MEMORY Card OVERVIEW?

[mom2rtk]

We leave for our family road trip in about 5 weeks. I think I want to add a few more memory cards before I go. I like the redundancy of putting the photos on my external hard drive but also keeping them on cards until I back them up at home later.

I plan to shoot more in RAW. I like the 8GB size.

I do shoot a lot of sports sometimes, so lots of FPS.

Do I really need class 6? Or would 4 be OK?

Are there any brands to avoid?

Thanks for everyone's ongoing help!

 

[MICKEY88]

We leave for our family road trip in about 5 weeks. I think I want to add a few more memory cards before I go. I like the redundancy of putting the photos on my external hard drive but also keeping them on cards until I back them up at home later.

I plan to shoot more in RAW. I like the 8GB size.

I do shoot a lot of sports sometimes, so lots of FPS.

Do I really need class 6? Or would 4 be OK?

Are there any brands to avoid?

Thanks for everyone's ongoing help!

what type of cards are you looking for

 

[mom2rtk]

what type of cards are you looking for

Guess that might help!

SDHC. I have a Canon XSI.

 

[Gianna'sPapa]

I use all 8 gb SDHC's. I also shoot sports and because of the FPS, I like to use class 6. You can get away with class 4 and I do have a class 10, but I think that is overkill. I prefer Sandisk and Kingston. Both have lifetime warranties.

 

[Iwant2BAprincess]

how do you tell what class they are?

 

[Bstanley]

how do you tell what class they are?

By whether they dress for dinner or not...

Sorry - I couldn't resist.

Most SDHC cards are marked with a circle enclosing a number. The number is the class.

 

[funkychunkymonkey]

what does the class number mean and do?

 

[Bstanley]

The class number corresponds to a speed rating. Basically the rate at which data can be sent to the card.

Class 4 is 32 MBit/Sec

Class 6 is 48 MBit/Sec

Class 10 is 80 MBit/sec

(there's a pattern...)

If your DSLR is supposed to take 6 shots a sec and seems to lose interest and slow down after the first few shots you might want to check the speed of your memory.

 

[boBQuincy]

Rob Galbraith's website lists cards and their speeds on certain cameras (Xsi included). I use Sandisk Extreme III (class 6) and rarely fill the buffer, although it has happened a few times.

Our on-the-road strategy is similar to yours, keep the data on the cards and backup to a hard drive.

 

[kathyell]

I like Sandisk class 6 cards, personally. I have a class 4 card as an emergency backup in my bag and I have overrun the buffer on that a noticeable number of times when I shoot in continuous mode. That doesn't tend to happen with the class 6 card.

Class 4's not the end of the world, but I honestly think I've been able to observe a speed difference.

My impression is that class 10 is overkill (at least, for the moment, until technology starts to catch up with that speed) unless you have a super-extra-fast camera. I've seen a lot of reviewers and other photographers say this, but I should add that I haven't used a class 10 card and don't have one of the cameras with a remarkably quick continuous fps rate, so take that all with a grain of salt.

 

[Daisy14'sDH]

Lately I've been filling the buffer with my class 6 in no time. I shoot in RAW + JPEG. Which is probablyt the main cause. Does anyone know if a class 10 will make a difference? I dont want to spend the money on one if its pointless...

 

[mom2rtk]

So do you guys all stick with Sandisk or Kingston? Does anyone have an opinion on Transcend?

 

[kathyell]

So do you guys all stick with Sandisk or Kingston? Does anyone have an opinion on Transcend?

Okay, this is a VERY small sample size, but I have a Transcend class 6 microSD card in my G1 phone, and I have to mess with it from time to time to get it to work properly. Sometimes my phone is simply unable to read data off of it and I have to take the card out and put it back in, and then sometimes restart my phone to get it to read. I backup my phone data to my laptop all the time because I know that someday this futzy card will just stop working.

Based on this experience, I ruled out Transcend brand cards when I was purchasing SDHC cards for my DSLR. I know my phone card might just be an aberration, but the fact that Transcend cards always seem to come at the lower price points PLUS the reliability issues with my one card added together just makes me not comfortable with them for camera memory. (I mean, I can copy songs back over to my phone, but I can't take the same pictures a second time. If my camera's card goes bad, those pics that didn't get taken off before it went bad are just gone.) Your mileage would almost certainly vary, but I've never had a problem with the Sandisk cards I've purchased, and from what I've seen, they get the best and most consistent reviews for reliability.

 

[funkychunkymonkey]

I use scandisk because there affordable. I just bought two 4gb ones on newegg for 20 bucks WITH shipping!

 

[JJ71]

I've always used sandisk on my dslr and have been happy with it (though make sure to buy from a reputable seller–*there are counterfeit cards out there). I've also used transcend on other devices (wii, p&s camera) and have yet to have a problem.

 

[spinetnglr]

This is just a bit off topic but I am thrilled to see pretty much everyone giving a thumbs up to their Sandisk cards. I bought a few shares of Sandisk stock a couple of months ago .. its been on a rampage lately with the rest of market. I think thats a pretty good testiment to their quality a reliability. Of course camera memory is not their only product but it is big part of their bottom line. I almost always use Sandisk cards because I've never had a problem with any of them. I use the SDHC cards in my D40 and the CF cards in my D300. I do have one Lexar CF and have used it for over a year with my D300 and no problems. Thank you to all you loyal Sandisk users ... keep up the good work I'm not ready to sell my SNDK shares just yet!!!

 

[Gianna'sPapa]

So do you guys all stick with Sandisk or Kingston? Does anyone have an opinion on Transcend?

There is a lifetime warranty on the Sandisk and Kingston. I believe the warranty on the Transcend is 2 years. To me that tells me something.

 

[mom2rtk]

This is just a bit off topic but I am thrilled to see pretty much everyone giving a thumbs up to their Sandisk cards. I bought a few shares of Sandisk stock a couple of months ago .. its been on a rampage lately with the rest of market. I think thats a pretty good testiment to their quality a reliability. Of course camera memory is not their only product but it is big part of their bottom line. I almost always use Sandisk cards because I've never had a problem with any of them. I use the SDHC cards in my D40 and the CF cards in my D300. I do have one Lexar CF and have used it for over a year with my D300 and no problems. Thank you to all you loyal Sandisk users ... keep up the good work I'm not ready to sell my SNDK shares just yet!!!

Well, you can thank me for today's profits then.... I just bought 2 more of the 8GB Extreme III's. Thanks to everyone here for their input!

Now that I have several of these, do you guys mark these in some way so you can tell them apart? I actually was considering another brand just so I could tell them apart!