The above writeup fails to mention the standard sizes of Compact Flash cards. These are
- 8 MB
- 16 MB
- 32 MB
- 64 MB
- 128 MB
- 160 MB
- 192 MB
- 256 MB
- 512 MB
- 1.0 GB
There is also a huge price difference between No-Name cards and brand cards, and while there may be minute differences in speed, I have not yet seen one of my No Namers break down despite some of the punishment I have put them through. And the price difference can be enormous, up to 100 %, especially in the larger, and therefore newer sizes.
At this point, the best choice of size when comparing the MB per monetary unit, is the 256 MB CF Card, but this may change in a years time. One 256 MB card is slightly cheaper than two 128 MB card, and two 256 MB card are still a better deal than one 512 MB card, although the prices of these are still falling. 1 GB cards, when available (they are still very rare, as these cards are very new items, I have only seen them twice while wandering my favorite Hi-tech-wonderland, Akihabara), are still priced prohibitively, and unless you really need one big card, you are better off with, say, 8 256 MB cards.
The development of CF-Cards still continues, and while other systems such as the SD Card and Memorystick are now being pushed because of better digital rights management (CF has no such thing), they still hold the biggest market share. Additionally, CF-cards have always been the largest portable memory cards on the market. I have yet to see Memorysticks or SD-Cards of 512 MB or larger. I am curious, how much flash memory they can go on fitting into this small space.