Being new to digital photography I am having trouble working out the differences between the SD cards available. Can anyone tell me the difference between:
SanDisk mini SD memory card 1GB
SanDisk ultraII micro SD 1GB
SanDisk 1GB with USB micromate reader.

I know the ultra one is a faster disk but other than that what is different? I have a DSLR and I am not sure which type to buy...

GCG - I think you might find the micro card is designed primarily for use in mobile phones - there is the standard SD card a mini SD card and a micro card which have different physical dimensions.

The card with an USB reader - is merely a standard SD card bundled with a card reader that you can plug into your computer to read and write to the card.

Unless you are really into serious photography and need to write to and read from the card at high speed then I would suggest that a standard SD card would be adequate, but if there is little difference in cost go for the UltraII.

If you are off on a trip, you would probably be better off with a larger capacity card, particularly if storing at the highest quality settings, but if you are not sure you can always buy another one overseas, they are readily available.

quote:

Originally posted by steveH:
If you are off on a trip, you would probably be better off with a larger capacity card, particularly if storing at the highest quality settings, but if you are not sure you can always buy another one overseas, they are readily available.

My advice would be to choose a healthy balance between capacity and number. Though hi-capacity cards may sound like a good buy, its always better to have multiple cards (all eggs, 1 basket thingy) for sheer redundancy. Be prepared!

I totally agree exponent, that would be my preference too, but of course it is less expensive to buy one 2GB card, rather than two 1GB. Having had a catastrophic read write error half way through a new 1GB XD card which managed to wipe most of the pictures I had taken in Morocco, I was not happy. Fortunately my wife was also snapping away on 35mm film (and in other ways occasionally!) so all was not lost.

Thanks for the help. I agree with both of you about the capacity of the cards. I intend to buy a couple of 2GB cards as I am scared of losing photos if one of them stuffs up. Thanks for the advice about the different types. So far the differences in price between normal and ultra cards are not much so I think I will go with the ultra. Steve H: any tips on reliable online stores in Australia with good prices?

Not really GCG, I normally just head for the local Dick Smith store. Though I think you can get them in BigW, KMart etc.

Just Googled 'memory cards australia', and a few good options for on line purchase came up at the head of the list!

Probably Mr Gadget would have the biggest range, and their web site seems particularly user friendly

http://www.mrgadget.com.au/catalog/memory-cards-c-16.html

Thanks Steve H. I also googled but never came across that site. Thanks for the link!

Steve, when did you loose your photos?? If it was in the last couple of months & you still have your card, get in touch with me, I can most likely get your photos back for you. E-mail me at guyh@es.co.nz and we can arrange something.

Thanks Guy, but I returned the card under warranty, and they reformatted it. I realize that it might have been possible to retrieve the pictures that went missing (neither my camera nor my card reader wanted to anything about it after the problem), but as my wife had shot on film too and I had shot heaps of video, I didn't worry about it.

Turns out though that it was probably my camera rather than the card which was at fault, it was an early Fuji Finepix - it said in the handbook that it would accept cards of 128, 256, and 512 MB (that was all that was available early on) - I assumed that it would cope with a 1 GB card, but obviously it managed to corrupt the memory when it passed the 512KB mark.

Thanks for the offer, though.

OK Steve. I just retrieved a heap of photos for a guy over here that had the exact same problem, with the exact same Camera!!! It actually corrupted 1 photo and that was the cause of all his problems.

That is one reason I dont like the GB size cards

It does seem to be a common problem with certain Fuji Finepix cameras, judging by the number of questions on the internet about 'how do I reformat my card'.

If you try to reformat the card at camera level, you get a card not initialized message. If you put it in a card reader, the computer doesn't recognize the presence of a card - and you can't even use it as a drink coaster like you can with a CD!

I eventually got a replacement card as the reformatted one still didn't work, and guess what? - same thing!!