Memory cards

[stephen]

Hi guys when looking at memory cards is ther any specific brands or sizes i should be looking at?. Cheers Stephen

[Geoff]

hi Steve,
good question. When you've been around the forum for a little longer there is someone who will be able to help you out. As far as size, I would recommend nothing smaller than 1gig cards, as they are now very affordable. Also, I personally don't believe that sandisk are any better than the ones commonly used my members here 'astone' brand. Cheers, hope this helps and welcome to the forum!

[stephen]

Thanks Geoff,Is there any "speed' the card should run at .If i buy a cheaper one will it slow down the camera and so make it less effective which kind of defeats the purpose of the exercise or are they all pretty much the same speed.I hope that doesnt sound like a complete idiotic question???.Cheers Stephen

[Paul]

Hi Steven
I'm sure most users have either mulitple 1Gb or 2Gb cards in there D70's.
This seems the safest size as you don't want keep all you eggs in one basket.
Birddog has the Astone cards for sale in the "Bargains Section" which you can access after 30 relevant posts and upload a picture for review.
I have 2 off 1Gb Astone form Birdy, very happy with the performance!

EDIT, beaten again by Geoff's speed of reply!

[Matt. K]

I've tried all of the main brands of memory cards and by far the best are...errr...I forget.

[Onyx]

If you know or care of the difference between satisficing and optimizing, this thread or maybe this one might point you to potential problem brands.

The difference between a generic/unknown brandname and a known brandname is probably not performance, but reliability.

[Matt. K]

Onyx

The difference between a generic/unknown brandname and a known brandname is probably not performance, but reliability.

That's why my wife married me.

[stephen]

Thanks for the quick responses guys.Someone mentioned formatting the card in one of the links that onyx gave me .Is that something i can do at home with the camera or do i need specific equipment for that?.

[marcus]

Naa just put it in the camera and follow the format procedure BTW I have a 1gb and a 2gb SanDisk. Have not had a problem (yet).

[johndec]

Thanks Geoff,Is there any "speed' the card should run at .If i buy a cheaper one will it slow down the camera and so make it less effective which kind of defeats the purpose of the exercise or are they all pretty much the same speed.I hope that doesnt sound like a complete idiotic question???.Cheers Stephen

I'm sure I read here somewhere that a 45x card more than keeps up with the D70, any faster is just a waste of money.

[sirhc55]

Had a chat with a friend today who is getting 4Gb cards at $275 cost - boy have they dropped in price. He told me that they should always be reformatted in the camera after every download as it will lengthen the life of the card.

[MCWB]

Onyx

The difference between a generic/unknown brandname and a known brandname is probably not performance, but reliability.

That's why my wife married me.

And why she has a Viagra pen?

[birddog114]

With the D70s, 45x will be adequated for its uses. 60x or 80x won't change anything to the camera, I still use the 45x Astone/ Transcend with my D2h & D2x.
Seen nothing wrong

[gstark]

Stephen,

In the camera, 45x is more than adequate, and anything faster is a waste of your $$.

The best way to transfer files to your computer is with a card reader ($25). Make sure that you have USB2 capabilities on your PC and in your card reader to optimise transfer of your files from the card to the pc.

While a faster (than 45x) card will give you faster transfer speeds to the PC (with USB2) the increase in speed won't be that great - maybe a minute or so on a full card. What can you do in that time?

As others have said, always reformat your card in the camera after transferring the files to your pc.

[fozzie]

Chris,

Had a chat with a friend today who is getting 4Gb cards at $275 cost - boy have they dropped in price. He told me that they should always be reformatted in the camera after every download as it will lengthen the life of the card.

Just for interest sake is that US$275 or AU$275 at cost price


Cheers,

[sirhc55]

Fozzie - my friend is a local IT guy and that’s his buy price locally in $AU. He also told me about prices (to him) on monitors that reflect the way they have dropped in price in the last year.

[birddog114]

I could not see any 4Gb card at AU$275.00 yet!, I'm looking for 10 of them and wish I can find them at that price, the Transcend/ Astone 2Gb card is still AU$220.00 my cost price.

If anyone can buy the 4Gb card 45x at AU$275.00, pls. let me know. I'm interested in them.

[Hlop]

Chris,

I don't know all the situation but this price seems to be for a 4Gb microdrive. Prices for Sandisk or similar CF cards still around AU$400

[johnd]

Chris and Gary have both mentioned that you should reformat the card in camera after downloading.

I take card out of camera, put in reader, copy files to PC, then delete files from card, then put card back in camera. I figure the card is just a memory device, so why would reformatting it in camera make any difference to the life of the card.

Don't get me wrong, if there is a reason then I'll change my workflow, but I can't think of why deleting files ex camera should be any different than reformatting in camera.

Very curious.

Cheers
John

[tsanglabs]

I would be clamoring for a 4GB card at that price.

I have also seen 8GB cards on ebay and at http://www.ow.com.au (http://www.ow.com.au/shop/product_info.php/cPath/24_58/products_id/130). The ebay prices have been $800 while organiser world is $1200.

[sirhc55]

What has to be considered is that the price I quoted was the buy price (wholesale) for someone dealing directly with the supplier. There is a substantial profit shown on cards as can be seen by checking out ebay and then local retailers.

I will investigate this further as my friend is notorious for quoting one thing but meaning something else.

[gstark]

John,

Chris and Gary have both mentioned that you should reformat the card in camera after downloading.

I take card out of camera, put in reader, copy files to PC, then delete files from card, then put card back in camera. I figure the card is just a memory device, so why would reformatting it in camera make any difference to the life of the card.

The cards are formatted using FAT32. That means that if you simply delete images, the first new image written will occupy the first truly free space on the card, rather than the first available space on the card. This permits later recovery of the delted files should you so wish: deletion is merely flagging the file for deletion, rather than physical removal of the file.

But it gets worse: if you delete a dud shot in-camera, again, that space remains, and leads to fragmentation of the space on your card. Just as fragmentation of your PC's HDD is not a good thing - and slows down performance - so it is with your CF card.

The simple, 5 second task of formatting your card anew, in the camera, every time, avoids all of that, leaving your card defragged and provides the best possible performance at all times.

[johnd]

Thanks for the explanation Gary. Sounds like a good use of 5 secs.
Cheers
John

[marcus]

Great tip Gary, I would never have thought of that but now it seems obvious. Perhaps thats why you drive the car that you do and I drive mine!

Reformatting tonight (and evermore).

Many thanks for that one!

[gstark]

John, Marcus,

My pleasure, and you're both welcome.