Fat32 support

[starsjohn]

Is there any fat32 support either by software or chips for the S2? I would like to use the LEXAR 4 Gig chips with the S2. The Nikon D100 supports this file format.

New S2 owner, John

[Swampy]

Currently, the answer would be no. And I doubt that Fuji will do anything about it. Too many eggs in one basket for me though. I'd go with multiple 1gb cards. I shoot a lot of jpg and go with multiple 512mb cards. Shoot a lot a Raw? Go with the 1gb or maybe even 2gb.

Every lose a card or have one fail for some reason, at least all your pictures won't be lost from that shoot.

[starsjohn]

Thanks Swampy for the fast reply. I plan to shoot a lot of RAW files so the 2 Gig chips look good. You brought out an important point about not having all your pics on one chip. I plan to use a 80 Gig portable drive with viewing screen for offloading the chips while traveling. Most trips I do not want to haul the laptop along.

Cheers, John

[killians913]

Swampy,

I know this has been discussed before, so I need to have my memory refreshed. Can the S2 use a 2gb compact flash card? I was under the impression that they cannot be formatted to FAT16 which is what the S2 expects to see. :confused:

[Swampy]

Fat16's limit is 2gb. So you'll end up with just a little less than 2gb, depending on how you do the math, but probably 1.98gb is what you'll get from it. I think others have used 2gb cards here without any issues, I haven't had the chance to try one myself since I don't really want one that big yet.

[jknights]

Take a loook here
http://www.lochert.cc/microdrive.html

This should work.

I haven't tried it but I cant see any reason why it shouldnt work.

N.B. you lose the frame counter as the S2 cant work out how much diskspace is left.

[starsjohn]

Hi Jonathan,

A very elegant and cost effective solution. I will give it a try, after I go to Best Buy and nail a Creative player or two or three. I have had some experience with older versions of Linux and it was very difficult with applications to astronomical imaging and data reduction. Also used to have to repartition a hard drive to run Linux. Used Partition Magic to repartition the drive to run Linux and Windoze on the same drive.

I will report back on my findings. Again, thank you for the solution.

John

[Auminer]

I will report back on my findings. Again, thank you for the solution.
John I am curious to know what you found out, have you tried it yet?

Dave

[starsjohn]

Hi Dave,

Here I wait for the promised players with the 4g chips. I will avoid business with several major companies who have taken my order promising same week delivery and then never coming through. Amazon.com is the worst.

While in the Caribbean a couple of weeks ago, I checked the big electronics houses in St. Tomas and St. Maarten. Not a one to be found except one that had the chip switched to 128mb. Locally, Fry's electronics, Best Buy, Circuit City, all come up zip.

I see numbers of these items on Ebay at scalpers prices so I guess that is where they all are.

I will be in Osaka, Japan next month, and will check the market there. I still hope to get one and make my tests. If you know of a source, please let me know. In the meantime I am using the Lexar 2g chips and they work very well.

John

[Auminer]

John,

Thanks for your input! Yup I've run into the same problem, seems like the magic date to stock items is the 14th, not that I take any 'stock' in it ;)

I hope they will become available here in the states and we don't have to go overseas for them.

I'll surely let you know if I run across a supplier without the scalpers prices. I'm really anxious to use this 4G as I shoot raw 90% of the time.

Thanks again,
Dave

[starsjohn]

Hi Dave,

Don't bet on the 14th as one dealer has now released a Feb, 2005 date. I hear a good number of known retailers are selling their stock on Ebay at the inflated rates.

I am going to use the s2 in an underwater housing so changing chips is not an option underwater and risky on the boat. RAW format is important to my scientific shooting where pixel readout must be pure as possible without any compression or binning scheme. Heaven will be the day we see 64-bit output from these devices.

John