pakman
Contributor
To Fuji F30 owners, have you found that the "H" (highspeed) type xd picture cards makes a significant difference in recycle time for the F30 vs the old "M" type xd cards?
Xd cards (H vs M type) for a Fuji F30
- Thread starter pakman
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Warmwater Wank
Contributor
Pakman--Thanks to an earlier thread from Starlan I ended up with an F-30. (Your pics on that thread are partialy to "blame"--it's a good camera--thanx for posting those nice shots !! 
). Someone was blowing out xD 1GB M cards so I got one--then of course, right after I ordered, I saw a 1GB H card even cheaper. So far all I've seen is that in Movie mode you can go a bit longer at the highest setting with the H card, not that I use Movie mode. Haven't seen any time difference shooting at highest quality still settings. Haven't timed a download comparison either but possubly it shows up there? If I don't remember which card I put in I don't notice a difference. If I saw a really cheap M card I'd probably still get it. Bonaire in 2 weeks, then the camera & cards will get a more "serious" workout!
). Someone was blowing out xD 1GB M cards so I got one--then of course, right after I ordered, I saw a 1GB H card even cheaper. So far all I've seen is that in Movie mode you can go a bit longer at the highest setting with the H card, not that I use Movie mode. Haven't seen any time difference shooting at highest quality still settings. Haven't timed a download comparison either but possubly it shows up there? If I don't remember which card I put in I don't notice a difference. If I saw a really cheap M card I'd probably still get it. Bonaire in 2 weeks, then the camera & cards will get a more "serious" workout!
OP
pakman
Contributor
hehehe, I think I might have also answered my own question... I had lost my original F30 thanks to my friends not warning me that the bartender at a nightclub was giving me 151 rum n cokes during a nite out on Halloween weekend. (Some happy taxi driver in Manila is a proud owner of my F30 with some embarrassing pics of my friends from that nite!)
Anyways, I ended up picking up a replacement F30 when I was in NYC for a business trip (Fuji was having a $50 rebate!). In my rush, I also bought a 2gb M xd card. I had totally forgotten about the H xd cards. So anyways, for some reason I thought I had the M type xd card in my original F30. Well today, I was cleaning my apt and found the packaging and it looks I like I actually had a H (highspeed) xd card with my old F30.
Odd that I thought the H was kind of slow, but it doesn't feel like the 2GB Olympus M xd card is noticeably slower (but again my memory might be bad...
). Maybe, I'll pick up a H card one day and test it out...
WW, not sure if I understand why the movie mode would go longer is both cards are the same 1GB. I don't think card speed would make a difference.
Anyways, I ended up picking up a replacement F30 when I was in NYC for a business trip (Fuji was having a $50 rebate!). In my rush, I also bought a 2gb M xd card. I had totally forgotten about the H xd cards. So anyways, for some reason I thought I had the M type xd card in my original F30. Well today, I was cleaning my apt and found the packaging and it looks I like I actually had a H (highspeed) xd card with my old F30.
Odd that I thought the H was kind of slow, but it doesn't feel like the 2GB Olympus M xd card is noticeably slower (but again my memory might be bad...
). Maybe, I'll pick up a H card one day and test it out...WW, not sure if I understand why the movie mode would go longer is both cards are the same 1GB. I don't think card speed would make a difference.
evil_xander
Contributor
pakman:
It does.
Try shooting jpg burst mode, try shooting raw, with both cards, preferably the same capacity in same conditions (light, dark, same sample, etc).
I tested it with two 256 MB xD cards, one regular, the other type H.
With my hi-tech time measuring equipment (stopwatch
), the write time was significantly shorter when using the type H card. Roughly, depending on light conditions, between 30-50% difference in favour of type H. For UW photography, that's good enough for me to choose type H xD cards.
xD cards are generally not that fast, so any improvement in write time for those once-a-lifetime photo opportunites is fine with me.
I have one 1G H card and a 2G M card.
I hesitated for a bit when I brought my 2G card because it was an M card, the hesitation was not necessary, later on I found out.
Without using any timing equip, the diff in speed (to me) is not big (subjectively).
Someone tell me that if I use the camera for movie, I should be able to notice.
Well, I am going to use video camera if I want shoot some movie, anyway.
Talking about speed, F31fd can be a good choice nowadays. It's almost the same as F30 (same UW housing, cost about the same), plus F31fd has the face detection which does help out a bit on the speed during focusing, well, at least if you are using it for shooting people. Most of all, it take cares of the lighting compensation well when the background lighting is v. different from foreground.
