Memory Cards

[mojo300]

I am looking to by my 1st DSLR. I have decided to get an XTI. I am thinking about Sandisk memory cards. I am wandering what model should I get? The Ultra II, The Extreme III, or the Extreme IV. The XTI is what I will be using for a long time so I do not want more card performance than my camera will need. I have no problem buying a good card, I just want to know if which model I should get. Thanks

[neilhs]

I've got a 4gb ultra II and a 4gb extreme III. I bought the latter first and it lead to the camera routinely locking up when changing lenses. The card formats and passess all other tests OK though. I'd don't know if there is an incompatibility issue, both canon and scandisk said the other item was at fault. I tried a friend's ultra II which was fine, so I bought one.

The camera works fine with the ultra II, so I guess I may have a faulty extreme III (but scandisk won't accept that).

I can't say I saw any performance difference. I use a card reader and perhaps the III is slightly faster in transferring images. I stil use both, the the extreme only after the ultra is full.

I don't know the cost difference between the card you mention, but the ultra II does everything i would expect.

HTH
N

[goodlistener]

Mojo, there is very little need to worry about that. Any of the major brand cards work well. If you see a price too good to be true, watch out, There are some countefeits out there. The counterfiets work, at least to a degree but they are flaky.

I don't think countefits are a common problem. Major dealers such as the large nation wide computer stores should have the right stuff. I do think that gross capacity of the card, i.e. 4 GB is important. Shooting FAW on a 1 mp camera I get around 364 iamges on a 4 GB card. That sounds like a lot, but you would be surprised.

Having a pair of cards is a nice thing. You download the files from card 1 and then format card 2 immediately before putting card 2 in the camera. That way your pics stay on card 1 as long as possible, and its a kind of cheap backup plan.

The reason card speed is not to important is that the cameras have a certain amount of buffer memory in them. Usually enough for about 9 shots. Unless you are taking motor drive i.e. muultiple exposures and fairly often at that, (sports for instance?) most people find the cards write speed is not a significant factor.

Anyway, good luck and enjoy all the hobby has to offer.
If you want to invest, let it be in education & training for skill, in TIME for practice, in lenses for hardware and in data backup presumig you would prefer to keep your photos in spite of Murphy's law. Cards? No need to worry!

[hawkyey1]

Just the forum subject I'm looking for.
Having just bought a Nikon D200 I am pondering what memory card(s) to buy. All I know on the subject is that I can use a CF I and II or Microdrive. What are the differences? Any good brands / bad brands I should be aware of?

[dougj]

Here is a link to the CF page and performance database on Rob Galbraith's site. The XTI is not listed yet, but you can get an overall idea based on some of the other recent Canon bodies. The D200 has been tested with various CFs.

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_ ... p?cid=6007

[marxz]

Just the forum subject I'm looking for.
Having just bought a Nikon D200 I am pondering what memory card(s) to buy. All I know on the subject is that I can use a CF I and II or Microdrive. What are the differences? Any good brands / bad brands I should be aware of?

MicroDrives are just that - very very small hard drives, can be (are) fragile and expensive - just back in the old days they were the only way to actually get a gig or more in camera storage.

I would suggest you avoid Micro Drives these days, especially given the HUGE capacity CF's these days - i.e. a 16 GB compact flash memory cards are now out and affordable (cheaper than the 512MB cards I bought 3 years ago)

I guess the microdrive statement is more for people with legacy equipment than the new buyer

[ericvision]

Ultra IIs are very, very cheap at the moment. If you are planning to keep the XTi for a long time, I would get them. The write speed of the camera is not fast enough to take advantage of the possible additional speed of IIIs or above.

Get them from a reliable retailer - one which can afford to sell the genuine ones at a decent price and not fakes ones for a crappy price. Ebay and Amazon market place are best avoided for memory cards.

To the D200 guy - I think your camera is faster so maybe you'd benefit from more expensive cards.

[inukshuk94]

You've got to first find out the buffer rate of your camera to get the most out of it.
Example:
Nikon D100 has a 19.7mb buffer which means it can match with a San Disk Xtreme III card which has a 20mb buffer rate.
The D200 has a 40mb buffer rate which means it can match up with a San disk Xtreme IV card as it has a buffer rate of 40mb.

If you get a card that's faster than your camera it'll be a waste of money spent.
Hope this helps.

[turboman36]

I had the xti and i got the Transcend 8GB Compact Flash (CF) Flash Card Model TS8GCF266 - Very fast, took it on a trip to thailand and filled it up and it worked great. Just bought a MK III and i am still using that card. No issues to date.

[toosnvetts]

Duplicate post; sorry, moderators!

[toosnvetts]

You've got to first find out the buffer rate of your camera....

Thank you, inukshuk94! That makes perfect sense.