SD Card Roundup

[Rob Williams]

The market is completely saturated with SD cards, but which one will give you the best bang for the buck? We are taking a look at seven different cards ranging in different densities and speeds to find out.

You can read the full article here and discuss it here.

Originally Posted by Rob Williams

The market is completely saturated with SD cards, but which one will give you the best bang for the buck? We are taking a look at seven different cards ranging in different densities and speeds to find out.

You can read the full article here and discuss it here.

This benchmark test is very relative. Read, Write Speeds and Access Times are depending which kind of card reader you are using. That was your Buffer Capacity using Nikon D80?

Do you see something strange http://www.nikondigitutor.com/eng/d80/index.shtml look under Various Shooting Methods -> Image Quality and Number of Available Pictures? How can Panasonic Pro HIGH SPEED card be so fast at JEPG Fine Large size (Buffer Capacity 23 frame). I have 4GB OCZ 150x but maximum buffer capacity what I have seen on Nikon D80 are 9 frame at JPEG Fine Large image size. What you can say about it? How much Buffer Capacity you have on your Nikon D80 using 4GB OCZ 150x at JPEG Fine Large size?

Check http://fotosviat.net/index.php?optio...d=25&Itemid=28 page. You could find that super fast Panasonic Pro HIGH SPEED that I mentioned before. I read in my local paper that 4GB OCZ is the fastest SD card. I don't remember other SD card names. When I return back to job from my summer holidays I will give you all other information. I don't believe what Panasonic Pro HIGH SPEED can do 23 frames (Buffer Capacity) mentioned at Official Nikon page - link see previous replay.

[Rob Williams]

As I mentioned in the review, the D80 has a burst rate of about 3 - 5 images before things slow down, but the buffer shows up as 7 at JPEG Fine. After that point, it's then up to the SD card to haul ass and provide the speed needed to keep things up.

The article you linked to is not a great resource to be honest. They mentioned that the Pro High Speed is the fastest, but don't even mention how large the card density is. If it's 1GB, of course it's going to be faster than 2GB and 4GB cards.

I think it was excellent to consider these cards in a real world environment instead of using techy stats and what I found most interesting is that the sandisk 'Extreme' marketing department have done an excellent job in justifying the extra expense over a relatively cheap card such as the Transcend with inconsequential benefits to the vast majority.

Yes, from a professional point of view, there are people that may need to squeeze out the last ounce of performance and for whom the relative cost of a card is minor (and who probably use compact flash anyway), and then there is the rest of us who want something to perform to our expectations who, let's be honest with ourselves, do not have photographic orientated deadlines to meet and are unlikely to miss that crucial picture due to card speed - ever by the way, even using the slowest card probably.

What I particularly thought was excellent was that such a review can be viewed by me, an inquisitive internet browser, who had always just thought Extreme III must be so much more brilliant as it both turned up trumps in reviews and was/is always so much more expensive. I have both Transcend and Extreme III cards (and Dane-Elec too), and I have swapped between them but always trying to make sure the extreme III cards were available. Now it is very apparent that at my level of photography (published stuff, made a few pennies, but not enough to support a mortgage) there is no need to be too worried. I also appreciated that you had taken a substantial stack of photographs as well to reduce any potential reliability concerns (I only take about 100 pictures a week on average).

I am sure there will be many professionals out there who may disagree however, no offense, its your job and too many people are winding up buying both cards and camera gear in general that they do not need because of pro-biased reviews. When was the last time you (non-professionals only please) printed a poster sized picture because you had caught an important historical moment?

[Rob Williams]

Thanks for the kind words, we appreciate them :-) I agree with everything you said.

Haven't found a place to ask this -
Re: different spec ie: capacity
speed is irrelevant as 2Gb card is for a picture frame.
Was able to store only 36.8Mb on a 2Gb card.
After formatting & security overhead, how much capacity should I have?

[Rob Williams]

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand the question. You could only fit 36.8MB worth of photos on a 2GB card? I would assume that there is something else on the card that needs to be rid. I'd hook it up to your PC and see if anything is on the card, and take whatever you need off, then format it. That will take care of the problem.

For a 2GB card, 1.9GB or thereabouts will be available to you. Part of the decrease is due to byte conversion and also the few megabytes that the FAT32 filesystem will require.