Pick a card, any card

jocose · Jan 27, 2006

So, I finally decided on a camera. I finally decided on a lens. I finally decided on a store.

Now the question is which friggin' card to buy. I'm getting the D70s, so it uses CompactFlash. Ok, so that clears that up. But, do I want a SanDisk? Should it be the regular or the Extreme II or Extreme III? A Hitachi? Delkin? Or perhaps a Lexar? Should I get a 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G, or 6G?

EERRRRGGGGG.

Right now I'm leaning toward a package that includes a SanDisk 1G, but for $100 more, I can get the Hitachi 6G card.

SUGGESTIONS!!! PLEASE!!!!

JonMikal · Jan 27, 2006

from the reviews i've read, the hitachi card rates lower than the sandisk.

JTHphoto · Jan 27, 2006

for what it's worth, which prolly isn't much, i have a 2G lexar card, it's super fast in the 20D, supposedly it needs a firmware update, but i haven't had any problems... i had a 256 Sandisk in my nikon coolpix 4300 and i had to wait a few days for it to write to the card... that was probably more the camera than the card...

digital flower · Jan 27, 2006

Congratulations, on the camera purchase. I have 4 or 5 CF cards that I use in my D70s. I may be wrong but it seems that the writing of the different cards is not that much slower or faster. There does to seem to be a difference when downloading with the 'faster' cards but again it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. I would take the extra $100 and buy an extra battery (you don't really need it but it is really nice to have) and another 512MB card. The B&H deal w/ the 1GB comes with a pretty good card. Unless you need a lot of burst shooting I hardly ever have to wait for it to write.

clarinetJWD · Jan 27, 2006

I'd certainly go with Lexar or Sandisk...they come with recovery software that can get back photos you accidentally delete, or on corrupted cards. As for the speed, with the D70, Ultra II will be fine for the max speed of the camera, but takes for freakin' ever to transfer to the computer. I have an Extreme III personally. As far as size goes, I'd rather have 2 1GB cards rather than 1 2GB, in case it fails or I lose it (more likely).

Big Mike · Jan 27, 2006

As far as shooting (writing to the card)...speed of the card won't matter much...becuase the camera has a nice big buffer. If you plan to fill the buffer (what is that? 30+ shots or something?)...then maybe a faster card would help...but how many people actually do that?

The difference may be in the upload times...but that's not usually when seconds count. Therefore, I can't justify spending extra on a 'faster' card.

I've got a Sandisk 'Extreme'...it's supposed to be more durable...but the cheap cards seem just fine to me...I'm not using them to shim a table or anything.

They do have mirco-drives...which have a bigger capacity...but those are an actual mini harddrive...I don't like the idea of very small moving parts. I'll stick with the solid-state memory.

You could probably find a cheep on-line supplier of cards...I know I've heard of one or two that are supposedly very good. newegg.com or something like that.

As for batteries...check www.sterlingtek.com I've ordered a few batteries for my 20D from there...they last longer than the Canon batteries and are 1/4 of the price.

Oldfireguy · Jan 27, 2006

Lexar and Sandisk are the only cards that Nikon recomends if I remember correctly. I tried an off brand once and lived to be very sorry for that mistake. Microdrives used to break with no more effort than dropping them on a photo counter at a camera store. Not sure how good they are now.

As far as size, depends on how big of files you are going to shoot. I use all 2 GB Sandisk cards now and have been happy.

Read the D-70 manual and get the correct, best card you can afford.

clarinetJWD · Jan 27, 2006

Yeah, and NO MICRODRIVES.

cbay · Jan 27, 2006

Hello

Well it all depends on a few things, how many photos you plan to take at any one time, i.e. what type of photography area and can you upload to a pc or will you have to store till you get back to a pc.

Well i personally have a number of compact flash (CF) cards for my Canon 350D which I LOVE to bits. I have SanDisk cards personally as i believe these to be the best but it is all to do with preference.

Lexar have just recently launched their new 133x Professional Memory Card Series which will hit Europe in March 2006 http://www.monkeyimage.com/index.php?itemid=20

MonkeyImage.com covered the article on this so feel free to take a peek.

Its mainly all to do with preference. Good Luck with your D70 and I look forward to seeing your pictures.

JTHphoto · Jan 27, 2006

Big Mike said:
I've got a Sandisk 'Extreme'...it's supposed to be more durable...but the cheap cards seem just fine to me...I'm not using them to shim a table or anything.

fotogenik · Jan 27, 2006

From the manual for the D70s:

For reference With my 1GB card loaded on my d50 I can shoot 288 shots shooting in fine jpg mode and 128 shots in raw mode. the D70s may be a little differnt since it uses CF cards and my d50 uses SD cards.

Harpua · Jan 27, 2006

I am so glad I stumbled upon this post. I have a D70S also. When I bought it the salesman talked me into a Lexar 80x WA professional 512mb. 512 was the largest I could afford at the time, so I would like to get a second card at least 1gb. I was wondering how much the speed of the card really mattered. From the sounds of it I can save myself some $ and not get the fastest card out there. Good to know!

jocose · Jan 28, 2006

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the comments, suggestions, links, and copy of the manual.

I think, after seeing all this, that I will stick with SanDisk or Lexar, but probably stay with SanDisk. Right now I have the Canon PowerShot S2, and I have a Sandisk SD card in there. I've never had even the slightest problem with that card, so so far I'm happy with that brand.

I'll let you all know when I finally build up enough courage to actually spend that much money and buy the damn thing!

Thanks again.