What sd card is recommended for the Canon t2i?

I am going to purchase the Canon t2i pretty soon. since it uses SD cards I will have to purchase a couple cards.

What is the minimum speed recommended for this camera? I think a raw + jpg is about 25mb I am guessing I need something that is at least 25mb/s. But with video, does the camera write the entire video at the end, or does it write as it records? I tried to find out what minimum card is suggested, but im having trouble.

I did find a Hoodman UDMA RAW 8GB CompactFlash Card (675X) that is 100mb/s that is $180 at bh, but thats a fair bit more than what i was hoping to spend.

I will be using this camera for doing a wedding but I will have a backup camera that uses cf, and I have about 20gb's worth of cf cards. My plan is to buy one fast sd card for the ceremony, and then I can use a slower card for the formal shots, but I dont want to go slower than 25mb/s.

How about the SanDisk 8GB Extreme SDHC Class 10 ? $49 bucks on Amazon....

SanDisk, Click HERE!

For the T2i, Raw pictures can be up to 30mb in size (any noise increases the file size) and JPG can be 12mb. I have the T2i and use 16GB Patriot LX series class 10 card. It is faster and cheaper than my Sandisk Extreme cards. They can be had online for around 40 bucks.

I don't think there is any manufacturer that makes a SDHC card with a sustained write speed of 25mb per second.

from wikipedia:
The Speed Class Rating is the official unit of speed measurement for SD Cards, defined by the SD Association. It is equal to 8 Mbit/s, and it measures the minimum write speeds based on "the best fragmented state where no memory unit is occupied":[10]

The following are the ratings of some currently available cards:

* Class 2: 16 Mbit/s (2 MB/s)
* Class 4: 32 Mbit/s (4 MB/s)
* Class 6: 48 Mbit/s (6 MB/s)
* Class 10: 80 Mbit/s (10 MB/s)

What about the Lexar 16gb Platinum 2 100x sd cards? BH has two of them for about $90. But its only class 6, which I guess is 6mb/s, which seems really slow. But right now its out of stock.

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …6GB_Platinum_II​_100x.html

So on this one, the sandisk extreme 16gb
http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …_Extreme_SDHC_M​emory.html
that says 30MB/s is 30 megabits per second? Thats deceptive. : )

For T2i, I have both a 8 G Sandisk Extreme SDHC Class 10, and a 16 G Transcend SDHC Class 10. They are both priced about the same, and the performance of the Transcend has been smooth for video. I haven't been able to tell the difference in any way--however, I don't feel comfortable with only having a Transcend.

msfvirginia wrote in post #10524151
What about the Lexar 16gb Platinum 2 100x sd cards? BH has two of them for about $90. But its only class 6, which I guess is 6mb/s, which seems really slow. But right now its out of stock.

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …6GB_Platinum_II​_100x.html

So on this one, the sandisk extreme 16gb
http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …_Extreme_SDHC_M​emory.html
that says 30MB/s is 30 megabits per second? Thats deceptive. : )

No, i don't think so, I think they are very careful in terms of how they write their speed.

30MB/s means 30 mega byte per second which is 240 mega bit per second.
30Mb/s means 30 mega bit per second.

I think what it means by putting 30MB/s on the card and said it's class 10 means it is guarantee to have minimum writing speed of 10MB/s, and it has a burst writing speed of 30MB/s.

I see, I thought it was something like internet plans, how its usually in megabits per second.

Kumsa, how come you do not feel comfortable with only a transcend memory card? Do you not trust how reliable it is?

According to page 123 of the T2i/550D owners manual, "When shooting movies, use a large capacity SD card rated SD Speed Class 6 or higher."

Canon's Online PDF of the T2I owners manual: Click HERE

Never heard of Patriot SD cards......

Scott

Hi Scott,

Patriot is a memory manufacturer. They are more known for making memory for notebook and desktop systems. I have used Patriot for years without any problems. However, I looked at the reviews on newegg and some people have had issues. I suppose that is with any manufacturer though. $40 for 16GB class 10 is a great price. Video has never experienced a hiccup!

for those that have class 6 and class 10 memory cards, what is your experience with this camera and taking a bunch of pictures in a row. Im concerned that the camera will lag during a wedding ceremony if I am taking a bunch of pictures as they walk down the isle.

I would go for the 7d if I could afford the difference but at this point I cant, especially since I just bought the canon 24-70 lens.

my opinion about the card for t2i is that if they recommand class 6 and if class 6 is cheaper than class 10, by all means go for the class 6 memory class (at many cases, even class 4 is sufficient unless continues video shooting for a long time is required. There isn't any faster to use a class 10 card compare to a class 6 card if the camera can't take an advantage of it.

The class 4 cards cannot keep up with the camera in my experience. Poor class 6 cards (really shouldn't have been labled class 6) also had issues, but fewer - especially with video.

The limiting factor on taking a bunch of shots with the T2i is the limited buffer in the camera. You can get 6, maybe 7 raw shots before the camera starts to choke back on frames per second. You can get around 30 shots if you use jpeg. However, I would never use jpeg for something like a wedding. If the exposure is off, you have a better chance of recovering and correcting the photo using raw instead of jpg.


from http://www.the-digital-picture.com …al-SLR-Camera-Review.aspx:

To test burst rate, I shoot in M mode (wide open aperture, 1/4000 shutter speed), ISO 100, MF, IS off, lens cap on, and all noise reduction off. I clocked 8 shots in 2.192 seconds for a measured 3.65 fps rate followed by 1 frame every 1.05 seconds or so.

I use the Sandisk class 10 16GB card for my T2i. It's around $75.

So this camera cant use a class 10 memory cards speed? It writes to it as if it was a class 6?

Just wanted to make sure.

No it will use Class 10 fine and write fast to it. The issue for shots is the buffer in the camera. That will always be your limiting factor.... think of it this way... each raw file is roughly 28mb. They camera is capable of shooting 3.7 frames per second. The camera would need a card that would support a sustained write speed of 104mb/sec. (28*3.7) to keep the buffer from filling up (buffer tops out at 6 raw frames).

There are no SD cards out there with that kind of write speed. If there were, I am not sure if the camera is capable of writing to a card that quickly anyway. Just get a quality class 6 or 10 card (might as well get 10 since they aren't more expensive). You can get 6 raw bursts in 2 seconds or you can shoot jpg and get roughly 30 shots in 9 to 10 seconds before the camera will slow down.

If that isn't sufficient speed for your purposes, you will need a different camera.