help with memory chips please

happyhero

Hi I have a Sony digital camcorder model DCR PC110E, which takes miniDV tapes and has a memory stick slot. I have had it a few years now and it is great but the memory stick is playing up. The one I got with it, was your typical too small in Megabytes stick so I bought a Lexar 64MB (will hold about 120 photos on my camcorder) one straight away, so that is a few years old too, but in the last year no matter how much I delete ALL or format, I have to waste the first two photos as they end up with a funny line in them. It looks to me like that part of the stick may be permanently damaged or corrupt. So I always waste the first two photos before I take any decent pictures. Occasionaly the first two are ok but they soon play up on the next set of photos. Apart from this the photos are perfect and the chip works great.

I have used my wife's Canon camera which has a CF card and it is so tolerant of messing about etc, whereas my memory stick has to be nursed, ie I dont dare pull it out of the PC when or even after accessing it and I often have to restart the PC for the PC to recognise its there. I have tried it on other PC's too. I know you should not do certain things with memory cards etc but what I am getting at is that the CF cards seem such a reliable platform in comparison to the memory stick but I am a bit out of touch with this stuff.

I am now thinking of getting a new and bigger MB chip, but I need a bit of guidance.The stick I have dissapears completely into the camcorder as it should thus preventing any physical damage to it being possible.

I have seen that there is an improved memory stick, memory stick pro I think it is, but isn't this longer, ie would it fit my camcorder and if so without sticking out?

Is a new stick going to perform better ie, not play up like I described mine above, and behave more like the CF card I mention above, or is the memory stick a weaker platform. and will therefore always not be as good as other types?

I know memory is quite cheap these days so I may go a bit bigger as I know 64MB is now a bit of a joke and you probably cant even buy it.

I like Sony camcorders so I suppose I am stuck with memory sticks, but my current experience is putting me off the memory stick platform, but I am hoping it has all changed and a new one would be great, would it?

I would appreciate some help/comments with the above to help me do the right thing.

Andys1

Not sure of the actual memory card format required as there are a few but what I can say from experience is buy recognised branded, 'genuine' named and guaranteed cards, and that doesn't matter if it's your camcorder or anything else to take pictures (I have a canon digital camera and use Kingston CF cards for it). Saying that though, any card can fail at any time really, it's a case of lowering the risk factor.

I steer clear of 'bargains' on the likes of ebay for this sort of thing, they can sometimes be cheap copies or inferior quality.. you get what you pay for.

happyhero

anybody else? please?

almillar

Best place to check would be your camcorder's manual. Sony have fiddled and made so many different memory stick formats that it's hard to keep up. I've avoided Sony stuff partially because of this. If you've seen both sticks, and they look physically different, then it's likely it won't work. You could even try googling the model number to see if anyone else has similar problems.
That does sound like a card going faulty BTW. And yes, 64MB is tiny for photos these days, never mind video!
HTH