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D34th

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 14, 2006
186
0
Connecticut
I will finally be making the jump to DSLR within the next two weeks after waiting two years. I'm going to order the Nikon D40 kit for me to learn on. I will also order a new SD memory card for it with more capacity than my current one. My question is, how important is a high speed card compared to just a standard card? I know there are a lot of factors that should be considered, but I am just wondering in general. Thank you.
 

Aperture

macrumors 68000
Mar 19, 2006
1,876
0
PA
I'd definitely look into getting a high speed card if you can. (a 133x card) I used to have a Rebel with just a basic card and the transfer was a little slow, but I didn't think much of it because I didn't really know there was something better. Now that I have a D50, I purchased a Sandisk Extreme lll card and WOW. I don't think I could ever go back to a regular card, it is MUCH faster, especially for importing onto my Mac. As far as brands go, I'd look at Sandisk or Lexar, just be sure to buy from a reputable dealer and watch out for eBay. (I bought mine from eBay, but from a reputable guy. When I got it, I also checked it for authenticity and to much relieved anxiety, it was real:) )
 

miloblithe

macrumors 68020
Nov 14, 2003
2,072
28
Washington, DC
In terms of writing to the card, are you planning on taking many shots in succession (at the camera's maximum frame per second rate) using RAW? If not, the speed of the card will never be an obstacle to taking another picture. The speed will otherwise always be sufficient to transfer information to the card faster than your camera generates it.

The big value in speed is in transferring photos from the card to your computer. If transferring pictures to your computer quickly is important to you, then by all means buy an expensive card. On the other hand, if you're buying a lot of new equipment and are operating on a budget, I would spend as much as you can getting lenses and buy cheap, standard memory from any reputable company. The lenses are far more important to your system than fast, expensive memory.
 

D34th

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 14, 2006
186
0
Connecticut
Thank you everyone. I do plan on doing some sequence shots at the D40's max frame rate of 2.5 frames per second as I am a fan of sequence shots. So I guess it would be important to look into high speed cards. I am ordering from B&H Photo, so I'm not worried about reputation as I know they are one of the favorites...Thanks again.
 

miloblithe

macrumors 68020
Nov 14, 2003
2,072
28
Washington, DC
Thank you everyone. I do plan on doing some sequence shots at the D40's max frame rate of 2.5 frames per second as I am a fan of sequence shots. So I guess it would be important to look into high speed cards. I am ordering from B&H Photo, so I'm not worried about reputation as I know they are one of the favorites...Thanks again.

OK, keep in mind that the internal buffer can store up to 9 shots in RAW, meaning it can probably store about 30-40 JPGs before writing to the card has any possibly of becoming a bottleneck.
 

D34th

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 14, 2006
186
0
Connecticut
OK, keep in mind that the internal buffer can store up to 9 shots in RAW, meaning it can probably store about 30-40 JPGs before writing to the card has any possibly of becoming a bottleneck.

Well, that is something I did not know. I will consider that in my decision. Thank you very much...
 
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