SDHC Class 2, 4 or 6 for Canon SD780 (IXUS 100)?

[justinadriel]

I'll be getting my Canon Powershot SD780 IS (IXUS 100) camera soon and I was wondering if I'd notice any difference in performance when using an SDHC class 2, 4, or 6 card.


Since this camera records HD videos (according to my calculations, 1 second of video = approx 2.9MB), I was thinking that the SDHC card should be able to handle a write speed of at least 3MB/s. I'm not sure if that's how fast the video is really written on the card though, but if that's the case, then I should at least settle for a Class 4 card whose transfer rate is 4.0-4.8MB/s. Thus, will I notice any difference between using a Class 4 card and a Class 6 card (6.0-45.0MB/s transfer rate)?


As a final question, will this camera support a 16GB SDHC card?

Thanks in advance!

[dan j]

Here's a 12 second video (really poor quality because of PB compression) that I took with my SD780.
http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b173/Dan-imal/video/?action=view&current=flamingofight.flv

It's 37 MB so I'd say your calculations are right. I'm using a Sandisk III but these were my first videos so I have nothing to compare it to. Well, I can say that the longer video (about 30 seconds) wrote to the card quickly and when I finished recording the SD780 was ready to shoot video again about a second later which seems to be the normal lag.

dan

[justinadriel]

Thanks Dan! That ain't bad at all. Now I'm wondering if the camera will support up to a 32GB SDHC card. I posted this in a another forum and someone said that knowing it supposrts 8GB, it should support up to 32GB but he hasn't tried it yet.

[justinadriel]

Just got a reply from Canon Support :

Thank you for your inquiry regarding memory cards for the SD780 IS
camera. We value you as a Canon customer and appreciate the opportunity
to assist you.

Your camera will accept both MMC (MultiMedia Cards) and SD (Secure
Digital) cards. This includes newer SDHC memory cards that are over
2GB. Utilizing the newer SDHC or High Capacity cards, your camera
should be able to accept any size cards available on the market today as
well as into the future, up to 2TB. Even though memory cards do not
come in capacities as high as a terabyte, the camera is capable of
accessing that amount of memory.

Unfortunately, due to the ever-increasing number of companies
manufacturing and selling these cards, we cannot test and evaluate all
the different brands, sizes, and speeds of cards available in the retail
market. As such, we are unable to speculate as to the performance of
the camera with a particular card installed, or to recommend a specific
type of card.

Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance with your
SD780 IS camera.

Thank you for choosing Canon.

Sincerely,

Joann
Technical Support Representative

[dan j]

Oh, what photobuckt is hosting is bad ;) But, it's much better before photobucket compresseed it. It's not as good as our HD camcorder, but it was definitely worth spending $100 more than the other SD cameras we were looking at.

dan

[jr_senator]

Just got a reply from Canon Support :

Thank you for your inquiry regarding memory cards for the SD780 IS
camera. We value you as a Canon customer and appreciate the opportunity
to assist you.

Your camera will accept both MMC (MultiMedia Cards) and SD (Secure
Digital) cards. This includes newer SDHC memory cards that are over
2GB. Utilizing the newer SDHC or High Capacity cards, your camera
should be able to accept any size cards available on the market today as
well as into the future, up to 2TB. Even though memory cards do not
come in capacities as high as a terabyte, the camera is capable of
accessing that amount of memory.

Unfortunately, due to the ever-increasing number of companies
manufacturing and selling these cards, we cannot test and evaluate all
the different brands, sizes, and speeds of cards available in the retail
market. As such, we are unable to speculate as to the performance of
the camera with a particular card installed, or to recommend a specific
type of card.

Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance with your
SD780 IS camera.

Thank you for choosing Canon.

Sincerely,

Joann
Technical Support Representative

Wow! That's as good a rendering of the Potomac Two Step as I have ever seen.