memory Cards for D 80

[NewD80User]

right now I have 2 2gb cards. Do they now have 4gb cards? Also, i hear that some cards are faster than others, how can you tell and what does the additional speed mean:confused5:

[Frog]

Yes they have 4gb cards and I haven't concerned myself much with fast cards as I don't shoot sports or anything. Some say the only reason to have a fast card is because they upload to your computer faster.
All the manufacturers use different speed designations to so its hard to tell if you have a fast card or not.
I found this article interesting http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6451_7-6296352-1.html

[NewD80User]

Thanks Frog

[Photo-John]

If you have a fast camera with a large buffer then fast cards aren't as important. I always used my slowest card with my EOS-1D because the camera was so fast and had such a huge buffer that the card didn't matter. In any case, as you've already heard, you'll probably only notice the card speed when you're transferring images to your computer, formatting, or deleting images. If you're shooting an event and need to clear cards quickly, that might be a big deal. For most people it probably doesn't matter.

Cards are so checp now and fast cards have been around a long time. So I wouldn't worry about buying the newest and fastest. Your camera isn't using the latest transfer technology so you aren't going to benefit from the newest cards, anyway. If I were you, and I wanted another card, I'd look for deals on last year's fast cards. I've got an old 80x Lexar pro that's worked great for me and I got for really cheap. I've also got SanDisk Ultra II and a brand new Ultra III card. I've never noticed the difference and I've used both in an EOS-1D Mark III and the entry level XTi/400D.

I would recommend not buying the highest capacity cards. They make me nervous. Right now I think 2GB cards are the sweet spot for cost and storage. My concern with larger cards is if they get lost or corrupted you lose more data. So I like to have multiple cards in case I have a problem. That way I won't lose everything if a card goes bad or gets stolen or lost.

We have a memory card guide here you might appreciate, as well as a memory card user review section:

Digital Camera Memory Guide >>
Read and Write Digital Camera Memory Card Reviews >>

[Franglais]

right now I have 2 2gb cards. Do they now have 4gb cards? Also, i hear that some cards are faster than others, how can you tell and what does the additional speed mean:confused5:

Le Photographe magazine issue of July-August has a test of SD cards (your D80 uses SD not Compact Flash). very briefly the story is this:

There are two standards of SD card - normal SD goes up to 2GB (limitation of FAT 16 disk format) and SDHC can go way beyond (FAT32 format). The SDHC standard implies a minimum level of performance with new techniques for writing to the card. In practice the test shows that the SD cards sometimes have faster write performance but that the SDHC cards are more consistent overall.

Don't use Windows XP to format SDHC cards - it doesn't know how to do it. Use the camera or download a tool from the card maker.

They say that SD is going to replace the Compact Flash format - smaller, more robust, cheaper, big future in HD video cameras (RAID0..)

[Photo-John]

Charles-
Thanks for reminding me that the D80 uses SD cards. Personally, I don't like them. They seem too small to me. I worry about losing them. CF cards are a good balance, I think. They're not too big and I don't worry about losing them. Since I test compact cameras, I've got plenty of SD cards, though. That includes one 4GB SDHC card. I hope everything doesn't go to the SD format. But I guess I could live with it. I think it's important to note that Canon's latest pro bodies have both CF and SD slots.

[SmartWombat]

I have found that with CF cards transferring a 4G card takes over twice the time of transferring two 2G cards.
That's using Windows XP and two different USB card readers, also similar performance with a VP2160 HD storage drive copying CF cards.

I too don't like the size and flexibility of the SC card, yes I can physically bend them !
The write-protect switch on SD is a double-edged weapon, I found it easy to set by accident and totally frustrating to stick a card into the 1D and find I can't take photos !
I found the hard way that if my finger slips ejecting a card then the spring on a SD card slot can actually fling the card about two feet into the grass - oops !

[NewD80User]

Thanks all, i love this site I am learning lots from here thats for sure. come to think of it I like the flexibility of a couple of 2gb cards versus 1 4gb card, too much to transfer on 4gb, when I think of even a full 2gb card. So true though, these cards are some easy to mis place.

[Franglais]

I've found the bit where the SDHC classes are explained. Class 2 means the card can write at 2MB/sec whatever the size of the file, the card controller or the camera. Class 4 means 4MB/sec and class 6 means 6MB/sec.

There are a lot of variables to take into account - whether you're writing or reading, the size of the file, the card controller, the camera itself - and saying a card is 80x is fairly meaningless. The SDHC standard guarantees a minimum performance - but you may get more.

The CompactFlash format dates from 1994. It is a direct adaptation of the ISA disk format - you remember all those little golden prongs on the disk - same thing on the CF card.

Next evolution on high end cameras might be RAID0 SD configurations with two redundant SD cards and higher write speed by writing to both simultaneously.