Memory Cards - Does Brand Matter?

[OlivesMom]

I am need to buy a memory card and was surprised to see all the brands. If I don't care about speed for uploading to my PC, but do care about load time between shots, does it matter which one I get? It is for a camera I bought 2 years ago and forgot about it (long story). Lost the cord to get pictures from the internal memory out so I thought I'd get a card. Not sure how the pictures will come out so I didn't want to spend a lot in case I decide to get a new camera all together.

Thanks!

 

[AZ JazzyJ]

For the most part brand really doesn't matter. That being said I only use Lexar and SanDisk just because I have found them to be reliable. I had some off brands that worked for a while but soon I found that every time I put them in my card reader I would get Windows asking me if I wanted to repair the card. Not exactly sure what it thought was wrong with it. Never had that problem with either Lexar or SanDisk. Both of those manufacturers make several different versions of memory cards that differ in speed or robustness to elements, etc. You can usually pick up a card from a major manufacturer at a price point that you feel comfortable with. Prices for memory cards are volatile especially in Arizona. I have gotten great deals on SD and CompactFlash cards at Circuit City and BestBuy just by watching their ads and their online sites. Just last week I bought 2GB SanDisk Extreme III SD cards for $19 each at a Circuit City in Gilbert.

 

[ukcatfan]

I like those two and Kingston. I have had a couple off brands not work well. One failed and I lost a few pics.

Kevin

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Brand and speed are not the same thing. Every major brand sells a range of cards from relatively slow to relatively fast.

At some point, faster cards don't help. Every camera has a limit to how fast it can write to a memory card. If you already use a card that is faster than the camera's maximum write speed, using an even faster card won't make any difference.

Rob Galbraith's site has a database showing how fast different cards work for different DSLRs. That's the only source I know that helps sort out how big an impact the different speed cards have.

 

[DVC Jen]

Brand and speed are not the same thing. Every major brand sells a range of cards from relatively slow to relatively fast.

At some point, faster cards don't help. Every camera has a limit to how fast it can write to a memory card. If you already use a card that is faster than the camera's maximum write speed, using an even faster card won't make any difference.

Rob Galbraith's site has a database showing how fast different cards work for different DSLRs. That's the only source I know that helps sort out how big an impact the different speed cards have.

Mark do you have a link to that site?

 

[MarkBarbieri]

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007

 

[Anewman]

I have seen name brand cards fail and I have seen generic(PQI from frys) last for years, that said if price difference is reasonable I tend to get the name brand. But I wont pay double the price.

 

[Master Mason]

All of my cards are San Disk, I have todate, never had one fail. I use 4gb ones as that lets me shoot a while a while (about 300 raw images) but still not have too great an exposure for loss due to failure.

I just wait until I see a good price and then pick up one or 2, if I am looking for them at the time.

 

[DVC Jen]

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007

thanks