Memory cards

[Sniper]

General question, what size memory cards do you use? I have taken the plunge and bought myself a Canon Eos 1000D, although not my first SLR it is my first digital SLR, inspired by all you folks out there I have finally dragged myself into digital fully. I have dabbled a bit for happy snaps with a Sony Cybershot and it's done me well but I have resisted changing my trusty old EOS 35mm till this moment, so now I've gone and done it.

First thing I need to get is a memory card, what size and class do you recommend, also how many do you have. Is there any make which is particularly good or are they all much of a muchness.

Thanks Wayland I followed your advice and got it from Warehouse Express, you were spot on their service is terrific, ordered on Sunday night delivered today, good price too, plus their live ask the expert line was great.

Thanks in advance folks.

 

[bonzodog]

i have two fujifilm 60x 1gb my motto is cry just the once,in two years of use no problems

 

[discoveringtheforest]

I use compact flash and SD by sandisk the extreme 3 ones

 

[joejoe]

like everything else buy what you can afford plus 10 percent

 

[Squidders]

4GB SanDisk Extreme III CF

they're cheap as chips from 7dayshop

 

[Tadpole]

General question, what size memory cards do you use? I have taken the plunge and bought myself a Canon Eos 1000D, although not my first SLR it is my first digital SLR, inspired by all you folks out there I have finally dragged myself into digital fully. I have dabbled a bit for happy snaps with a Sony Cybershot and it's done me well but I have resisted changing my trusty old EOS 35mm till this moment, so now I've gone and done it.

First thing I need to get is a memory card, what size and class do you recommend, also how many do you have. Is there any make which is particularly good or are they all much of a muchness.

Thanks Wayland I followed your advice and got it from Warehouse Express, you were spot on their service is terrific, ordered on Sunday night delivered today, good price too, plus their live ask the expert line was great.

Thanks in advance folks.

as big as you can (hide the bill from SWMBO) and the same size spare. I'd say at least 2Gb, and 4GB would be best quick look about the net and you can get a 8GB class six SDHC card for under £30 (and a spare battery for about the same price)

 

[Cobweb]

1-2gb is plenty. but if you need more, say for example, a 4gb then buy two 2gb cards instead of the 4gb card. If one buggers up, at least you will have photos on the other one.

 

[Kerne]

I have 1 x 4gb, 1 x 2 gb and 2 x 1gb CF for my Canon 5D and this is ample. When I go on holiday I carry an 80Gb portable hard drive to back them up onto if needs be but even taking RAW files I rarely use up all the space in these cards. Why the different sizes - I kept buying larger cards as the price fell...

 

[Sniper]

Thanks folks, once again you've come up trumps. So it's better to have more than one just in case, and a 4gb would be a good size to get at either class 4 or 6 being the main speed used. Right got that now to order a couple up.

 

[Tony]

Get the fastest cards you can, it doesn't often happen but there can be a lag if the cards are slow. I've got 3x2gb (i use them for other things as well) I'd go for big cards if poss and agree that having a number of them is good and protective case for when you're storing them.

 

[Wayland]

I generally use 4GB generic compact flash cards. I carry 6 of them.

They're not the fastest but for landscape the camera 's buffer will hold enough to make up for the lag.

On my compact I use a single 16GB SD card because I don't want to mess around with spare cards.

Theoretically there is a risk of losing stuff with big cards but I don't know of anyone that has actually had a problem when using them correctly.

Always turn the camera off before removing one and always format the card in the camera and they are very reliable.

 

[Armleywhite]

I usually have several 1GB cards cos If I lose one biggie with em all then I lose the lot. Carrying several smaller ones means I only lose one card and NOT all my photos. Personal choice though I suppose!

 

[Squidders]

A good friend of mine is a wedding photographer... he only uses 1GB cards because the dire nature of losing every photo from a wedding far outweighs the risk of it happening or the minor pain of swapping cards a lot.

 

[CAL]

I'm thinking about getting a 16gb class 6 SDHC card for my camera. They are currently on Ebuyer for £20 ish quid.

I do like the idea of carrying more smaller ones though. Despite having a card stolen after a dream holiday last year (and yes I did loose a lot of photo's but fortunately not all of them) I still didn't consider the chances of losing one.

 

[jonquirk]

My wife also has a new Canon EOS1000D. I put an 8GB SDHC Class 6 in it. I got it from www.7dayshop.com
I bought three for £9.69 each. (The other two went in my Nokia N800).

 

[Neanderthal]

Managed to shoot 1800 pictures including a few short vids during 3 weeks holiday, 13GB worth!
Filled 2x 4GB and over half a 8GB card and that was shooting JPGs. I was getting to know the camera, trying things out and bracketing but I was glad of the capacity.

Now I've started to understand a bit more about RAW format I'll mostly be shooting that way but hopefully trading quality for quantity to compensate.

Stu

 

[Sniper]

I ordered 1 x 8 gb cl 6 +card reader, 2 x 4gb cl 4, and 1 x 2 gb cl 4 from memorybits on the net, the lot came to £24.78 so am fair chuffed with that. Terrific prices from them 2gb is about £3.50 so I am now looking forward to taking lots of piccies to get used to the camera.

 

[Rebel]

CF cards are so cheap now that they aren't a big deal any more. It used to cost a lot for a pro card, now you can get a 4 gig Sandisk Extreme for less than 15 quid at Amazon or 7dayshop.

I'd stick to name brand cards because they have less chance of packing up on you (I just binned a no name card that refused to work anymore - I bought it back in the days when flash memory was expensive).

Sandisk Ultra is a good compromise between price, speed and quality. You can find a 2 gig one for under a tenner on the Internet (inc postage).

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_6&products_id=100516

 

[trail2]

Seeing as I'm a total waste when it comes to digital, whats the difference between SD, SDHP and MMC cards?
Excusing by ignorance in advance......:sad6:
Jon R.

 

[Rebel]

They are different formats. Most of the recent digital cameras take either SD (secure digital) or CF (compact flash) cards.

Generally speaking pro cameras take CF cards and entry level DSLRS and Point and Shoot cameras use SD cards. Some like Sony might use their own brand of memory card.

The instruction book for whatever camera you buy will tell you what type of card you need to purchase and what the maximum storage size is (if any).

MMC cards aren't so popular now but they are just another format.

SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity, SD 2.0) are SD cards that go beyond 2 GB. You'll have to check before buying one of these that your device is compatible with this card even though it physically fits in the slot.