SDHC memory cards.

[Neil]

I finally got a Canon G10 and in looking for an 8 GB SD card see there is a wide array of prices and speeds.

What to look for?

Sandisc, Lexar, Kingston?

This seems like a decent deal.

Any comments?

 

[yvon]

Santa have been good for you Neil, congratulations.
Myself I have only Sandisk and Lexar cards.
Look closer to your home Neil. And don't fotget at Futureshop, you have a 30 days best price waranty.

Futureshop- Lexar Platinum II 8GB SDHC Memory Card

 

[Craig]

I just bought that card at W*lm*rt a week ago for a video camera.
I didn’t investigate the differences between the SDHC cards just went for the cheapest.

I did learn, after I bought it, that although the physical size of the SDHC cards are the same as the SD cards the older readers won’t work with the High Capacity cards.

I had to purchase a USB SDHC card reader for another 8 bucks.

 

[Neil]

Looks sweet Yvon.

I got the camera for $430 CDN at my corner camera shop, which was as good a price as I could find anywhere, plus I get the store's expertise thrown in. (very knowledgeable and helpful salesperson). Where they get you is on the accessories. An 8GB SDHC card (platinum or professional or something) by Lexar was like $90. An extra battery would have set me back 85.

Very nice camera btw, after fooling around taking pictures with it for an hour or so I picked up my older one and couldn't believe the difference.

 

[Grumpy]

Fwiw:

My needs in shooting photos for newspapers may not exactly match others’ needs here. But since every part of my photo gear system gets used hard, and since I have to depend on it to perform without a hitch day in and day out, I do have a sense of what works OK and what isn’t so hot.

I’ve used SanDisk CF memory cards exclusively and under all kinds of conditions since having to go digital in 2001. They are what came with the first digital camera body I was issued and since then no reason to try other brands has come up.

The cards get filled and reformatted almost daily. They are incredibly reliable and durable. The main reason I’ve added to my collection of them over the years is to keep up with camera technology, both in terms of increasing image file size and need for greater write speed.

So if my CF card experience is any indicator of quality, it suggests you can’t go wrong with SanDisk memory cards.

G.

 

[yvon]

If I had to replace my Nikon Coolpix, the G10 is my choice. But my old Coolpix works well now.
For the cards, I just buy 2 Lexar 4G Compact Flash befor Christmass for my Nikon D300, and now they are now $5.00 cheaper, I will go this week to get my $10.

 

[yvon]

My needs in shooting photos for newspapers may not exactly match others’ needs here. But since every part of my photo gear system gets used hard, and since I have to depend on it to perform without a hitch day in and day out, I do have a sense of what works OK and what isn’t so hot.

I’ve used SanDisk CF memory cards exclusively and under all kinds of conditions since having to go digital in 2001. They are what came with the first digital camera body I was issued and since then no reason to try other brands has come up.

The cards get filled and reformatted almost daily. They are incredibly reliable and durable. The main reason I’ve added to my collection of them over the years is to keep up with camera technology, both in terms of increasing image file size and need for greater write speed.

So if my CF card experience is any indicator of quality, it suggests you can’t go wrong with SanDisk memory cards.

G.

Me too, I have SanDisk and Lexar cards that I have since 2001, and it still works well. I never erase photos on my cards, I always reformatted it instead.

 

[Tom Rankin]

The cards get filled and reformatted almost daily.

Is this 'standard practice' for professionals? Doesn't the card have a maximum number of writes that it can sustain?

 

[DougPaul]

Is this 'standard practice' for professionals? Doesn't the card have a maximum number of writes that it can sustain?

Yes, the cards can fail due to too many writes. However, you are very unlikely to ever reach that number with your camera--flash memory is typically rated for 100K or so erase-write cycles.

The cards are generally designed to spread the usage around the entire card to avoid excessive use of a small part.


Also reformatting is more reliable than erasing individual pictures. (The data on the card is less likely to become corrupted.)

Doug

 

[David Metsky]

I just bought 2 Transcend 8G Class 6 cards from newegg.com for $13.99 each, with free shipping. I've been using Transcend for a few years, no problems but cards are pretty much commodities now. Class 6 is faster then the G10 can fully use but for $14 it really doesn't matter now.

And yes, I had to buy a new card reader for my SDHC cards.

 

[yvon]

Doesn't the card have a maximum number of writes that it can sustain?

I read something on that last week, I will try to remember where.

 

[Grumpy]

Tom, reformatting cards after images have been transferred to a computer or other media is common practice among the professionals I know. I've known some people who encountered corruption problems by improperly dismounting cards from card readers, but it never has happened (yet) to me.

For me, that means filling and reformatting one or two (and sometimes more) cards for each day of shooting.

Some of the cards I have available date back to 2001 and remain in usable condition. But the oldies -- the ones that hold 64 to 256 KB of data -- are of such limited capacity they seldom are used with current cameras. They hide out in the dark recesses of my camera bag just in case an assignment calls for a few more shots after the newer, bigger capacity (currently, 2 to 4 GB) cards are filled. I also use them (but only occasionally) in older cameras.

I am far from an expert on the esoteric techno aspects of digital photography, and operate from a practical and applied perspective, based some on reading but mostly on experience after the reading has got me started. That's how I come to recommend the SanDisk cards -- they have been reliable workhorses. I'm sure other brands are equally robust.

G.

 

[Tom Rankin]

Tom, reformatting cards after images have been transferred to a computer or other media is common practice among the professionals I know. I've known some people who encountered corruption problems by improperly dismounting cards from card readers, but it never has happened (yet) to me.

Amazingly, my card just failed this morning!



It seems to be ok, after a re-format.