Size of memory card required for G10

[drcolyn]

My preferred Canon agent in Cape town just called me as they have received stock again of the G10 and he kept a housing aside for me as well.

Now could somebody please give me advise on what memory card to buy if I will be shooting in RAW mode and average just over 100 shots per dive. Guess I should make provision for a 2 dive day at least. I had a too small memory card in the Sony for way too long and it killed me sometimes.
I read that Warmwater wank advised somebody to get a “Transcend 16GB sdhc/Class 6” card
I have only seen the following brand at my local dealer
SanDisk Ultra® II SDHC 8GB Card - 15Mb/s price R500.00
SanDisk Ultra® II SDHC 16GB Card - 15Mb/s price R950.00
SanDisk Extreme® III SDHC 8GB - 20Mb/s price R700.00
SanDisk Extreme® III SDHC 16GB - 30Mb/s Price R1900.00
I realize it’s dumb to pay R6 495.00 for the camera and then run out of memory or delay the camera’s writing speed at a critical moment because you tried to skimp on the price of the memory card. As you can see I will pay dearly for increased (above 15Mb/s) writing speed – what is the G10’s rate required? Should I rather go for the Extreme III 8GB than the Extreme II 16GB?
Great! – the manager just granted me a day’s leave on Wednesday as it is a 150km drive to town.
Any confirmed rumors of a G11 with DSLR like wide angle capabilities before I commit myself?
Apparently the next Canon show is in October 2009 and I will be stuck with this G10 for the next decade or till my wife starts diving. It will be a looong time.

 

[siikik]

I have a Transcend (CF) 8gb memory card and haven't had any trouble out of it whatsoever. I also have some Kingston (microSD) 2gb and 8gb cards (for a different camera and phones) and also have not had any trouble out of them. My experience keeps me away from the lesser known brands and I think SanDisk memory cards, while they might be good, are too expensive.

Not sure about shipping/sales to South Africa, but try newegg.com. I have ordered all my memory cards from them. I look for memory that has a lifetime warranty. In addition, I found you cannot rely on the speed ratings of the card alone... your camera may be the bottleneck while it is processing the picture so a faster card may not necessarily be faster.

I didn't see in the specs the amount of internal memory on the G10, but that makes a huge difference and may change your mind on model. I have an XTi which has internal (fast) memory for storing the picture before writing to the memory card... this makes makes it able to take 3 fps (depending on shutter speed) for about 15 frames before it has to wait to write the pictures from the internal memory to the card. The problem I have found with lesser digital cameras is they write directly to the memory card and can take several seconds before the camera is ready to take another shot.

I have an inexpensive Olympus FE-360 to get me started on underwater photography and it is deathly slow in more ways than one. But it's a decent starter camera that I will use to learn with until I can afford a housing for my XTi (which is more than the camera itself.) My philosophy is that underwater you (and your camera) have to be ready to take that shot... not everything is going to stand still for you. A good camera will have a minimal delay as you push the shutter button, a better camera will take the frame as soon as you push the shutter button and a great camera will take a bunch of frames if you hold down the shutter button.




Ken

 

[Warmwater Wank]

d--Another vote for Newegg, if you can deal w/ them from SA--maybe get 1 card in Cape Town now and see about mail order later?. I've had no probs w/ Transcend, Kingston or PQI but that's just me. (Do a google on sdhc card reviews/opinions and you'll find complaints about any card if someone got one that gave them a problem.) I'd also agree on SanDisk being over-priced (good product but pricey). I have 16gb cards because I use the camera on extended trips and may not have download cabillity if I don't have the laptop along (or take more "stuff"). 378 RAW only shots on an 8gb card are Canon's specs, should do fine for most shooters.

Internal memory on a G-10? Not a factor (it's why you are buying a SDHC card). The G-10 buffer and write speed are not going to be an issue w/ a decent card (and while class 6 can be meaningless if the manufacturer fudges a number, a better card rated at 6 will not slow you down). You'll wait longer for flash recycling on an external strobe (even if it's fast) than you will ever encounter waiting on the camera to write to the card. Shooting RAW + Large/Fine jpeg (which I now will skip, no real need for the jpeg for me) I've never enountered a delay from shot to shot, even tryng to get a fast sequence. Just isn't an issue.

If you wait for the G-11 you may as well hold out for the G-12--it'll be better still. On the other hand, if you want some good pics before we totally screw up the reefs and oceans (opps, editorializing again...) grab a G-10 and start shooting. When they widen the focal length on a newer model, the housing issues will become even more problematic than they are w/ the current Canon housing for the G-10 and it's flat port. (ie--you will need a fisheye port for wider lenses) Being "stuck" w/ a G-10 for a decade would be one of the nicer things to happen to most divers who aren't going to turn pro but who want good quality pics. // ww

 

[Onewolf]

I bought Lexar Professional 133x 4GB SDHC cards for our G10s because they tested quite fast on Rob Galbraith (Rob Galbraith DPI: Canon EOS Rebel XSi/450D) and I was having trouble finding my normal Sandisks in 4GB size.

In RAW file mode the G10 shows they have space for around 180 shots on the 4GB cards.

I bought them from Newegg.com.

 

[Dewit2it]

I have multiple 4 GB Ultra II's for my G10, and also shoot RAW + L Jpeg. There's a few times I'm waiting for everything to write. I may try going to the Extreme cards to speed things up.

