Best Choice of Memory Cards

[OL'B4BC]

Okay, I've decided to get the A610 with the WP-DC90 for my once a year vacation diving opportunity. I hope the need and opportunity to upgrade will came along soon.

In the meantime, what are folks finding they prefer for memory cards. The camera comes with a 16mb which probably doesn't amount to much more than a couple dives on the largest (most dense) image. So I need to get another card or two but am debating about one 512mb vs two 256mbs, etc.

What seems to be enough storage for a week or two of travel with 5-6 dives? Is two small cards better security wise (if the camera gets stolen or flodded, etc.)? Also, how about the high speed cards. Are they better for fish and topside wildlife photos? Do they really speed up the processing time enough to be worth the extra money? I'm expecting to stay with the large image most of the time which is a factor I'm sure.

Chime in, I'm anxious to hear your thoughts!

 

[H20Bubbles]

I have the A620 and am using a 1GB SD card, which is capable of storing 523 pictures at the highest quality setting. Personally, I would recommend going larger than 256MB or 512. Last trip I used the camera's video and it easily chews up 50-100MB per clip.

Check out Buy.com, you can find a 1GB SD card for less than $50, or a 2GB SD card for under $80. The 256MB SD card is around $25... so I don't see why you would spend $50 for 512MB when you can get 1GB for the same cost.

I just ordered a 2GB SD card today, to add to the two 1GB cards I already have.

 

[bperrybap]

Although I do use a 1GB card in my camera so that I can use video,
I prefer to use 512MB or smaller because later its real easy to back up to CDs.
Going bigger than 512 means when it comes down to backing up you either
have to breakup your images or jump to DVDs which take alot longer to burn
and hold a lot more pictures.
Going smaller also means that should you have some
kind of failure, electronic, flood, etc... and you've used multiple cards,
you won't lose all your pictures.

Lately, I've noticed that 4 256MB cards can be cheaper than a single 1GB
card.

--- bill

 

[OL'B4BC]

So, it seems no one has any opinion on the "high speed" versus the "multi media" card. One site I have seen suggests the camera processing time is significantly shorter with the high speed but then they are selling them. I contacted an agent at Crucial.com (they sell both) and he claimed they would perform virtually the same. Then why would they make high speed? For some other application?

What are you folks mostly using, the multi media version?

 

[OL'B4BC]

I just found the ArcTic Diver thread and Alcina answered many of my questions. Thanks Alcina!

(Am I talking to myself here?)

 

[bperrybap]

While I don't have the same camera as you,
I do use the high speed SD cards since I shoot video.
One thing to watch when buying them
is that many have different speeds for read vs write and some will quote
the read speed which tends to be higher than the write speed.
For devices like an MP3 player write speeds aren't that important since they
only do reads during play back.
On a camera, write speed is much more critical since it can determine
how fast you can take pictures and can affect your battery life.
That being said, just because you have a faster memory card doesn't mean
the camera takes advantage of it.
The write speed can be limited by the cameras abilities as well.

--- bill

 

[OL'B4BC]

Thanks, bill. I see there is a quite a difference in write speeds. The San Dick SD writes at a 6mb/sec minimum but the Ultra II writes at 9mb/sec minimum. That's quite a difference for about 20% more in price.

It looks like I'm going to bite the bullet and go with the A620 but I'm still uncertain as to how to be sure the memory cards I'm looking at are compatable. I've found a couple of sites that guarantee compatability but they don't show the A620 yet or their prices are nothing to be excited about.

Anybody have a good site for checking card compatability by camera model and card model number?

 

[jpomerantz]

I have the A620 and use 512mb cards for the reason above - easier to dump to cd's. I have been using the high speed ones for the write time as I shoot in fine mode and the large files take a bit to save. I also have used 1gb w/o trouble. Kingston, SanDisc even generics I got on EBay have worked.

 

[OL'B4BC]

I just ordered two San Disk Ultra IIs today. One 512 and one 1GB. $42.99 and $58.89 respectively on amazon.com. I thought those were pretty good prices after what I'd seen for standard SD cards. Sure is a wide range in prices (assuming these show up that is). The Ultra IIs operate at a 50% better write rate (6mb/s versus 9mb/s) so they should be great for video and sequenced shooting.

We'll see. Thanks everyone for the hints!!!

 

[Potapko]

When I contacted Canon I was told that the faster write speeds of the Ultra II cards will not make any difference with the 610. The normal cards are capable of writing faster than the camera can process the infomation. The Canon rep told me the faster card would make virtually no difference.

It's the similar to the situation I had with my desktop computer. I was only able to find additional RAM memory capable of writing at 533k. The thing is that my computer only has 333k bus speed. This therefore is the limiting factor.