what type of memeory card should I buy

On Wednesday, March 1, 2017 at 3:31:12 AM UTC-5, tim... wrote:
"android" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"tim..." wrote:

Now I'm looking to update my camera, I shall need some new memory cards
as I have no SDHC cards.

so which type do I buy?

Let's take SanDisk 16GB as an example,

I seem to be able to get:

Ultra 80 MB/s for 6 pounds
Extreme 60 MB/s for 14.00 pounds
or Extreme Plus 90 MB/s for 30 pounds [1]

what are my extra beer tokens getting me here?

I just take single shots, I won't be taking video or multi frames

Is there any reason why I shouldn't just buy the cheapest format?

Simplest answer is that you shouldn't ever buy a card that's slower
than what the camera's instruction manual says.

FWIW, I ran into this problem a ~year ago with a new camera body
where I found that using an older card ("133x" speed) resulted in
corrupted images. It wasn't every single shot but roughly 1 in ~dozen,
which was a bit confusing until I tracked down that it was due to the card.

Faster cards means that your buffer will last longer if you shoot in
sequences, if your new camera supports the full writing speed. You might
wanna consider larger cards then that that you mentioned so that you
don't have to swap in the field that often...

well I don't know how much bigger the images will be with a new camera. (I
realise that with 24 megapixels raw images will be larger the my current 6,
but don't know about processed images)

24MP? Expect to need a lot more storage, especially if you're shooting RAW.

Similarly, don't ever say "never" when it comes to shooting video. It has its
place and once you have a camera with it, you'll use it, even if but occasionally.

At the moment I have a 2 GB card, as that was the largest reasonably
available at the time, and I never fill it in week of shooting, let alone
one day

The above statement kind of sounds like JPEG-only.

I always chose to save in a medium jpg format, as I have to store them after
they have been downloaded from the camera and it is easier to let the camera
do the conversion

And not even maximum resolution JPEG? Well, that's a big part of the reason
why.

Philosophically, I don't ever want to be forced to compromise into shooting at
less than the gear's full potential, which means 'Large' JPEG's on gear that
only supports JPG, and similarly RAW if it permits RAW - - basic reason is
because once the photo is taken, that moment in time is gone and can never
be undone. Granted, this dos mean that storage will take up some more room,
plus the step of making a low resolution copy for those cases where I need
low-resolution, but that's a low price to bear to have the max quality present
for the 1% "winner" shots.

FWIW, the local-in-USA retail price of the highest end card you listed above,
(via B&H's online website ... and FYI, I think they will ship to UK) is the
SanDisk 16GB Extreme Plus UHS-I / U3 / Class 10 (90 MB/s) for US$12.

Which brings me to another point, which is that I've heard comments from
some people that they're no longer reusing their memory cards - they shoot
them until they're full and then they get archived as a backup and they go
buy another new card to use. While I personally consider this to be somewhat
of a waste, considering just how cheap memory cards have gotten (at least
here in the USA), they do have a point: $12 for 16GB is less than what I was
paying a decade ago to have just one roll of 35mm film developed.

In any event, the capacity (and quantity) of memory cards that one wants to
have is a combination of how much storage is used per "trigger pull" multiplied
by how many shots one wants to be able to take before getting back to one's
home computer setup to download them.

For example, consider a dSLR where we're looking at (30+7) MB for (RAW+JPG)
and a two week long African Safari where we expect to lose 4 days in transit,
but otherwise shoot up to 300 shots per day:

(14-4 days) * (300 per day) * (30+7)MB = 10 * 300 * 37MB = 111,000 MB = 111 GB

And 111 GB is just under seven (7) 16GB cards, other factors could change this
plan. For example, just how accurate-liberal-conservative the "300 per day"
estimate is. Similarly, it may not be realistic to assume that one's shooting itinerary
will allow all cards to be filled to 100% capacity before it it swapped out.

For example, the consumption usage here predicts ~432 shots per 16GB card,
but if our SOP says to replace the card when it hits 400 taken (e.g., 32 remaining),
then we're going to average around 93% fill on the cards and seven cards would
provide for 7 * 400 = 2800 shots, which is 280/day...to reliably assure having
3000 shots pragmatically available will require one more card .. which at a cost
of only US$12 or so is cheap insurance.

However, a quick look through these same numbers also reveal the "RAW Tax"
in terms of memory card consumption: roughly 80% of the storage capacity
used (or merely planned) was for the RAW files (30 out of 37 MB), so if one
wanted to shoot JPEG-only, two cards would suffice for eight.

And similarly in counter-counterpoint, the cost of these six (6) extra cards is
roughly 6 * US$12 = $58 (although if cards are reused, this is a one-time purchase)


-hh

"-hh" wrote in message
...
On Wednesday, March 1, 2017 at 3:31:12 AM UTC-5, tim... wrote:
"android" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"tim..." wrote:

Now I'm looking to update my camera, I shall need some new memory
cards
as I have no SDHC cards.

so which type do I buy?

Let's take SanDisk 16GB as an example,

I seem to be able to get:

Ultra 80 MB/s for 6 pounds
Extreme 60 MB/s for 14.00 pounds
or Extreme Plus 90 MB/s for 30 pounds [1]

what are my extra beer tokens getting me here?

I just take single shots, I won't be taking video or multi frames

Is there any reason why I shouldn't just buy the cheapest format?