It's a good thing to change cards often, rather than have one large card. If a large card fails, you loose everything!

 

[Onewolf]

I download to my laptop after every dive. Well after every dive on a liveaboard.

 

[Puffer Fish]

My preferred Canon agent in Cape town just called me as they have received stock again of the G10 and he kept a housing aside for me as well.

Now could somebody please give me advise on what memory card to buy if I will be shooting in RAW mode and average just over 100 shots per dive. Guess I should make provision for a 2 dive day at least. I had a too small memory card in the Sony for way too long and it killed me sometimes.
I read that Warmwater wank advised somebody to get a “Transcend 16GB sdhc/Class 6” card
I have only seen the following brand at my local dealer
SanDisk Ultra® II SDHC 8GB Card - 15Mb/s price R500.00
SanDisk Ultra® II SDHC 16GB Card - 15Mb/s price R950.00
SanDisk Extreme® III SDHC 8GB - 20Mb/s price R700.00
SanDisk Extreme® III SDHC 16GB - 30Mb/s Price R1900.00
I realize it’s dumb to pay R6 495.00 for the camera and then run out of memory or delay the camera’s writing speed at a critical moment because you tried to skimp on the price of the memory card. As you can see I will pay dearly for increased (above 15Mb/s) writing speed – what is the G10’s rate required? Should I rather go for the Extreme III 8GB than the Extreme II 16GB?
Great! – the manager just granted me a day’s leave on Wednesday as it is a 150km drive to town.
Any confirmed rumors of a G11 with DSLR like wide angle capabilities before I commit myself?
Apparently the next Canon show is in October 2009 and I will be stuck with this G10 for the next decade or till my wife starts diving. It will be a looong time.

If I can do the math correctly... it is around 8 rand to the US dollar...so 1900 is over $200 US... wow.

I mostly use 8 gig cards.. but have a few 16 gig ones. I shoot around 150 images a dive...so a two dive morning is 300 images (which is over 4 gig)... with a raw and jpeg... but WWW made a very good suggestion about not needing the jpeg.. I never use them.. must be habit.

I shoot a lot of pictures... something well over 10,000 this year.. have used a-data, pqi, transend and toshiba (only class 4 I have bought and it does not slow the camera down... a 16 gig is $29 at sams club).

On trips I just bring one for each day.

I have never had a bad card (expect to one day) and get most of them from Newegg.com

If I were buying one today, it would be this guy (with free shipping)

Newegg.com - Transcend 8GB Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC) Flash Card Model TS8GSDHC6 - Flash Memory

Oh, and in a bunch of decades of taking pictures.. the G10 is the best camera for underwater images I have ever used...when there is a G11, it will be hard pressed to be better.

 

[Puffer Fish]

d--Another vote for Newegg, if you can deal w/ them from SA--maybe get 1 card in Cape Town now and see about mail order later?. I've had no probs w/ Transcend, Kingston or PQI but that's just me. (Do a google on sdhc card reviews/opinions and you'll find complaints about any card if someone got one that gave them a problem.) I'd also agree on SanDisk being over-priced (good product but pricey). I have 16gb cards because I use the camera on extended trips and may not have download cabillity if I don't have the laptop along (or take more "stuff"). 378 RAW only shots on an 8gb card are Canon's specs, should do fine for most shooters.

Internal memory on a G-10? Not a factor (it's why you are buying a SDHC card). The G-10 buffer and write speed are not going to be an issue w/ a decent card (and while class 6 can be meaningless if the manufacturer fudges a number, a better card rated at 6 will not slow you down). You'll wait longer for flash recycling on an external strobe (even if it's fast) than you will ever encounter waiting on the camera to write to the card. Shooting RAW + Large/Fine jpeg (which I now will skip, no real need for the jpeg for me) I've never enountered a delay from shot to shot, even tryng to get a fast sequence. Just isn't an issue.

If you wait for the G-11 you may as well hold out for the G-12--it'll be better still. On the other hand, if you want some good pics before we totally screw up the reefs and oceans (opps, editorializing again...) grab a G-10 and start shooting. When they widen the focal length on a newer model, the housing issues will become even more problematic than they are w/ the current Canon housing for the G-10 and it's flat port. (ie--you will need a fisheye port for wider lenses) Being "stuck" w/ a G-10 for a decade would be one of the nicer things to happen to most divers who aren't going to turn pro but who want good quality pics. // ww

I hear the G25 is going to be amazing.

 

[Tigerman]

And at the rate they are pushing out cameras the G25 should be here in what? 2 years tops?

 

[Warmwater Wank]

Puffer's photo says a whole lot more than all the specs and test reports one could peruse. For uw work, if you aren't ready for the cash outlay, travel hassle and diving commitment to dslr you would be very hard pressed to beat a G-10 with a Canon housing for solid, sharp images in a reasonable price range ($500-600 US?).

I agree that 8gb cards and lots of them changed frequently makes sense (I once fried an XD card and lost 1/2 a trip...) but there are lots of lower cost, solid quality choices compared to SanDisc. (Hey, hey--they are great cards but...) Given the G-10's fast processing time of RAW files it makes sense to not have a "slow" card but it's easy to get seduced by higher numbers that won't translate to faster actual write times or, more importantly, better photos. Being underwater with the best camera you can afford will always get you better photos than the camera you can't afford or the one that isn't out yet. Hope your day off was "productive"! // ww