View Full Version : 2 digital card questions
walkin' wally
01-11-2011, 20:22
I've noticed on SDHC memory cards there are two symbols or numbers.
One is a number inside a near circle like a C maybe 2, 4, or 10 What does this mean?
Also is a number like 15mb/s* what does this mean? I may be able to guess on this one but I'm not sure.
I would like to get as large a card as resonable for my fairly new Canon A2000 IS digital camera for my hike. My camera is SDHC capable.
Thanks
Generally, the higher the number, the faster the card is at storing your pictures. If you take pictures slowly, or one shot, or don't use the highest quality settings, then the speed benefits aren't worth much.
My experience says you don't need much speed. I take a lot of pictures at a time, always on the highest quality setting, and the slow speed of my memory cards doesn't seem to hold me back much. That is, it doesn't bother me when I take jpeg pictures. It does get slow when I take RAW pictures which have much larger file sizes. I believe your camera only takes jpeg pictures, so you should be okay.
Oh wait, if you plan to shoot video, you may benefit from a faster card.
bigcranky
01-11-2011, 21:35
That speed number is usually read speed, so it only makes a difference when downloading to a computer (which is a huge big deal for pros). The best deal on cards is the 2-pack of Sandisk Ultra 8gig SDHC cards at Costco, or you can order them for almost the same price at Amazon.
SurferNerd
01-11-2011, 21:43
I've noticed on SDHC memory cards there are two symbols or numbers.
One is a number inside a near circle like a C maybe 2, 4, or 10 What does this mean?
Also is a number like 15mb/s* what does this mean? I may be able to guess on this one but I'm not sure.
I would like to get as large a card as resonable for my fairly new Canon A2000 IS digital camera for my hike. My camera is SDHC capable.
Thanks
The C and its number is the appropriate Class speed that its rated for. As stated above its a read speed, not a write speed. And the 15Mbps means that it can move 15MBit per second, which translates to how fast a device reads or writes a file. This may not matter to an average user, but to a professional or someone who takes shot in quick repetition like a sporting event it means the world. I would go nothing less than Class 4 personally if you want to take quick shots. Be weary of SDHC, most people don't realize its not backwards compatible. If your camera doesn't explicitly state it supports SDHC, than the maximum you can buy is 2GB, if it supports SDHC you can max at 64GB. And if your really super awesome and it supports SDXC, your limit is in the terabytes that don't even exist yet.
Sources: Professional Photographer and Geek
SurferNerd
01-11-2011, 21:48
$13.50 on Amazon.. 8GB Class 6 SD Card
http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Class-Flash-Memory-TS8GSDHC6E/dp/B001ECQVSS/ref=pd_cp_e_1
The base speed (1x) is 150kb per second. That was the read speed of a Floppy Disk
Usually the higher the read speed the ,proportionally, higher the write speed.
Taking stills with a standard compact camera it does not make much difference at all, however if you shoot RAW or movies with a compact or in particular a DSLR it does make a great deal of difference.
In fact with the increasingly common "HD" movie capture format you can only do that with the faster cards.
Your manual will tell you the type to get.
Franco
walkin' wally
01-11-2011, 22:54
Thanks a lot everyone. Now I know.
As far as size of memory card this is what amazon states each size will hold for still photos with 10 MB which I believe is what your camera is
If there 4gbtiff 114 Jpegs 1144
8gb 228 2288
16 gb 457 4577
32 gb 915 18310
Im not sure on video storage rates
For photos I like having a few 4gb then I like having a higher speed higher memory for videos. Amazon has some really good prices on memory cards. Just make sure to try it out beforehand and Im sure Im not the only one who has a memory card that didnt work for one reason or another
There are very few companies that make flash memory cards so there are dozens of brands coming out of the same production line.
Generally the higher the quality of a production run /batch, the more likely it is that it will end up with a well known name on it (Sandisk/Toshiba/Sony, Lexar,Samsung...)
the converse is also true. So when you buy cheap sometime you do get what you pay for.
Franco
walkin' wally
01-12-2011, 07:43
What I was hoping to do is get a large capacity card of maybe 32 gigs. I want to shoot some video clips at the 640 setting and take plenty of pictures. I didn't want to think about running out of space with just one card.I just wanted to keep that card in the camera for the whole trip. I wanted to get a San Disk HC card because that is what was suggested in the owners manual.
Should I be taking a different approach than this?
Check out the specification for video storage requirements. The compression scheme they use uses a LOT of memory.
Coming anywhere close to 32 gigs of pictures would be very impressive. Give it a try. I've never regretted taking too many pictures, but frequently regret not taking enough.
I think using multiple smaller cards is better. It can prevent a total loss. There are several ways a total loss can occur. You should have some way of preventing a total loss. There are many ways to do that. I would probably stop in a trail towns along the way to copy the memory card to a thumbdrive to send home.
bigcranky
01-12-2011, 09:39
Coming anywhere close to 32 gigs of pictures would be very impressive. Give it a try.
Heh. I have a pair of 32-gig compact flash cards in my cameras at work. A long day of shooting will come pretty close to filling both. Then of course I have to download and edit them (ugh.)
But you're shooting RAW? That's still impressive, but even more so with jpeg. That's 8000 some pictures at a rate of a several dozen per day. Especially if the memory card was filled to capacity, it's more reason to have some strategy of sending copies home.
bigcranky
01-12-2011, 11:08
Of course that's raw, and they are large files. Filling a 32-gig card with Fine JPEG files would be quite an accomplishment.
$13.50 on Amazon.. 8GB Class 6 SD Card
http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Class-Flash-Memory-TS8GSDHC6E/dp/B001ECQVSS/ref=pd_cp_e_1
Good deal. I ordered one of those a couple weeks ago.
A warning about picking up such cards, it seems to me that the implementation of the various standards isn't as tight as I would have hoped. Specifically, I bought the right class and type of SDHC card for my new GPS, and was having problems getting aerial photos to show up when downloaded to the GPS. I finally took an online suggestion to buy a different brand of SDHC card. Same class/speed details, but voila! Now I get aerial photos. Something in the software/hardware interface between GPS and memory card wasn't working.
Dunno who to blame it on (GPS or card maker), but the moral of the story for me is that sometimes it's better to look at ratings on these cards (Amazon.com feedback for example) before pulling the trigger. On a related note, I've seen a number of comments about two different brands of nominally the same speed card being in fact quite different in read speed.