Memory card help please
 

Hi all,
I'm very new to slr photography and I'm looking to buy a new memory card as the biggest I own is 256mb which is to small for me, so I'm looking for one that holds more photos while out in the field. The only thing I don't understant is the speed of the card. As I mainly photograph wildlife I assume I need to have a fast card? I'm looking to spend up to around £30 on the card and my camera takes cf cards.

Can anyone recommend me a card what would be suitable for me?

Many thanks,

Robert

Hi there Robert, welcome to WPF - I hope you enjoy the forum. Before we advise you about a card, it would help to know what sort of cards you use - SD, CF, etc. and also what your camera is. Then we can work out how many pictures will fit on different card sizes.

Hi Andy

Thanks very much. My camera is a Canon Eos 10D and it take cf cards.:)

Robert

Right, you have a 6 megapixel camera, Depending on whether you shoot RAW or your largest JPEG which is about 2.5MB you need a CF card larger than 2GB - this is because if the card is over 2 GB you camera recognises this automatically and adds FAT32 support - don't bother about the terms or understanding how it works - it means simply a card over 2GB with work faster and better in your camera. In your case I would go for a 4GB card - At Jessops a Sandisk 4GB Extreme IV Compactflash Memory Card is £33.20 This will give you about 400 shots in largest JPEG, over 1000 in smallest JPEG and about 150 in RAW. Please do buy from a reputable dealer. You can get them cheaper on ebay but there are numerous stories of fake cards that are not worth the money you think you save. By the way the speed of you card would only effect wildlife if you were in burst mode trying to track a cheetah :)

Thanks Andy thats very useful!:)

I have only got Sandisk Extreme 3 which is a slower card and Kingston 50X which both cope fine with 6-7 shots/second on a 40D and are cheaper than the Extreme 4.

I use extreme III cards too and they are plenty fast enough, you can get 4gb card for £16.99 from Amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...r-21/ref=nosim

Agree with others regarding Extreme III cards, I've used them for a long while and never had an issue with them. I've also been impressed by the Lexar Professional cards recently, particularly by the image recovery software you get with them. I also got a free SD card reader with the last two I bought from picstop. Don't know if this promotion is still running.

I can't follow Andy's reasoning for getting a 4GB card. For a 10MP camera, I think 2GB is plenty big enough, and there's less to loose if it gets damaged.

Hi again Robert, I agree with some of the above - Extreme III cards are perfectly suitable. As for Duncan's remark about 2GB over 4Gb - that's a choice for you as to the number and size of frames you are happy having your camera able to take. I use a Nikon D3 and D700 - both are FX and I have 16GB cards in them. In my IR converted D100 I use an 8GB card. I never carry any spare cards with me. The D3 is set to RAW + large JPEG and I get 560 shots on 1 16GB card. The D700 - same setting, I get 650 shots. The D100 I get 750 shots. I have never lost anything through corruption or card failure.

Thank you everyone very much.