Memory Card Questions

[mongoose]

How do I figure out what speed memory card I need with my camera? There seem to be different speed ratings like "Class 4" and "150x". I'm going to get a Nikon D80 and I don't want my memory card slowing down my photo taking.

How are the SDHC cards? The D80 is compatible with them and they hold a lot of space. I can get an 8G SDHC card for $67. The D80 takes 8.6M RAW images and 3.6M high quality JPEG images. If I shoot all high quality jpeg, I could fit over 2000 images per 8G card. I don't think I'll shoot many raw images. On the other hand, maybe I shouldn't put all my eggs in one basket and get a bunch of separate smaller cards just in case.

Lastly, does temperature really affect memory cards? They are rated for certain temps, but I can't imagine cold temperatures hurting a solid state memory card. Electronics are supposed to run better in cold temps!

[mwfanelli]

How do I figure out what speed memory card I need with my camera? There seem to be different speed ratings like "Class 4" and "150x". I'm going to get a Nikon D80 and I don't want my memory card slowing down my photo taking.

How are the SDHC cards? The D80 is compatible with them and they hold a lot of space. I can get an 8G SDHC card for $67. The D80 takes 8.6M RAW images and 3.6M high quality JPEG images. If I shoot all high quality jpeg, I could fit over 2000 images per 8G card. I don't think I'll shoot many raw images. On the other hand, maybe I shouldn't put all my eggs in one basket and get a bunch of separate smaller cards just in case.

Lastly, does temperature really affect memory cards? They are rated for certain temps, but I can't imagine cold temperatures hurting a solid state memory card. Electronics are supposed to run better in cold temps!

Look up the card speeds for your particular camera at:

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

Cold weather does not affect the cards themselves. The batteries in the camera will become weaker.

The only memory products I have had fail were made by Lexar. All other brands, including cheapies, are stil running after many years. There is a lifetime for them but few photographers ever reach it.

[mongoose]

Look up the card speeds for your particular camera at:

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

That's a great link, thanks! This will make finding a good card easier.

[DEvianT]

I use x133 speed CF, SDHC and SD cards of various makes in my 1D MK2 and they are plenty fast enough. Now if they are fast enough for 8.5 fps then they are fast enough for anything.

[Photo-John]

I use x133 speed CF, SDHC and SD cards of various makes in my 1D MK2 and they are plenty fast enough. Now if they are fast enough for 8.5 fps then they are fast enough for anything.

The size of the buffer in your camera is more important than the card speed, unless you're holding down the button for a long, long time. The card speed only really kicks in after the buffer is full. I can't remember what it is for the 1D Mark II. But I think it's something like 20 frames before the camera actually starts saving directly to the card. At that point, it's the memory card speed that's the bottleneck. Before that, you aren't even touching it. Again, I think, for most of us, fast cards make the most difference when you're transferring files or formatting the cards. It matters most to me when I'm at an event trying to dump multiple cards to my laptop during a break.

[mongoose]

That's a good point. Most of my photography is landscape and nature photography. I looked up the D80's specs and the buffer can hold 23 large fine jpegs or 6 jpeg+raw. The only time I may fill that up is shooting wildlife. I guess card speed isn't an issue for me then.

[DEvianT]

I found with 8.2 Megapixel camera (RAW file in same ball park as D80 I believe) after I fill the buffer a x133 card clears about 1 raw file every 1.5 secs. So doing landscape buffer will never be an issue. Wildlife I guess it could be if your subject is something crazy fast like a kingfisher?