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Faster Card. How will it help me?

D

dingdongbubble

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2007
538
0
I would like to know how a faster memory will help me. I tried using the search feature but it showed faster graphic cards. So will it only help in transfer times? Or will my shooting speed also increase? What does 10x or 60x etc mean?

I am sorry if this has already been posted.
 
A faster card may enable you to clear the buffer on the camera quicker as well as be a bit faster when downloading.

Though it is entirely dependant on your camera as to it being quicker or not. The technical specs may give you the answer for you camera.
 
As mentioned, this will depend upon your camera. For instance, the older cameras cannot take advantage of the new UDMA/300x cards. While they can USE them, they won't benefit from the fast speed because they are not set up electronically to do so. For instance, a couple of months ago I bought an 8 GB UDMA card in preparation for a trip. The card worked fine in my D200 and D2Xs but neither camera could take full advantage of the card's speed. Only when I put it into a D300 or D3 did I reap the benefits. HOWEVER, it's not just the camera in which that speed is relevant; it also matters in uploading images to the computer. If one has a UDMA card reader that will quickly upload the images into the computer, much faster than a regular card reader will.

Look in your camera's manual to find out the recommended cards for that camera. You can usually safely utilize faster cards but only up to a certain point.
 
Thanks for the replies. I ahve a Pentax K100D (yeah got it finally). I didnt know that the maual would ahve that much info cuz normally they dont or I get bored LOL. Thanks anyways.
 
dingdongbubble said:
I would like to know how a faster memory will help me. I tried using the search feature but it showed faster graphic cards. So will it only help in transfer times? Or will my shooting speed also increase? What does 10x or 60x etc mean?

I am sorry if this has already been posted.
Click to expand...

Personally, I don't think you'll gain much by going with a card faster than a 60x or 70x card (eg: Sandisk Ultra II). If you have the 10 MP Pentax K100D, it may help, but your K100D is already excellent, and won't need anything faster than the Ultra II, which is quite cheap. Getting a faster card won't help you, because if you get a faster card, you're still going to be limited by how fast the camera can "flush" the photos from the internal buffer, to your memory card. In terms of transferring photos to your computer, you're limited by the USB controller, and how fast it can transfer to your computer. It'll probably have nothing to do with the memory card, and even if you can gain a bit of speed, it's probably not worth the extra $20 you pay for a better card.
 
I got a free card with it which is I guess un branded with the sticker of the retailer Carrefour on it LOL. I ahve an internal card reader so I normally removethe card and shove it into the card reader.
 
Sandisk extreme II is about as fast as the K100D can make use of. Your camera is nice, so get a card that will maximize it's performance and nothing more. I don't know how large the buffer is on the K100D, on the K10D the buffer is large enough and the write to card speed fast enough that you can shoot jpegs at 3 frames per second uninhibited till your card is full. I know the Nikon D80 has a limit on it's 3 frames per second frame rate where after you pass that limit the frame rate drops to 1 frame per second.

I would think that the K100D would be similar to the Nikon, they hit the market at about the same time.

SLC
 
hmmm well now that I am going to give my crappy card to my dad, can someone suggest all the good cards which my Pentax K100D will utilize most efficiently? I dont want soemhting expensive. Neither do I want somehting which is faster than what my K100D can handle. On this crappy card which I ahve, a Gb takes like almost half an hour to transfer to the computer. I want soemhting which iwll be much faster than this. Like a minute for 100 MB is more like it. Maybe its got to do with my built in SD card reader? It came with my rather crappy HP desktop PC. So would you also suggest (if necessary) an affordable way to get my pics off the card to the computer? Somehting Mac compatible certianly. Thanks everyone. :)

PS I am looking for a 512MB card. Maximum 1GB if the price isnt too much above the 512 MB card.
 
I shoot with a Lexar Platinum II 60x card, it's plenty fast for me and uploads all 2 GB worth of photos to the computer in about 2 minutes with my Sandisk MobileMate SD+ reader. I spent about 45 dollars for the whole setup! The reader was $15 and the card was about $30. Not to bad and it's about all my K10D can make use of anyway, look for the same card I have (they're super cheap) and you'll be about where you need to be.

SLC
 
Sure thanks. Any other brands or cards. Becuz I might not be able to get the card you are talking about. So when I go shopping I want to be ready if there is no stock of a specific card.
 
ummm can you tell me the exact versions or whatever? Like Sandisk Extreme III or Ultra II etc?

And would you please also suggest a card reader too. thanks
 
dingdongbubble said:
ummm can you tell me the exact versions or whatever? Like Sandisk Extreme III or Ultra II etc?

And would you please also suggest a card reader too. thanks
Click to expand...

Here's some things to consider: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171259
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820180629
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171258

The first one comes with a card reader
the second has a USB built in to the card, no reader required
the third has no reader or built in USB so you would need to track down a reader for it that's SDHC compatible.

All 3 card suggestions will be much faster than your camera can make use of. But they will also upload to your computer very quickly so that's good. I don't think the prices are bad for any of them!

SLC
 
Actually I wont be purchasing online. I will be going to a retail store. :eek:

So any card which seems to be faster than a Sandisk Ultra II is good enough. How fast does the Ultra II transfer 1GB of files to a computer? Secondly how cna I find out the speed of m computer's USB controller?
 
dingdongbubble said:
Actually I wont be purchasing online. I will be going to a retail store. :eek:

So any card which seems to be faster than a Sandisk Ultra II is good enough. How fast does the Ultra II transfer 1GB of files to a computer? Secondly how cna I find out the speed of m computer's USB controller?
Click to expand...

Actually, I looked a bit more into it, the Ultra II is faster than your camera too, the K100D writes at about 2 MB per second to the card, I thought it would have been more since the K10D does at least 10 MB per second, the Ultra 2 cards accept 6 MB per second, so even that's about 3 times faster than your card can handle. You'll get faster upload to the computer times with it though. You can get a kingston class 2 card and that would match your cameras performance nicely. Otherwise, just get a card in the >60x range. Unless you want it to be able to upload to the computer faster, it's not going to make a difference how fast the card is in your camera.

SLC
 
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