[t6hawk]

Anyone know which would offer better battery life in a digital camera? A memory card or a microdrive?

[itguy05]

Flash memory as they use less current during reading and writing. That being said, I have a 2 year old Microdrive (1GB) and didn't really notice much of a difference between it and the CF cards in my cameras (Minolta Dimage 7 - battery hog) and my Canon 10D.

[tooki]

Without question the Flash media uses less power, is faster, and is much less sensitive to physical abuse. The advantage of the Microdrive is its low cost compared to similar-capacity Flash cards.

tooki

[CIA]

Since they are solid state, flash cards offer much more protection from jarring and dropping. I've washed my CF cards and they still work. Microdrives break easily even when you are carefull.

[subego]

As to CF's durability, I'll make any excuse to link to these cool pics:

CF card survives blast that destroys camera -- and records moment of impact