Getting a Handle on Your Compact Flash Cards

The following idea about making flash cards accessible to nails-challenged photographers is a guest post by Zaug one of the world’s leading “your own bokeh” photographers.

I am quite happy with almost every aspect of my Sony alpha 850 and 900 DSLRs; one of the particular things I like is their size, especially with the addition of the vertical grips, they are a nice comfortable fit for my rather large-ish hands; not huge just larger than average.

Oddly, one part of these cameras that does not seem to have been designed with larger hands in mind is the location of the CF card slot and it’s respective cover.

The cover only opens 90 degrees rather than swinging on around so as to be completely out of the way. This leaves a very small space on one side of the card; only a little more than half the thickness of my index finger.

In short, it can be quite difficult for me to grab ahold of the CF card.

Although this is partially due to Sony’s design decisions, I also do not see why CF cards cannot have the same little ridge on the top side as they do on the bottom; alas,this would pretty much solve this issue.

But what to do while we wait for the world’s manufacturers implement my suggestions? :D

First cut a piece of good quality transparent packing tape; the type labeled for long term storage is what I usually keep around and used for this project. Transparent tape, as is commonly used for gift wrapping would also work but I think that it would not be very durable.

The roll of packing tape that I have is 2 inches or about 5 cm wide; perfect for our needs. Use scissors to cut a strip about a half an inch or about 1.5 cm wide.

Now place your CF card with the bottom side facing up.

Along the edge where you grab the card (opposite the edge with the holes) stick about the first half an inch or 1.5 cm of the tape on the bottom side, approximately in the center with the excess tape pointing out from the card at as close to a 90 degree angle as possible.

Now, continue sticking the tape around the edge of the card, so with the card resting on it’s bottom the tape is now pointing straight up.

Now, it is time to form the handle. Start by sticking down the loose end, overlapping the top side about a half an inch or 1.5 cm. Then simply squeeze and smooth the resulting “loop” of tape.

Now place the card in your camera and gently close the card slot cover checking that the tape is not interfering with the proper operation of the door. If this is the case, remove the card and trim the tape in the conflicting areas.

Right, now that is something that I can grab a hold of with no problem.

I get about two or three months of use out of one of these before it finally starts to get brittle. The spent one is easy to remove and in another two minutes (or less) and I have a new one applied.