Questions on Memory Cards

[Caitsmama]

I am buying a camera tonight, and I am a newbie to the whole memory card thing.. My current Sony Mavica, uses mini CD's to record, which i love.. So, i don't know anything about cards..
Question is, i am going to WDW next month, and I am getting a 2GB card tonight.. so i think i would be able to get about 600 or so pics on it with a 6MP camera right? IS there anywhere in WDW to download pics onto a cd from your cards? Or should i get another 2 GB card to bring with me? Like i said, i am new to this......

 

[Groucho]

600 pictures is about right for a 6mp, but every camera is slightly different. Your owner's manual should give you a more accurate numbers. (Obviously, if it doesn't list a 2g card, just double the 1g number!)

If you think you'll need more, you're best off to buy another card rather than burn a CD in the park - which you can do, but it's something like $13 and is going to use up precious time. Plus a 2g card, if full, would require three CDs (since they max out at 700m.) I have no idea if they'll burn DVDs?

Until the 23rd, you can get an Ultra 133x 2g card for $20 after rebate, free shipping. Mine works great and I already got an email that the rebate has been approved, now I just have to wait for it to arrive... You can probably find ones without rebate for as cheap as $30 or so. For $20, it's worth it IMHO!

 

[Master Mason]

I keep hoping that CF memory will catch up in price with SD....

and Congrats on the new camera, I am sure you'll love it.

 

[Anewman]

I keep hoping that CF memory will catch up in price with SD....

and Congrats on the new camera, I am sure you'll love it.

Master Mason click here

 

[Jeanne B]

I agree with Groucho, get a second card rather than spending time and money getting pictures burned at WDW. It's always a good idea to have a backup memory card anyway just in case something unexpected happens to your primary card. You can buy one or two spare cards online for very little money these days. I have a 2GB, 1GB and a few 512MB (and some smaller than these since I've always had cameras that took SD cards since going digital).

 

[jann1033]

I keep hoping that CF memory will catch up in price with SD....

and Congrats on the new camera, I am sure you'll love it.

i got a sd/cf converter since i had the above mentioned card lying around unuseable and it worked great.( forget how much it was but it was cheaper than a cf of the same gb) now that is my "first used" card and i haven't had one problem with it.

also agree about the memory, you can get a 1 gb for close to what it costs to burn a cd in wdw and the card is reusable.

 

[WillCAD]

Think of memory cards like baskets - would you put all of your eggs into just one?

Instead of buying a 2gb card, consider buying 2 or 3 1gb card so that your pics will be split up, or even several 512mb cards.

Stuff happens. People lose cards, lose whole cameras, drop or damage their cameras, accidentally delete all the pics from their cards, or even have their camera bags stolen while on vacation. By splitting your pics up onto multiple memory cards, you play the odds; if something does happen to a card, you will only lose part of your pics, not all of them.

I never put more than one day's worth of vacation pics on any one memory card. This is easier for me, since I take a laptop to WDW with me and can download my pics, so I don't need so many cards. But even so, all of my cards are only 512mb each - and I can easily fit a whole day of pics at full resolution onto one card.

 

[Groucho]

If you're shooting raw, 2g isn't all THAT big. I'm going to dump my pictures to a laptop and burn a DVD every night and I'm wondering if a pair of 2g cards (with a 512m as a backup) will be enough if I'm shooting RAW and planning on taking a ton of photos.

The other school of thought is that the fewer cards that you have, the less likely you are to lose them. I would agree that it's probably not a good idea to have an entire vacation's photos sitting exclusively on a single card.

 

[handicap18]

Groucho, on my last trip I used JPEG Fine and took about 330 or so pic's per day and that all fit on a 1 gig card. With a 2 gig I can fit 270 RAW files on my D50. If you have 2 you should be good. The Pentax you have and my D50 are both 6mp so the files should be about the same size give or take a few K. I think with 2 2 gig cards you should be good from day to day.

 

[Caitsmama]

Thanks guys.. you have given me lots to consider!
Thanks again,

 

[WillCAD]

i got a sd/cf converter since i had the above mentioned card lying around unuseable and it worked great.( forget how much it was but it was cheaper than a cf of the same gb) now that is my "first used" card and i haven't had one problem with it.

also agree about the memory, you can get a 1 gb for close to what it costs to burn a cd in wdw and the card is reusable.

Jan, burning a CD at WDW is only $12.99, and I have yet to see a 1gb CF or SD card anywhere near that price, at least not any major brands like Sandisk or Kingston and not from any well-known reputable dealers.

 

[Amy]

Amazon.com had a 1GB SanDisk SD card for $21.99 earlier this week. Shipped direct from SanDisk, and even with paying $8 shipping, it was still a great deal.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

One mistake I often hear people make is confusing Sandisk and Secure Digital.

Sandisk is a company that makes a lot of different types of memory cards, including compact flash (CF) and secure digital (SD).

Secure Digital (SD) is a type of memory card made by a lot of different companies, just one of which is Sandisk.

 

[Groucho]

Frankly, I don't think Sandisk is worth the extra money. I'm not convinced that they're significantly more reliable than the competition, yet they usually cost 2-3x as much. (Especially if you want the Ultra 3 for the extra speed - which is pretty similar to 133x/150x cards from the competition.) Most have lifetime warranties, as well.

Regardless, a name-brand 2gb high-speed SD card can commonly be had online for $30. If you were planning on using WDW's CD backup system, remember than a 2gb card will take three CDs to back up to. So triple that $13 charge. To say nothing of the time and effort of getting over there when your camera is full. And then what do you do if you run out when you're shooting your resort or Downtown Disney at night when the CD burning places are closed? You're stuck. More memory is always the safest route.

And all the deals I've seen any time recently online have been for reputable online stores (ZipZoomFly, Outpost, buy.com, and NewEgg are all very reputable.) The cheapest price I've seen yet was a regular-speed 1g for $8.

If you are a "Sandisk snob" ZipZoomFly currently has a $20 rebate on a 2gb Ultra 2 SD card, $55 after rebate.

Handicap18, you're probably right - I suspect I should be fine. Although if I see another 2gb highspeed for $20, I might not be able to resist.