Hey all I need your advice on what compact flash memory card to use in my Canon S1 IS camera. When we go to a show I think nothing of taking 200/300 photos so with a 3.2 MP camera probably not going to use the highest resolution all the time. My thinking is a 512 should be more than enough memory. No video to be shot with camera. What name brand is the best quality? Do these thing wear out from proper use? Speed to process the image means nothing to me. It takes a minute or two to walk between cars so 1 or three seconds to wait for the next picture to be taken is pointless. The salesman said use SanDisk but then thats what they had in the store. Thanks for your help! :TU:
Lexar is the best. Speed does matter. I would not consider anything under 1 gig. Lexar has their "WA" Write Accelerated technology and it is much faster. Why shoot Low-Res when you can shoot your highest res and if need be, downgrade the quality ?? By shooting in Hi-res, you guarantee that you can print large clear pictures later on. The beauty of Digital photography is being able to click away and not worry about running out of film. You dont have to worry about "Did I get it ??" If you take ALOT of pictures, you KNOW you got it !! But to do this, you need a Fast card with alot of memory.....with ALOT of storage Take a look at this link - I shot over 200 Hi-Res (5 megapixel) to get those 14 "Money" shots. Never could have done it with a slow card, not shooting hi-res, and worrying about if I had enough memory. I use a 2 gig Lexar card and have another 512mb one as backup http://v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=48509&highlight=perry
Thanks Alan. Is the "speed" of the card what the 2X, 12X, 24X and so on is representing? What is the range of speed that would be advisable? I've seen the 1GB and 4GB cards but didn't know if they wear out or not. I would much rather have 1-1GB than many smaller ones.
Yes - the "X" is the speed. Mine is 40x, but they now have 80x. Check with you camera specs to make sure its compatable before purchase. you can call lexar as they do alot of testing. I asked if the 4 gig would work for me, and they actually bought my camera to test and reported back a week later - I thought they had forgotten or blew me off. I was pleasantly surprised by the return call. Here's a link to Lexar's CF memory page. Prices have also dropped considerably on the 1 & 2 gig cards now that 4 and 8 gig are out. http://www.lexar.com/digfilm/compact_flash.html If you search online, you'll see prices are all over the place varying by as much as 30-40% between vendors. Look for a large on-line camera house like B&H and for a good price. Also - I have a COmpaq IPAQ hand-held computer (PDA) and I bought an expansion chassis for it that allows me to use (2) CF typeII cards in it. I use this as my Ipod or walkman. It uses Windows PocketPC and can play windows media files or MP3's.....I've usually got at least 5-10 albumns worth loaded on a card and use it daily to liten to music during my commute. I also use the card as a "Jump Drive" or portable storage device. Last nite I created 4 video's of Cecil racing, this morning loaded them onto the CF card and brought them to work to lad onto my web-server for y'all to enjoy. So.....its a not just a card for your camera - its a portable storage media you can use elsewhere too. Just not sure where Compact Flash will be in a few years as other smaller media takes over.....but like you my Camera for now is based on it.
Hate to disagree but I think in this case a gig would be over kill. I've got a 256 for my camera and that'll get me tonnes of pictures. What I've found in my own experience is that you never wait to fill it up and then put it on the computer, you do that after ever event. and the dangers of accidentily reformatting that would worry me.
Different strokes for different folks. At 5megapixel and max res, my camera creates ~14 meg TIF files. I went away to Hawaii for 2 weeks and never worried, just clicked away. In hundreds of cycles - Downloads from card to PC and erasing card - I've never had a problem with reformatting ??
If you have a 3 mpixel camera ........ I'd get the 512 if I were shopping today. I took pics at the nats with my 4mpix Kodak with a 256 meg SD Card and came real close to filling it up just on the first day. It was a real good thing I brought my laptop to dump the photos off on that. As Alan suggests, always use your highest resolution....... You don't want to ever have to scale a photo up. Mike
Check Ebay out. It was a while ago but I got 3 128 meg cards for a real good price with plastic cases. Havn't need more then 1 yet. I just take 640x480 pics.