Then the speed to delete photo's, and the time it takes to jump start when you turn the camera on are also a bit faster.
Other feature includes infra red data transfer (to printer etc).
I hesitated for a bit when I brought my 2G card because it was an M card, the hesitation was not necessary, later on I found out.
Without using any timing equip, the diff in speed (to me) is not big (subjectively).
Someone tell me that if I use the camera for movie, I should be able to notice.
Well, I am going to use video camera if I want shoot some movie, anyway.
Talking about speed, F31fd can be a good choice nowadays. It's almost the same as F30 (same UW housing, cost about the same), plus F31fd has the face detection which does help out a bit on the speed during focusing, well, at least if you are using it for shooting people. Most of all, it take cares of the lighting compensation well when the background lighting is v. different from foreground.
Then the speed to delete photo's, and the time it takes to jump start when you turn the camera on are also a bit faster.
Other feature includes infra red data transfer (to printer etc).
Warmwater Wank
Contributor
I could see where burst mode could slow down an M card but there is no RAW capability on an F-30, sadly enough. According to the owners manual, if you record and erase files on an M card it can reduce movie recording time. They don't say anything about that happening w/ an H card. Can't say as doing movies w/ an F-30 is in my game plan either, however. Still, ya never know--I'd probably do some movies of Pakman going sideways on 151 rum if I ever saw it happen! :no
OP
pakman
Contributor
Interesting... I could see the benefits if shooting in RAW, but as WW said, the F30 doesn't have raw capability. And I never use burst mode with it (it was pretty slow with the H card if I recall).
WW - LOL, interesting... I'll have to read the manual one of these days. Maybe it affects movies as you are recording and it hits the internal buffer, then the higher speed H card will transfer it while maybe you get a stutter with the M card... Actually the movie function on the F30 is pretty good at hi-res and the length is only limited to the card size... Now to go find a willing subject for a 28min short movie... 
evil - I 've seen what you mean on some cameras like the oly's which had notoriously long RAW write speeds. However, on some cameras such as my old Canon S70, even with RAW, differing memory card speed didn't effect it as much... but then again, it did raw pretty quickly compared to the 10-15sec lag on the some of the Oly equivalents!! ouch!
alo - yes! the F30 is SLOW when deleting pics, even 1 by 1!!!! 1 of the few gripes I have about this wonderful camera... maybe reason alone to get a H card...
WW - LOL, interesting... I'll have to read the manual one of these days. Maybe it affects movies as you are recording and it hits the internal buffer, then the higher speed H card will transfer it while maybe you get a stutter with the M card... Actually the movie function on the F30 is pretty good at hi-res and the length is only limited to the card size...
Now to go find a willing subject for a 28min short movie... evil - I 've seen what you mean on some cameras like the oly's which had notoriously long RAW write speeds. However, on some cameras such as my old Canon S70, even with RAW, differing memory card speed didn't effect it as much... but then again, it did raw pretty quickly compared to the 10-15sec lag on the some of the Oly equivalents!! ouch!
alo - yes! the F30 is SLOW when deleting pics, even 1 by 1!!!! 1 of the few gripes I have about this wonderful camera... maybe reason alone to get a H card...
See my blog article:
Writers' Cramp
Comparing RAW write times on a Fuji F810 and E900. Similar times will be had on an F30.
Jack
Writers' Cramp
Comparing RAW write times on a Fuji F810 and E900. Similar times will be had on an F30.
Jack
OP
pakman
Contributor
Jack, interesting... which camera was your friend using, the one you noted didn't see a difference in write times between H and M cards...?
JackConnick:
Jack,
After I read your article related to the "Preview Mode", I realized that I should specify that I didn't notice much difference between M and H when I set my default post view (after a shot is taken, the image would stay on screen for the user to observe the result) to 1.5 s (there are 3 modes you can choose in F30, 1.5s 3s, and enlarged post view which is the slowest). In other words, when I tried to make one shot after the others, I have to wait 1.5s for the next shot. It doesn't make much difference b/w M and H (subjectively speaking).
Then besides that, there is a "Shot for Consecutive pic Mode" for F30 which allow the user to hold the shutter for 3 consecutive pic's. I observed that the 3 pic's were obtained fast; however, after the images are captured, it takes F30 extra time to save the images from the buffers to the mem card (long).
So, my question for Jack is, if I am using F30 for such setting (1 sec post view), is it possible that I would never see the difference?
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