SD500: 4GB SD?

[mchwe]

Greetings! I am curious to know if my sd500 will support a 3 or 4 gb sd card. i currently use a 2gb card with no issues.
TIA if anyone knows!

[adas]

Will do. Since the camera is FAT32 compatible, it will support any higher capacity over 2GB.

[mchwe]

thanks! indeed, i have a 4gb card in now, which works perfectly (1400 pics at highest res/best compression!).

[DavidW]

I think you were lucky. There is, I believe, an architectural limit in SD at 2GB.

With CompactFlash, it's purely a case of whether or not a camera supports FAT32 - if it doesn't you're limited to 2GB cards. There's no architectural limits in SD.

However, SD needs a special design to break the 2GB barrier (called something like SD HC, if I remember rightly). I would fill the card with a load of unimportant shots before taking it through the 2GB barrier, and check that no corruption happens. If your camera is OK beyond 2GB and no pictures are corrupted, check any card readers you use. I say this because I don't think Canon officially support cards above 2GB. It would be disastrous if it appeared to work, you filled the card beyond 2GB with photos you care about, only to discover that the card finished up corrupted.


Personally, I wouldn't want such a large card in my camera. I can't see a practical application for more than around 400 shots on a card in most cases. It's an "all your eggs in one basket" argument. If one write goes wrong and corrupts the FAT, you could lose a huge number of pictures in one go.

I'm using 2GB in my 20D; shooting RAW plus small JPEG (for preview on a Pocket PC), that gives me around 200 pictures. My Ixus 700 has a 512MB card in it, which gives me over 400 pictures at large/fine resolution.



David

[sergiobsb]

Hi, were you guys able to use 4gb or 8gb memory cards in a canon SD500?? If so, please, drop me a line... I'd love to know I can use these in my camera... thanx

[Jon]

The SD500 doesn't support SDHC cards, which are what's available in sizes of over 2 GB. Prior to the release of the SDHC spec. various makers tried kludges of various kinds to trick devices into thinking 4 GB cards were acceptable. See, though, this sticky (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=197503).

[sergiobsb]

Thanx Jon. It's a pity cos these giant cards are tantalizing....

The SD500 doesn't support SDHC cards, which are what's available in sizes of over 2 GB. Prior to the release of the SDHC spec. various makers tried kludges of various kinds to trick devices into thinking 4 GB cards were acceptable. See, though, this sticky (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=197503).

[Jon]

Well, a 2 GB card will handle about 600 Large Superfine JPEGs or 15 min. of video (and in not more than 3 min/clip). Believe me - that's a lot of stuff to wade through!

[sergiobsb]

I have a Canon SD500 and I use it with a 2gb card. I am able to make 1gb dvd quality videos at a time, that is, 640x480 at 30 frames per second that's about 8 minutes nonstop. I've never had to film that long a video though without pausing the camera.

Well, a 2 GB card will handle about 600 Large Superfine JPEGs or 15 min. of video (and in not more than 3 min/clip). Believe me - that's a lot of stuff to wade through!

[sergiobsb]

Everybody says that's not possible. Which card are you using in your Canon SD500? Is it a canon SD500?

thanks! indeed, i have a 4gb card in now, which works perfectly (1400 pics at highest res/best compression!).

[antonle]

A few facts: SD accommodates from 8mb to 4gb, SDHC raises the bar from 4gb to 32gb (with a theoretical max of 2TB). Postings that say SD reaches a max of 2gb is erroneous.

Having cleared that up, it IS POSSIBLE for a 4gb card to have SDHC standard instead of the older SD standard. It all depends on the card and its specs.

I have been using a 4gb SD card (EP Patriot 4gb SD) in my Canon SD500 for years and it works great. I usually store over 6 months worth of data on it although I back the images/videos up frequently on hard disk using Canon's Zoombroswer new images function. The benefits of having such a large card is that I can plug the camera directly onto a TV/LCD and view slideshows of the voluminous picture collection. It's great!

The point is that a 4gb SD card "DOES" work on a Canon SD500. Just make sure the 4gb card is not the new standard of SDHC.

[sergiobsb]

Wow, that's true. Not all "high capacity" sd cards are SDHC labeled.... thank you very much....