I've been reading about storage devices and still have decided to stay with my (compact flash) cards. Right now I have some 512 and a couple of 1 gb cards but will be shooting at very high resolution/size on my next 2-week holiday and can take as many as 200 shots in a day depending on the location. (Yes I know I can have stuff transferred to disc but that's not what I prefer to do...)

I know that storage cards have come down amazingly in price and that's the trouble. It's so tempting to buy a 4 GB card. Then I think that it holds so much that when I'm reviewing photos on the trip I'll have too many to scroll through on a single card (even with the 9 picture preview mode). I don't care how much time it will take to download to my computer when I get home because I'll unpack my suitcase and do laundry while that's going on.

What maximum size cards would you go with? If you're interested in posting an opinion, TIA

People will tell you different things about storage cards... Some people think bigger is better, but personally I prefer to use several smaller cards instead of one big card. Cards can go bad, and if you have a 4 GB card you can lose a lot of photos, whereas if you have several 1 GB cards, you lose a lot less should the worst happen. My personal opinion is to use 1 GB or 2 GB cards... Right now Futureshop has Kingston 1 GB SD cards for $15. You can't beat that. They also have PNY 2 GB two-packs on for $70, so that's $17.50 a GB. The Kingston is a better brand IMO--I use Kingston, Sandisk, and PNY almost equally though. I'm probably going to pick up a couple more Kingston 1GB cards myself at that price.

CF cards haven't come down in price like the SD cards have--it appears that the trend for camera manufacturers is toward SD cards, probably because they take up less room in the camera. It's becoming harder and harder to find reasonably priced CF cards--I have four 1 GB cards (2 Sandisk, 2 PNY). As I look around at prices, I'm seeing 2 GB cards are generally more cost effective at around $40--the cheapest prices I see are at Tigerdirect; Sandisk Ultra 1GB for $45, Sandisk (regular) 1GB for $40, Crucial 1GB for $24 which isn't bad, PNY 1GB for $30, again not bad. Sandisk Ultra 2GB is $67 , Sandisk (regular) $56, Kingston 2GB $43 (which is ok), PNY 2GB $40, Crucial 2GB $34. At 4 GB, Crucial $67, PNY $80, Sandisk Ultra $94, Sandisk $99.

So if you're looking at cost effectiveness to size...in this case the Crucial 2GB at $34 is probably the best deal for the least risk. At 4GB, I would be more afraid of losing too much data and I would tend toward a better-known brand like Sandisk which costs more. The only problem with Tigerdirect is that their shipping is kind've pricey as they ship everything by UPS.

So, long-rant short... if you want to compare cost effectiveness to risk taken, I would go for a 2GB card from a better-known manufacturer. (I do natter on, don't I?)

FD -
I was hoping you would weigh in on this one. I'm thinking the same way... I am not restricted to public transit so I can stop by Tiger Direct and pick up some cards very reasonably priced.
Thanks,
ZS

PS One of the reasons I decided to stay with my current camera and hold off purchasing one with the beautiful features of image stabilization and 12X zoom is that I have 2.5 gb in CF cards already as well as extra batteries and the newer camera does use the smaller SD cards and different batteries.

Well there is also the line of thinking that CF cards means "professional" and SD cards means "consumer"... Not always the case, but the better cameras tend to use CF cards.

Unfortunately I am limited by public transit, so I will have to pay $15 in shipping to get cards from Tigerdirect! *curses*

ZeldaSue hi!

I brought six cards all ranging from 512 to 2GB - I filled them all except for the last card - the 2GB one. I had the same concerns of a card going bad and losing photos. This worked really well for me. It also enabled me to label the cards by day so make sure you number them and/or write on them as you go. It will be way easier later to organize yourself.

Cards have really come down in price so it's to your advantage to scoop up a few and it's good to have a back-up card just in case something does go awry!

I shot on the highest resolution (not RAW) and managed between 1,300 and 1,500 shots on the 5 cards in total. I ALWAYS kept the cards in my carry-on along with a spare set of charged batteries.

Hope this helps!

Okay stupid question i know, but...

But my husband and i are fighting over the answer, and have decided that we will leave the fate of our SD cards in your hands....

Is it better to buy a brand name SD card (ie SanDisk), or a cheaper version of whose brand name ive never heard of? I know "brand names" as such doesnt necessarily mean increased quality, but in this siutation i thought it might.

I hate to get home and find my photos are a reduced quality because i was being tight and brought a cheap SD card.

Emstar,

It is the norm that expensive cards are "better" in a few aspects:

1) Speed. A couple of years back, I picked up 2 512 SD cards, a Sandisk and a Dane Electric. The Sandisk cost about 1.5x the other; it was about 2x faster too. The last thing you want is wanting to capture another picture while your camera is still trying to write the last picture onto the slow card.

2) Reliability. Sandisk, Kingston and other known brands have a better (not perfect) track record regarding their MTBF (mean time before failure).

These are not absolute; occasionally you may come across an unbranded no-name card that may outperform the rest.

By using cheap cards, you do NOT compromise on the picture quality. You do so only on the reliability that when you reach home, the card will be readable and not corrupted.

Xponent - cheers, you've saved us from divorce court! Appreciate the advice, will definitely stick with the more expensive cards. Thanks

P.S I won the arguement of course

With the way that memory card prices have plummeted recently, there's really no reason not to go for "name" brands. I've just bought a Dane Electronics (a reputable brand) 2GB SD card for £9.45, including VAT. That's about US$18, half what it would have cost a year ago.

As Chris mentioned, depending upon where you buy from, you may not find a substantial difference in the prices today. Its been about 3 years since I've bought flash memory.

I tend to stick with the name brands of Sandisk, Kingston and PNY.

I just spent a week and a half in the Boston/Martha's Vineyard/Brunswick area and realized I was going to need more memory cards for my European Dream trip next month. I just take way too many pictures. At any rate, I get my Sandisk cards from Overstock.com, usually about $19.99 for 1GB and anywhere from $25-32 for the 2GB cards, $1 shipping and they arrive in about 5 working days.

I recently bought two 2gb Sandisk CF Ultra II cards on sale with Calumet photo. They were having an amazing deal of buy one get one free and at a reduced cost of $35. Wish CF cards were as cheap as SD!
I also bought a 60gb Wolverine portable storage device from B&H Photo for $139. I just got it in the mail last night, tried it out with a memory card with a little over 100 photos on it and it transferred to the device in about 3 minutes. I hooked it up to the computer, no installation required and all the photos were there
I'm all set for my trip now.

Having only recently upgraded to a digital camera, I am also wondering what size and how many cards to get. Does anyone know a good, cheap supplier in Australia?

Gold Coast Girl

quote:

Having only recently upgraded to a digital camera, I am also wondering what size and how many cards to get. Does anyone know a good, cheap supplier in Australia?

Gold Coast Girl

What size card your camera will be compatible with depends on your camera. If you list the make and model of your camera I'll be happy to help you out with that question. As far as a supplier in Australia...someone else will have to help with that as I'm in the U.S.

Thanks Kwintesenc. Having read your earlier posts I think I will now get a couple of 2GB cards, and I already have a 1GB card that I got with the camera. It's a Nikon D40x SLR and I am a prolific phototaker at any time so I'm sure I will be taking heaps of photos when in Italy. Thanks for your help.