Help With Choosing SDHC Memory Cards

[vja4Him]

I have a FujiFilm FinePix S2000HD camera, and would like to have a couple of high quality memory cards for shooting pictures and video at my son's Karate tests.

The last time I took pics, the camera was slow, and so I would miss a lot of good shots. Is this just the camera, or the memory cards?

I'd like to get 4GB and 8GB SDHC cards.

Suggestions ... ??? Thanks.

[havana_joe]

My two cents, but I’m not a pro…

The S2000HD is not a DSLR, it’s a good “bridge” camera, but even the best bridge cameras usually don’t have the same shot-to-shot and write times as even a basic DSLR. The memory card may not make a huge difference. I too have a Fuji; it’s the S1000 FD, which is not quite as an advanced model as the S2000 HD, but it’s not a bad bridge camera for its price. Changing the memory card has not made a difference, in my experience. I compared a 2GB SanDisk SD card and a 4GB Kingston SDHC card, and performance was the same.

The slowness of the camera is going to be because of the camera itself, not with the choice of card. That is the performance gain you get with a DSLR- start up, focus, shot-to-shot, and write times are very fast. You may pick up a small amount of write speed if you do a lot of continuous shooting (holding down the shutter button to take multiple pictures), but in normal day-to-day operation the card won’t really be a factor.

I use 2GB SanDisk SD cards in my Canon A580 and my Fuji S1000 FD, and I use the 4GB Kingston SDHC cards in my Nikon D40.

As far as video goes, I am really not sure. I use a camcorder for video, I’ve never used the video feature of my Fuji, although I would think that the choice of card would affect the length of video you can record, not the quality or speed, but I could be wrong.

Maybe one of the pros has some better advice?

[vja4Him]

My two cents, but I’m not a pro…

The S2000HD is not a DSLR, it’s a good “bridge” camera, but even the best bridge cameras usually don’t have the same shot-to-shot and write times as even a basic DSLR. The memory card may not make a huge difference. I too have a Fuji; it’s the S1000 FD, which is not quite as an advanced model as the S2000 HD, but it’s not a bad bridge camera for its price. Changing the memory card has not made a difference, in my experience. I compared a 2GB SanDisk SD card and a 4GB Kingston SDHC card, and performance was the same.

The slowness of the camera is going to be because of the camera itself, not with the choice of card. That is the performance gain you get with a DSLR- start up, focus, shot-to-shot, and write times are very fast. You may pick up a small amount of write speed if you do a lot of continuous shooting (holding down the shutter button to take multiple pictures), but in normal day-to-day operation the card won’t really be a factor.

I use 2GB SanDisk SD cards in my Canon A580 and my Fuji S1000 FD, and I use the 4GB Kingston SDHC cards in my Nikon D40.

As far as video goes, I am really not sure. I use a camcorder for video, I’ve never used the video feature of my Fuji, although I would think that the choice of card would affect the length of video you can record, not the quality or speed, but I could be wrong.

Maybe one of the pros has some better advice?

I've tried both SD and SDHC cards, and I didn't notice any difference either. I only do short video clips, usually less than three minutes. I did get a couple videos at my son's last Karate test that were around 4-5 minutes each. Quality seemed to be decent.

If the more expensive SDHC cards are not going to make any difference in performance of my camera, then I guess I should go with the less expensive cards.

Is there really much difference in quality with the various brands? I am more concerned with reliability and the life of the card.

[havana_joe]

Is there really much difference in quality with the various brands? I am more concerned with reliability and the life of the card.

I have never had any problem with SanDisk or Kingston cards, ever, but I DO only buy them at a reputable retailer. I found some 2GB SanDisk SD cards on sale at a RadioShack for $5.99 each, so I bought about 8 of them. I bought the Kingston 4GB SDHC card at Best Buy when it was on sale.

I read something online once that said many memory cards online, especially through eBay, are fakes, or mislabeled (i.e. a 1GB card labeled as a 2GB card). It was something like 50% of them!

Of course, I am not a professional, just a hobbyist, so a pro might have more insight, since they use the cards day in and day out, and would know which brands have shorter lifetimes then others.

[havana_joe]

There IS, however, one thing I forgot to mention. If you take the card out of the camera and pop it into a card reader to download the files, a faster card may download much faster than a slower one. Downloading from the camera won’t make much of a difference as the read/write portion of the camera is what controls the speed, but a memory card reader might have a faster interface. Of course, if you don’t have huge files to download often, it may not matter to you. But it’s a consideration! Also, you mentioned 4GB or 8GB as being your target. These would be SDHC cards, SD tops off at 2GB.

[freygr]

Only purchase from established stores, and only purchase name brand cards. SD cards only go up to 2G, SDHC cards will give you much high capacity and any card over 2G is a SDHC type card. They use the same chips in either card any way so there is not any difference but for the stated write speed of the cards, so purchase the faster cards if your going to be shooting sports, kids, or news. You do need to know your camera's maximum write speed as purchasing a faster card doesn't gain you anything but wasted money unless you have an other camera or device which needs that speed.

[vja4Him]

Only purchase from established stores, and only purchase name brand cards. SD cards only go up to 2G, SDHC cards will give you much high capacity and any card over 2G is a SDHC type card. They use the same chips in either card any way so there is not any difference but for the stated write speed of the cards, so purchase the faster cards if your going to be shooting sports, kids, or news. You do need to know your camera's maximum write speed as purchasing a faster card doesn't gain you anything but wasted money unless you have an other camera or device which needs that speed.

I don't know what the maximum write speed is for my camera ...

[havana_joe]

I don't know what the maximum write speed is for my camera ...

It mght be in the manual. I'd expect it to be no faster than average, as it's not a DSLR, and I'd be surprised if Fuji put extra development dollars into a fast write speed on a non-DSLR camera.

[ronin2307]

stick with a class 6 card and you shouldnt have any issues