Anyone have negative experience with a Microdrive?

[slang]

Hey Yall,


I'm planning my next trip around the world now and am looking at taking a much better digital camera this time.

Having one little trip under my belt now, I have a better idea of what I'd like to catch with a cam. It would be nice to get better quality shots next time out, as well as more thought out scenes and maybe even a tripod.

The Sony DSCF828 looks like a good deal and the Sonys have always been very good to me. This particular cam is 8.2 megapixel which is about the best I'm going to get (as far as I have seen....you may know of one that has escaped my research ), without spending $8K on just a cam.

There are many things that I like about the 828 but one big one is that it can use a microdrive. My only hesitation in buying the Sony (as opposed to the Canon rebel ) is that I have heard that the microdrives are VERY unstable in digicams. Both with being bumped and with other electronics erasing their memory.

If I can find some people with good experience with the microdrive in a cam, I'll gamble my trip photos on having it perform as intended. I'd have some backup memory sticks too if I went with the Sony but the big draw is having 4 gigs of space available for photos and MPEGS.

Has anyone had any experience with them, good or bad?

Second question: Does anyone know of a 8MP or higher digicam out there that costs under $3k?

Thanks,

digi-slang