. and yes it will work on all Windows OS

-- Tracer (tracer51@hotmail.com), December 31, 2002.