OK - found a good deal on a D100 (now just waiting for it to get here. Ordered it through the local camera shop (where I used to work - so I'm gettin' it at cost - YAY!). Now comes the media issue: I did a bit of digging and came across the Flashtrax (http://www.smartdisk.com/Products/DigitalMultimedia/FlashTrax.asp) - a digital storage device that reads media cards and stores the content in a 30 or 80 gig portable device (complete with screen for viewing files) (also doubles as an MP3 player). Has anyone had any experience with the Flashtrax? Right now, my plan is to get a couple of 256M cards and the Flashtrax and run with it. I plan to shoot virtually everything in RAW format (and I don't know exactly what file size a RAW image is at max res...?). Does this sound like a good way to go about it - I'm wide open for other recommendations. Your digital novice - Wolf

Wolf, Don't get me wrong I LOVE the D100 (will be posting some images in a bit tonight). But let me warn you, RAW-Fine-Meduim size = 50 images on a 512 card. They are 9-12meg each! They are some big files. I am trying to get santa to bring me a 1gig card for Christmas. I think I will need it plus! It is way too easy to grab shots with this thing. I point and bang I got it. The buffer is great, its faster than my film slr. But the size of the images, ouch. the price we pay for quality... Another thing I want for Cristmas is a SB-80DX Speedlight. From what I have found so far it is the only one that is 100% compatable with the D100. I don't have the $369(US) for that right now. Guess the old SB-20 will have to do for a while. Magick Michael

I'm using RAW-Fine-Small on that setting my Canon 10D is getting about 75-80 shots on a 512 card. Does the Small Med or large refer to the size of the embedded jpeg or the size of the RAW file on the Nikon?

Yup, even on my Dimage7 I'm getting roughly 20-23 images on a 256mb card shooting in RAW, roughly 14mb per image.... if you shoot a lot of images, you'll be transferring them off the card constantly....

Ooooh! All this shooting in the RAW. I'm excited! Seems so boring with film... Lots of good practical information here. Need to archive this...

Yea, those RAW files are pretty big. Kind of amazed me that the 10D's RAW file with small-normal JPEG embedded is only around 6MB. I started off shooting everything in RAW too. Then after having to convert around 500 shots I've started selecting when to shoot RAW (depends on the type of shot, how difficult the lighting is, etc. - basically, figuring out if I might need the latitude that RAW gives you). -=>Donald

Wow, this is all pretty technical stuff!!! (Mikey moves rapidly on to next post) (",)