Memory Card
I'm looking to go to a better, faster memory card for my T2i. I was wonder what everyone is using or maybe a suggestion.
Thanks
Pappy
Right now, if you have a Best Buy store, they have memory cards on sale, You can check out their website @ bestbuy.com. Don't cheat yourself and buy non-brand name cards, stick with PNY, Lexar or SanDisk. You can find out how fast they are i.e. 15MBs/sec, 30MB/sec or 95Mbs/sec for SanDisk Extreme Pro.
I refuse to buy other cards, just don't want to take a chance with them. My business depends on the quality and speed of these. And many times they are jobs that i cannot re-shoot. Good shopping!
Get a Class 10 from a brand name manufacturer.
What are you talking about when you mention the "speed " of the memory card. I guess i'm asking, How does a faster speed benefit you?
Speed refers to the SD cards ability to accept (write/transfer) digital data from the camera onto the card and comes into play mainly when one is shooting video or burst sequences.
Once one trips the shutter on the camera the picture is captured in the camera's buffer by the digital processor, which then needs to store the data elsewhere to make room for the next capture. It does that by writing the data to a non-volatile storage device which can either be a camera's internal memory or a device such as a SD or similar card.
Hope this helps you picture what is going on.
That is the speed the card is written from your camera. In other words when you are shooting in action/sports/continuous mode, a burst of 10 or 12 shots @ 8 frames per second will load to the memory card much faster. With my Nikon (which still uses the compact flash card) i never have to wait on the card.
And as you get into cameras i.e. 24 megapixels, shooting @ that speed, you will end up having to wait on the card to load, with the chance of missing the next series of shots.
Plus when it comes to downloading/uploading to your computer, faster memory cards will not take as long for the transfer. However, you pay for speed i.e. Ford vs Ferrari.
When I bought my Nikon 5100, I got a class 10 Sony 16mb card. The first one would cause the camera to show an formating error message. I thought it was the card so I exchanged it and while not as often, still the same problem. Sometimes it would occur when firing up the camera, other times in the middle of shooting. Turn the camera off and then on and sometimes it would work, other times not. I ended up getting a Sandisk card which has had no problems whatsoever. The Sony was genuine Sony, so I don't know if it and my camera just didn't make friends, it was a bad batch of cards or just crappy cards in general. I'm sure the Sony cards are normally good stuff, just not any good to me though.
I had the same problem with an IBM card. Lost a whole days' shooting. If you purchase top brand names, i think the chance of getting a bad one is way less. But that doesn't mean brands like Lexar, SanDisk & PNY don't have some problems either.
Good reason to always leave for a job with more than one card.
ardcat wrote:
And as you get into cameras i.e. 24 megapixels, shooting @ that speed, you will end up having to wait on the card to load, with the chance of missing the next series of shots.
Plus when it comes to downloading/uploading to your computer, faster memory cards will not take as long for the transfer. However, you pay for speed i.e. Ford vs Ferrari.
So the bottom line is: If you are shooting single pictures of flowers, landscapes and portraits, you don't need Extreme 72x super whoopdeedo wiz bang cards !!!! Just buy a good solid brand name like others here have recommended and save your money. If you are shooting long burst sequences of large files or RAW at the NASCAR track or action events, open up your purse and blow some bucks on big money cards !!!
As far as downloading or uploading to your computer: Have some patience, relax and have a cup of coffee. This is supposed to be fun. Your life does not end if it takes two more minutes to empty 600 images from your card to your hard drive.
You are quite right. I carry around some small/cheap cards too. However, when i take a bride & groom's portrait early on during the formals, or at the altar during the ceremony. Then i need to download those to my computer so i can slip them into my iMovie presentation to be shown at the reception. I need these raw images to download quickly so i can select the ones i need to use.
But otherwise, yes, cheaper/slower cards are ok when i am out enjoying nature and other calming photo opportunities.
Thank you all for your cogent explanations. I now understand what you were talking about.
pappy0352 wrote:
I'm looking to go to a better, faster memory card for my T2i. I was wonder what everyone is using or maybe a suggestion.
Thanks
Pappy
The main reason I asked the question is I love shooting humming birds and they are fast. With my present card I'm getting one shot and they are gone. Sometimes they will linger but move from side to side very quickly. so I need something that is going to give me that fast burst rate.
Here is an example, this this little guy came in got a drink and was gone and I was only able to get one shot off.
Pappy
Nice catch Pappy. A little faster on the shutter speed and you'll have it nailed.
If you really want an education on the speed of memory cards, check out this link:
https://www.sdcard.org/developers/overview/speed_class/FYI Pappy, a faster memory card might help a little, but the burst rate of your camera and the size of its buffer is what would help you most. My camera allows me to switch to a high speed burst mode but once the buffer is full, it just slowly clicks along as the information is fed to the memory card.
The T2i has a burst rate of 3.7 fps. So you should be able to squeeze off a few rapid shots and capture the hummers. Set your shutter speed as high as you can to freeze their motion.
I would like to take a moment and thank everyone for the information you provided. I think this is the card I'm going to buy.
SanDisk Extreme 45MB/s 16GB SDHC Card (SDSDX-016G-AFFP)
Pappy
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