memory card or camera?

[Leon]

hello.

I was convinced my Sandisc class 4 8gb card was the reason It took 2-3 seconds to write a rew file, I was wrong

just got my class 10 ultra card and it takes just as long ...it will however write HD film instantly so I guess it's the writing limitation of my camera?

Edited December 1, 2012 by mrwall

[Denis]

Interesting, as I was about to buy a class 10 card......

[Guest]

thats one of the reasons I traded up from a bridge camera. I was having issues with how long it was between images on my fuji s9600 and looked into getting a faster card as advised in my local camera store. However upon speaking to the techies at Fuji they said there was no point as the card I had could already be written to faster than my camera could write so the camera was the bottle neck

[Guest DaveW]

Whilst you may not want a card that's slower than your camera's write speed if you rapidly take images, there is no point paying a lot extra for one much faster. The old saying "a chain is as strong as it's weakest link", so if the camera is slower than the card, or the card is slower than the camera. that's the maximum write speed you will get. See:-

http://gadgetwise.bl...memory-card-be/

There is a handy camera database here for write speeds, unfortunately it is not completely updated yet:-

http://www.robgalbra...ge.asp?cid=6007

Also don't buy unnecessarily large cards. It is often better to buy a few reasonable sized cards and change them as they fill up rather than risk loosing all your images if one giant sized card gets corrupted. Plus most reasonable sized cards usually hold all the images an amateur will take in a day.

http://digital-photography-school.com/one-large-memory-card-or-multiple-small-cards

DaveW

Edited December 1, 2012 by DaveW

[Black Pearl]

The problem here isn't so much the write speed of the card or camera, my D300s will take a few seconds to write a RAW file, but it has a big enough buffer to allow it to continue shooting while it deals with the previous files. Bridge cameras and compacts in general lack this large buffer so all suffer the same back-log when dealing with big files.

I suppose it all comes down to compromises. A bridge camera is attractive because it offers a fantastic lens range, good manual control, a solid user experience and more than acceptable results - for an excellent price. Start building in more high speed RAM and the complex processors to deal with it and the cost would go up.

Back to cards and there speed, their cost and need for them given a particular camera then also remember that some more expensive cards (the ones with write speeds you may not need) are better built and are more reliable. Top end cards have very complex control chips that are able to deal with memory issues and are far less likely to corrupt data - they are also easier to recover damaged data from if things do go horribly wrong.

[annie]

since someone very kindly gave me a faster card (if faster card is the right term), my hs20 does raw files much faster, i am very pleased to say, not as fast as the canon, but i most certainly am not waiting forever as i was before..

[Guest DaveW]

As BP points out, it is often buffer capacity as much as the card if taking shots in short bursts since the shots are first stored in the buffer and then written later at the speed the card can take, or the buffer write to it.

http://cameras.about.com/od/advanceddigitalcameras/a/Camera-Buffer.htm

If you are a single shot slow photographer like me then even a slow card in the camera will be written to before I am ready to take the next shot. Therefore what speed card you need can also be determined by your photographic needs. If you use a motordrive a lot you will need the fastest card you camera can handle. However slow cards also download slowly to the computer so this may be as much a problem for you as the camera writing to it.

Also when nearly full memory cards write speeds tend to slow down so it is always best if you can download the images to computer after a shoot and reformat the card rather than leave it in the camera until full if write speed is your aim.

http://digital-photography-school.com/13-tips-for-using-and-caring-for-memory-cards

DaveW

[Leon]

cheers for the replies peoples, I rarely use motor drive, the FZ45 only does 3FPS at full res anyway so it would be pointless. I have yet to use the new card, I may go for a wonder later in the frosty weather.

and Dave, I transfer the data to my computer 99% of the time and format in camera (as someone here suggested)

I am watching some 2nd handl Dslr's on the bay of E, with kit lenses so we'll see what hapens :)

[Phil]

I am watching some 2nd handl Dslr's on the bay of E

Oh dear, another potential convert. Been warned, there will be no going back :D

[Leon]

Oh dear, another potential convert. Been warned, there will be no going back

either way, either xmas or march (bonus time from work) I will be getting one, trouble is I would not want to sell my bridge, to buy an equivalent lens for a DSLR will cost a fortune!! 600mm :)

[Guest DaveW]

It's long been debated whether a long lens image taken on a camera with a smaller sensor is as good or better than a blown up equivalent crop taken from the centre of the image of a larger sensored one. These are all I can find on the subject

http://www.scantips....cropfactor.html

http://www.cambridge...thread23822.htm

http://kimletkeman.b...-low-light.html

The matter is complicated a little with the detachable lens cameras by what lens is in use. Generally kit lenses do not resolve as much detail as the more expensive lenses in the range, therefore you may be looking at the lenses limitations in some crops rather than the cameras. In any case unless printing out, resolution is often limited by the monitor you are viewing the image on rather than the camera unless cropping drastically. Another factor to take into consideration when comparing images is some manufacturers apply more noise reduction in camera, which though suppressing more noise also softens the image more. If you apply noise reduction in post processing you also reduce the sharpness of the image slightly to hide the "grain" (noise).

DaveW

Edited December 2, 2012 by DaveW