Kbrick

I haven't checked in a while but now that I am in the market for a new C F card, there seems to be a very wide market with specs and prices all over the place. I have an old Nikon D70 if that matters. Any guidence from your collective wisdom would be so welcome.

Thanks.

MikeMck Loc: Southern Maryland on the Bay

You can never go wrong with Lexar!

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

Checking the list in the manual, immediately makes that list a lot smaller. Page 192.
If you can't find your manual, you may download it here:
http://cdn-10.nikon-cdn.com/pdf/manuals/dslr/D70S_en.pdf

Wilsondl3

Not sure about a D70 but my D50 that is about the same age will not take a card larger than 2gig. If you don't shoot in bursts you don't need a fast card. If it were me I would just get the one that's the cheapest for your D70. Dave

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

So sorry, I gave the reference for D70S manual, here's the correct one:
http://cdn-10.nikon-cdn.com/pdf/manuals/dslr/D70_en.pdf
although I don't think it makes much difference. Still on page 192.

Kbrick

Thanks all...it was helpful.

Basil Loc: New Mexico

If the camera will take it, the Lexar Professional 1066x

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

.... might be an utter waste of money!

Frankly, the older camera likely has slower write speed that anything over around 150X or 300X is probably overkill. Likely UDMA (and version) will make no difference either... the camera simply can't take advantage of it.

However, sometimes there are better deals on the newer, faster, larger cards, than on the older, smaller, slower ones!

Just last week I bought four Lexar 16GB "Pro" 800X UDMA 7 cards on sale for $105. In comparison, 16GB Lexar "Platinum II" 200X were selling for $31 apiece... so would have cost me $124 for four.

Do check on the max size card the camera can accommodate (might be able to use larger cards with a firmware update). Someone mentions a 2GB limit on that model. Those might be harder to find.

But, aside from size limitations, faster cards won't help, but also won't hurt and might be good to have if/when you buy a newer camera and for faster downloading (which also depends on the card reader and your computer).

I use mostly Sandisk and Lexar cards. (You have to watch out for fake.... especially Sandisk... so buy from a reputable store.) I have also used Sony cards... which seemed fine.

I looked at what appeared a great deal on Delkin cards at one point (when mem cards were much more expensive than they are today).... discovered through online research that they were actually Dane-Elec cards relabeled, and that the claimed 133X or 150X was actually their read speed... Their write speed (which is what effects camera performance) was more like 30X or 45X in various tests! Too slow for the cameras I was using at the time, so I passed on those.

Transcend and Kingston reportedly make some pretty good cards, too, though I've never used them personally. Maybe PNY, too. Those three are mid-grade memory manufacturers, making various types of chips for computers and other devices too.

Cards from Delkin, Kodak, Duracell, and several others - including any camera manufacturer's own brand cards - are very likely made by someone else and relabeled. That makes it hard to know exactly what you're getting.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Deal at B&H

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1148922-REG/sandisk_2_pack_32gb_extreme.html

Macronaut Loc: Redondo Beach,Ca.

Since we are on the subject, are there any advantages to CF cards over SD cards? CF cards are so much larger, is there a good reason for this?

What is the difference(s) between the two?

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Some like relative speed of CF cards. If you are doing two cards, is that important? I don't know.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

You would be wasting your money buying the largest, fastest cards. The D70 can't benefit from them.

Any inexpensive CF will perform as well as the expensive ones on it.