Memory Card Question DC800

[orb56]

I've just purchased a 16GB card for my DC800 (it was cheap) and was wondering if it will affect the speed of the camera. I thought I read somewhere here that with a 4GB card the camera will work quicker than with a 16GB card.

Can anyone comfirm this? I'm heading to Belize in a couple of weeks and looking forward to trying out my new camera with strobe.

 

[SeaLife Joe]

Although we have tested up to 16GB cards in the DC800, I woul drecommend staying under 4GB. First, if you are going to try and put your whole trip on one card, this is dangerous in my opinion. If you were to loose the card or it malfunctions or gets destroyed, you never know, your whole trip is ruined. If you are traveling with a laptop, then a good idea is to download your pics each day. I like to travel with a few 1 or 2 GB cards but do travel with a laptop and download each day at least once.

As afr as speed is concerned, it really on comes into play as the card gets closer to capacity. The new SDHC cards are usually pretty fast anyways and I have yet to even fill up a 1 GB card.

 

[orb56]

Thanks Joe. I only bought the 16Gb card cause it was cheap. I intend on taking my laptop along to download after each dive if for no other reason than to analyse the pics for quality and composition. I think I will pick up another card anyways just in case the one I have fails for some reason. Its along way to get a newone from where I'm staying in Belize.

 

[TheBigPhillyFish]

I Use the 4 GB cards they are just perfect. It allows me one hour of video, or more pictures then I could take in one dive. I have not even taken one hour of video. Another reason I like the 4 GB is because I can take a bunch of video, and pictures, surface interval, dive and take more. Without opening the camera and risking fog or moisture in the case. I remember when I first started using the 800 I would switch cards for each dive, and I would always get a foggy lens picture.

16GB, Wow, I could not even imagine. I thought 8 GB was pushing it. 16GB would give you over 3 hours of video, thats just insane.

 

[DandyDon]

What did you pay for the 16 GB? I get my cards at SD Card, SD Memory Card, Kingston SD Card, PQI SD Card, SD Memory Card, 8GB SD Card, 4GB SD Card, 2GB SD Card, SD Cards Looks like their 16 Gb start at $30 Free Shipping.

The DC800 shoot 4 Gb/hour huh? I see: it uses AVI. One of the things I liked about the old DC500 is it shot video in ASF, but since your camera recognizes SDHC cards, and they're cheap - cool. You can compress that in Windows Movie Maker.

 

[orb56]

For my 16 GB card I paid $20.00. Obviously that was a great sale price. I see in my shopping around now that I can't find a 4 GB card for that price. I'm off to pick up the 4 GB card (as a back-up) this wekend as I'm leaving for Belize next week. Yahooooo!

 

[DandyDon]

16 Gb for $20? Cool.

Meritline has 4 Gb starting at $9 delivered but you don't have time. They ship fast, but that's too tight. I keep an 8 Gb/$15.50 in my one camera that is SDHC capable; my others cannot accept larger than 2 Gb/$5.50. Gawd, I remember buying my first 128 Mb card for around $40 I think. In my lifetime, I've seen the first 5 Mb computer hard drive moved with a forklift and now we email pics that size. :silly:

Look! 32 Gb SDHC card: OEM BRAND 32GB SDHC CLASS 6 High Speed Flash Memory Card (32 GB SD Secure Digital High Capacity Card, MAKE IN JAPAN) BULK + iFLASH Logo USB 2.0 SDHC FLASH CARD READER/WRITER | Midwest Memory Outlet includes reader! Hehe my old reader won't work with HC cards either. That's larger than my first laptop HD. Jeeze.

I'm sure there is some variance in quality & speed, but the only card I ever had fail was a San Disk, and they were real jerks about authorizing warranty return.

 

[MasterFritts]

I remember spending $1,000 for a 20 meg drive for my SE/30. It had 4 meg of memory. Why would I ever need more? My Mac at work has 1tb of storage and 11 gig of memory.

I use 2 of the 8gb cards when I am on a trip. I swap them out between trips out and have my laptop to back them up after the dives.

 

[DandyDon]

I don't know Macs at all, other than they are electronic machines - all of which fail or die usually without much warning. No computer should be without an External Hard Drive for weekly back-up copying, IMNOHO. Computers are for processing; Hard Drive storage should be trusted elsewhere.

 

[MasterFritts]

We have multiple redundant backups here. Even my laptop I carry a portable external just for backups. I never trust a machine PC, Mac, Atari 2600.