Which SD card good for canon xsi?

[glennyboiwpg]

Getting the new canon xsi when it comes out and am a bit confused by something.

does the speed of the sd card matter? Is there any reason to pay money for the faster cards?

Which card should I be buying?

Transcend Class 6 sdhc 8 gig
Sandisk ultra II 4 gig
sandisk extreme III 4 gig?


Thanks!

 

[mackindergarten]

Hi!

I had the SanDisk Extreme III, 1 and 2 GB versions and was extremely happy with them. No problems, whatsoever.

Speed matters, since some cameras' high speed burst shooting writes directly to the card (don't know of this camera does that) and a slow card might slow the camera down (= less shots per second).

Hope this was helpful.

/Rupert

 

[TWLreal]

SanDisk's Ultra II cards, whether it's CF or SD, will be more than enough for the XTi and XSi.

As it is, the XTi maxes out its buffer before the Ultra II cards give up, that's about 30 JPGs and 10 RAW files. The XSi will have about 50 JPGs and 6 RAW so expect similar performances.

Extreme III and anything above only come in handy if you need the more rugged build and higher read/write speeds when using a card reader.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

As it is, the XTi maxes out its buffer before the Ultra II cards give up, that's about 30 JPGs and 10 RAW files. The XSi will have about 50 JPGs and 6 RAW so expect similar performances.

Just wondering, did you mean to say only 6 RAW files on the XSi? It seems strange its abilities would go down?
To the OP: just get a really BIG card

 

[glennyboiwpg]

Just wondering, did you mean to say only 6 RAW files on the XSi? It seems strange its abilities would go down?
To the OP: just get a really BIG card

I'm thinking that i'll get a 4 or 8 gig card now... for the moment I don't need a big card as I'll just be puttering around the city (winnipeg manitoba, canada) and all I need is a card that will last me for a day.

This way I can wait until those nice 16 and 32 gig cards get nice and cheap and I can buy a few of those before I go on a big trip.

I just got back from mexico in janurary and I had just bought a 4 gig ultra II CF card for my Powershot G3 (4 megapixels) and it was paradise... I took 900 pictures and my display said I could still take 999...

i'm actually kinda annoyed about just buying a 4 gig card and now I have to go buy another new card.

Yeah... i'm thinking that the xsi will be quite the upgrade from the G3. (plus now I actually want to learn how to use the manual features and get more into photography)

Oh and the reason why the xsi would be able to take less raw images at once is that the xti has a 12 bit raw file, the xsi has a 14 bit raw file.

 

[jdavtz]

Whatever you get, DON'T get it from eBay - there are loads of fakes on the market.

 

[jbernie]

i'm actually kinda annoyed about just buying a 4 gig card and now I have to go buy another new card.

What is the saying? Never store all your eggs in one basket? As much as having one 16GB card can be great, nothing ruins the moment like a screwed up memory card with ALL the holiday pics on it.

2*4GBs should be just fine. you also aren't tied to a computer reviewing hundreds of photos or clearing off a card when you could be out shooting more. When I was travelling last year my friend was at work burning files to a dvd of one memory card while I was out enjoying the day.

Also, don't forget the $$, whatever the 8GB cards were going for you can be sure that when you look now they will be somehwat cheaper .

 

[nutmac]

I used to think getting a high capacity memory card is asking for trouble. But with RAW files getting larger (about 12 MB each for EOS 450D/XSi), high capacity memory cards aren't so high capacity anymore. Furthermore, it can be challenging to change the memory card in some situation. And due to tiny size, it's all too easy to drop or misplace SD/SDHC memory cards.

If you care about keeping your photos safe, always bring a backup solution. Plan on backing up photos each night, either via notebook or portable media backup solution (e.g., Epson P-3000, 5/5.5G iPod with iPod Camera Connector). At $250 after mail-in-rebates, 40 GB P-3000 is a pretty decent value.

Estimate the average number of photos you take before they can be backed up, and multiply it by the average file size. That said, it is a good idea to bring another memory card in case the first one fails.

As for the performance, just stick with class 4 or higher from major manufacturer (e.g., Lexar, SanDisk). Extreme III is supposed to be more weather resistant than Ultra II if that means anything.