jlefebvre Loc: Toronto, Ontario

So, again..I have another question for anyone out there who would care to help out. I have the Nikon D7000 which of course has two SD slots in it. Now, I was told by someone in one of my Meet Up groups that it is best to use an SD card with a "Class 10" rating on it. I was told by this person that it is a necessity to use the higher Class 10 over any of the others. So, taking this advise, I purchased 2 Sandisk Class 10 64GB cards, one for each slot. I have chosen RAW format in Slot 1 and JPG format in Slot 2. I guess my question would be, if I am not shooting video with my camera and it is pretty much strictly stills that I shoot, why do I need the Class 10 SD card? I understand the processing abilities of this card, but does it really make a huge difference? Just wondering about this. :roll: :roll:

Billbobboy42 Loc: Center of Delmarva

Jo Anne,

I'll give you my "layman's" opinion while you wait for the techies here to reply.

Read and write transfer data speeds with the Class 10 Sandisks are, generally, faster than the lower class cards. You can purchase Class 10 cards with transfer rates in the 10-20mb/sec rate all the way up to (well, as fast as I have observed) 95 mb/sec. The higher the transfer rate, the more expensive the card. That 95 mb/sec will run close to $100.00. You didn't say what the rate is on the cards you purchased.

Anyway, if, in fact, you never plan on triggering the camera shutter more than once for a given composition, the write transfer speed is not important. However, should you run into a photo op requiring rapid multiple shutter releases (i.e, sports event, bird flying), write speed comes into play. A card with a slower write speed might not be able to keep up with your camera's shutter releases, meaning the camera will have to wait until the card catches up, meaning you would miss some of the "action".

I believe your advice that a class 10 was a necessity probably was in regard to rapid multiple exposures.

Hope this will help while we wait for the techies. But I would not say you wasted your money on the class 10 cards. Who knows what the future brings?

Bill

amehta Loc: Boston

Your NEF files can be 20-30MB each, so if you ever shoot continuous, the faster card lets the camera clear the buffer better.

Also, I don't think you can get a slower 64GB card, they just make those faster.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

If you read your manual you will see your D7000 requires Class 4 cards for stills and Class 6 cards for video. Todays best buys are all Class 10 cards which won't hurt your photography at all.
Cards which are rated faster than your buffer write speed will not speed up your camers in any way, thats why Nikon tests and qualifies cards based on their write speeds.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Depends on what you shoot. I was just out today, trying to shoot some birds in flight. I shoot RAW only and had a class 6 SD card only. The camera could not write to keep up with the action. I'll be ordering several class 10 cards-- probably SanDisk Extremes 95mbb. I don't do sports... but this is the one time I wished I had a "faster" card....

katbandit Loc: new york city

two 64 gb cards..wow you sure shoot a heck of a lot of photos….lol
just a little bit of suggestion..i would seriously consider getting less GBs ..if the card should crash which is rare but could happen ..you will lose a lot more photos..try to get four 32 gb cards instead and have two in the camera and two as a reserve…i shoot RAW and seem to always have enough memory for most occasions..i don't do weddings but if you had a 64gb card in that crashed it would be worse than if you lost less photos…

amehta Loc: Boston

The D7000 has dual slots, so saving to both cards should protect her from a card crashing. I agree, though, 32GB cards would have been enough for about 2000 photos.

jlefebvre Loc: Toronto, Ontario

Billybobboy42, that was a perfect explanation, I need "layman's terms" for this. I do actually love taking wildlife and nature shots and also just shooting my dog at the dog park running. So, I do need continuous shooting ability to capture actions shots. this may be why that person suggested it to me about the Class 10. Now thinking back, I do remember one time at the park shooting random pictures of the dogs there, I had a Class 6 card with my D5100 and there were some pictures that simply went missing...this explains it all!! Thank you!!

jlefebvre Loc: Toronto, Ontario

The suggestion of the 32GB cards is a great idea as well. I am just now starting to shoot in RAW...I am kind of "chicken" to shoot all RAW, so my 2nd slot is back up in JPG format. I am going on a 10 day cruise and will not have the ability to upload any photos on my computer because I am not bringing it with me. It would be too much to lug around and I am going to be with a friend who is also bringing all her camera gear as well...so no computer. I wanted to make sure that I had enough room on the cards to capture everything, especially since I will be shooting in RAW on the one card. But, I think I will get 2 more cards to put in with the 32GB capacity as well as the Class 10. OMG..so much to learn...so much to grasp.

katbandit Loc: new york city

RAW is just having more ability to correct the photo..jpegs are usually very well done inside the camera but its so much better to have more control of how you want the photo to look..besides if you have the program that can upload the RAW image you need only to change them to JPGS yourself..not that hard once you get the hang..you will always shoot RAW

amehta Loc: Boston

The nef file has a jpeg embedded in it which you can extract in seconds (Instant JPEG From RAW), so you don't have to worry about having to do post processing on every shot. On the cruise, you should have access to a computer to copy pictures off the cards, you can take a couple of thumb drives for that. They are cheaper than SD cards because the speed factor isn't quite as important. http://www.microcenter.com/product/402177/64GB_SuperSpeed_USB_30_Flash_Drive

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

Not only depends on what you shoot....
The writing to the card by the camera is an interaction, as I understand it. Sure, the faster cards can "take up" images faster than the slower (Class 4, class 6) cards. But what about the camera itself? If the camera can only write to the card at a class 4 speed, buying a class 10 doesn't give you any advantage.
I am still using a couple of class 2 and 4 cards, and find that they are no slower than a class 10 card in my P&S.
In my E-5, I only use the class 10, simply because that's all that was available when I bought them, but even when the card claim 30 mb/sec or 90 mb/sec, I find no difference in write speed and "blame" the camera for that, not the card.

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

I think it's funny how times and technology change.
Just a year ago on UHH people were saying you should use four 16 GB cards instead of two 32 GB cards because you would lose fewer pictures if one crashed. Now we're saying to use four 32 GB cards instead of two 64 GB cards for the exact same reason. Anyone wanna take bets on next year we'll be saying to use four 64 GB cards instead of two 128 GB cards so we'll lose fewer photos in a crash? :mrgreen:

Underwaterant

Then there are TYPE 1 and 2.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

That desgnation only applies to CF cards and refers to their thickness.