What memory card should I buy?

[shafiq]

Dear Forum,

My 10D should be arriving mid next week. I now need to buy a memory card. What I need to know is as a first card, which brand and capacity should I be purchasing.

If you know of where I could get good discounts and these places are tried and tested for mail order, I would like to hear.

If it helps I intend to shoot RAW only.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thx
Shafiq

[BCdives]

Shooting RAW, you want Big and Fast

Lexar 1GB 32X I have two of them and love them. Just poke around, there are great deals on them everywhere.

Have fun,

BC

[dmalek]

i shot RAW only like you intend to.

i'm using one transcend 1Gb and IBM 1Gb microdrive they are great i dont feel the need for high speed cards.

512mb cards only give me a 80 pics autonomy, which is not enough for action photo or case when you do night photo with lots of shots or bracketing. i felt limitations in practice with 512 mb cards ie 1x1Gb is better than 2x512 !

for travel i use an archos video AV 140 jukebox with 40Gb of space in it (with CF card reader) as both an MP3 walkman and storage device to free space on my cards.

with such a configuration you have 2x170 pics on the cards for your day, and you can empty your cards everyday. and you dont need to "count" the number of pics you shoot.

therefore as a starting point buy a 1Gb capacity card is a possible advice.

[scottbergerphoto]

Here's some objective data:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-6111
Scott

[cubfan]

I've shot with Sandisk, Lexar Pro, Simpletech and Kingston. The only one that I've never had a problem with is the Kingston. I've never lost any pictures with any of them but I've had situations where I can't review the previous pictures on my camera with 3 out of 4 but I can always get them to show up on my computer. Good luck.

[shafiq]

scottbergerphoto wrote:
Here's some objective data:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-6111
Scott

Great data to review and help make ones mind up.

Thx

[shafiq]

dmalek wrote:
i shot RAW only like you intend to.

i'm using one transcend 1Gb and IBM 1Gb microdrive they are great i dont feel the need for high speed cards.

512mb cards only give me a 80 pics autonomy, which is not enough for action photo or case when you do night photo with lots of shots or bracketing. i felt limitations in practice with 512 mb cards ie 1x1Gb is better than 2x512 !

for travel i use an archos video AV 140 jukebox with 40Gb of space in it (with CF card reader) as both an MP3 walkman and storage device to free space on my cards.

with such a configuration you have 2x170 pics on the cards for your day, and you can empty your cards everyday. and you dont need to "count" the number of pics you shoot.

therefore as a starting point buy a 1Gb capacity card is a possible advice.




The JukeBox is a good way to go forward as well. I think on an extended trip it is a compulsory item :-).

At the minimum I will be looking at a 1GB card. Originally I was thinking of 512MB, but from the various comments here I have changed my mind.

Thx for the advice.
Shafiq

[shafiq]

scottbergerphoto wrote:
Here's some objective data:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-6111
Scott

Seems SanDisk Extreme is at the top of the list. Am I right in thinking SanDisk cards have been having issues or are they as good as any other brand ie Lexar/Kingston etc...?

[CyberDyneSystems]

I also recomend dividing your card capacity into two cards,. IE two 512MB cards are better than one 1Gig card.

This both provides a backup should one card fail (or get lost etc...) and if or when you decide to get something like an X-drive for portable storage (or even a laptop) it leaves you the ability to continue shooting while one card is copying to the mobile storage device...

I have a Transcend 30X 1-gig that cost the same as most standard 1Gig cards,. and although the speed increase is barely noticeable in the 10D it is a good deal faster copying to the PC or X-drive as compared to the Viking and Sandisk "standard" cards I also have.

Lastly,. although my 256MB Sandisk has served me well, (it was the first card I got,. but as it is the smallest I hardly use it anymore) I have noticed that on this and other forums the vast majority of bad cards and images corrupted are taking place on Sandisk cards?

This is a trend that I am seeing with no imperical evidence,. the statistics may show that there are simply many more Sandisk owners (very possible as they are available in all the retail stores like Best Buy etc.) and thus the failure rate may in fact be no more than other cards,. but it is an observation that you may want to take into account, and one that you can see for yourself by searching these forums and looking for discussions on Card failures.

[scottbergerphoto]

shafiq wrote:
scottbergerphoto wrote:
Here's some objective data:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-6111
Scott

Seems SanDisk Extreme is at the top of the list. Am I right in thinking SanDisk cards have been having issues or are they as good as any other brand ie Lexar/Kingston etc...?

I 've been using Sandisk Ultra 1GB and regular 512MB. They have been very reilable. I keep them in a case when not in the camera.
Scott