Simplest answer is that you shouldn't ever buy a card that's slower
than what the camera's instruction manual says.

well a PP said that I should look for a class 10, and that's what the manual
says

all of the cards that I suggested Class 10 or faster


Faster cards means that your buffer will last longer if you shoot in
sequences, if your new camera supports the full writing speed. You
might
wanna consider larger cards then that that you mentioned so that you
don't have to swap in the field that often...

well I don't know how much bigger the images will be with a new camera.
(I
realise that with 24 megapixels raw images will be larger the my current
6,
but don't know about processed images)

24MP? Expect to need a lot more storage, especially if you're shooting
RAW.

a 16MB card stores 525 RAW pictures

that's enough for a full 3 weeks holiday

even I I do save as RAW, which I don't

and the shop did me a deal on a 32MB card so that's what I have. At the
resolution I select it can save 6000+ shots

Similarly, don't ever say "never" when it comes to shooting video. It has
its
place and once you have a camera with it, you'll use it, even if but
occasionally.

I might use it occasionally, as a toy, but never for things that I want to
keep

At the moment I have a 2 GB card, as that was the largest reasonably
available at the time, and I never fill it in week of shooting, let alone
one day

The above statement kind of sounds like JPEG-only.

Not sure what you mean by that

But never mind. I have done a comparison of the quality with my old (DSLR)
camera in it largest resolution and the new one at a medium resolution and
the new one wins by a mile

in respect of the picture quality, I am more than happy with the replacement

tim

In article ,
tim... wrote:

well a PP said that I should look for a class 10, and that's what the manual
says

all of the cards that I suggested Class 10 or faster

[ ... ]
a 16MB card stores 525 RAW pictures

that's enough for a full 3 weeks holiday

even I I do save as RAW, which I don't

and the shop did me a deal on a 32MB card so that's what I have. At the
resolution I select it can save 6000+ shots

[ ... ]

I might use it occasionally, as a toy, but never for things that I want to
keep

[ ... ]

Not sure what you mean by that

But never mind. I have done a comparison of the quality with my old (DSLR)
camera in it largest resolution and the new one at a medium resolution and
the new one wins by a mile

in respect of the picture quality, I am more than happy with the replacement

tim

Good grief. People here are acting like buying a flash
card is a life-or-death decision.

Tim, even if no one else here has any sense, you do. Buy
a cheap class 10 card and use it until you need something
else. When that time comes, you'll know what you need and
why, and the cards be much less expensive than they are now.
Overall you'll spend less money, and have what you want.

In article ,
Whisky-dave wrote:

On Sunday, 5 March 2017 00:44:24 UTC, nan wrote:
In article ,
tim... wrote:

well a PP said that I should look for a class 10, and that's what the
manual
says

all of the cards that I suggested Class 10 or faster

[ ... ]
a 16MB card stores 525 RAW pictures

that's enough for a full 3 weeks holiday

even I I do save as RAW, which I don't

and the shop did me a deal on a 32MB card so that's what I have. At the
resolution I select it can save 6000+ shots

[ ... ]

I might use it occasionally, as a toy, but never for things that I want to
keep

[ ... ]

Not sure what you mean by that

But never mind. I have done a comparison of the quality with my old
(DSLR)
camera in it largest resolution and the new one at a medium resolution and
the new one wins by a mile

in respect of the picture quality, I am more than happy with the
replacement

tim

Good grief. People here are acting like buying a flash
card is a life-or-death decision.

Tim, even if no one else here has any sense, you do. Buy
a cheap class 10 card and use it until you need something
else.

By that time it might well be too late, buy what you can reasnanbly afford.
Because if you are in a situation where filming something that requires a
better car than you have you may well miss out on a money making shot. I'm
think here of something falling out of the sky or some other fast acting
disaster.



When that time comes, you'll know what you need and
why,

But it might be too late by then.

and the cards be much less expensive than they are now.
Overall you'll spend less money, and have what you want.

compared with the cost of the camera it's hardly worth the savings.

Uhu, a too good a card won't hurt him... Anyways, he has not disclosed
what camera he has bought but that does can't make much difference since
he wrote:

"well I don't know how much bigger the images will be with a new camera.
(I realise that with 24 megapixels raw images will be larger the my
current 6, but don't know about processed images)

At the moment I have a 2 GB card, as that was the largest reasonably
available at the time, and I never fill it in week of shooting, let
alone one day

I always chose to save in a medium jpg format, as I have to store them
after they have been downloaded from the camera and it is easier to let
the camera do the conversion"

:-))
--
teleportation kills

On Monday, March 6, 2017 at 6:04:55 AM UTC-5, Whisky-dave wrote:
On Sunday, 5 March 2017 00:44:24 UTC, nan wrote:
[...]

Good grief. People here are acting like buying a flash
card is a life-or-death decision.

Tim, even if no one else here has any sense, you do. Buy
a cheap class 10 card and use it until you need something
else.

By that time it might well be too late, buy what you can reasnanbly afford.

Fortunately, the OP did do an assessment of how many shots
they're likely to need for a holiday/etc and what they bought,
not likely to end up "short of film".

Because if you are in a situation where filming something that
requires a better card than you have you may well miss out on
a money making shot. I'm think here of something falling out
of the sky or some other fast acting disaster.

Doesn't even have to be that dramatic, as I found last year when
doing some simple tests on new gear ... problem turned out to
be merely an older slower card, but it wasn't immediately obvious
to track down. And here's a sample of the images which were
noticed to have had problems ... YMMV on how 'recoverable' they a

http://huntzinger.com/gallery/index.php/Gear/Gear-II


When that time comes, you'll know what you need and
why,

But it might be too late by then.

and the cards be much less expensive than they are now.
Overall you'll spend less money, and have what you want.

compared with the cost of the camera it's hardly worth the savings.

There's nothing wrong with the idea of "buy some now, get more later",
based on getting up the learning curve, but you're right: today's
memory card prices have come way down from years ago, such
the benefit from being able to defer a purchase is minimal today.

Case in point, I bought ~200 GB of new cards in mid-2016 for $100
and their price hasn't materially changed in the last eight months.


-hh