Media Card Questions

[Jeff7181]

I have a few Smart Media cards right now, but I was wondering if any of the other types are cheaper than SM, cause now I have a 6-in-1 reader, so I'm able to use pretty much any type there is.

 

[fr]

CompactFlash or USB data key.

 

[Jeff7181]

What type is faster? I have to use Smart Media with my digital camera... but I also use memory cards for storing data when I don't have enough to fill a CD rather than floppy disks.
I've seen a bunch of stuff about 12x, 20x, 30x Compact Flash cards... is there an industry standard like with CDRW drives? How many KB/s is 1X for compact flash?
How does the speed of Compact Flash cards compared to Smart Media cars or Secure Digital cards?