Does a memory card make a difference

BRIANxJDM · Apr 30, 2010

My setting right now is on Fine Jpeg, my passion is car and nature photography, so what do you recommend?

Goontz · Apr 30, 2010

Look here: Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Memory,Flash Memory,Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC)

Kingston, Transend, RiDATA, A-DATA, Patriot, Crucial, SanDisk: all are great brands. Even if you don't know some of them for their memory cards, trust me, their name and quality are well know in computer memory (RAM). Get, at minimum, a Class 4, and you'll be happy. You can save a lot of money and be completely satisfied.

Vinny · Apr 30, 2010

The link that Goontz gave has a patriot 8 Gb class 6 card for $20 + $3 shipping, the transcend card at Amamzon is about $22 - both are fast and cheap. You have a 2 Gb card now, with the 8Gb you should be set, 8 Gb on fine will give you about 1000 photos. You may not get into continuous shooting for a while and class 6 will be fast enough for now.

BRIANxJDM · Apr 30, 2010

What's better class level or the mb levels?

Goontz · Apr 30, 2010

MB = How much (or how many pictures) you can store on a card. Class = how fast the card can store and transfer data. In my opinion, the speed is more important.

Vinny · Apr 30, 2010

You got the best of both with those 2 choices ... Camera can only take so many frames per second, class 6 stores 6 Mb/sec. 1000 photos are a lot of photos (Nikon claims a D90 battery can take about 850 photos per charge). 2 reasons to get a few memory cards - need more room and in case one gets buggy. Going on a weeks vacation may require you to use more than 1 card; having a spare will make a non functional card not ruin taking photos. Downloading 1000 photos is going to be a pain so theroretically you want to get them off the camera as quickly as possible.

If something matters more to you, then it's your decision. Personally I would not want to have 1 card of 32 Gb to hold 4000 photos and not have a backup in case the card fails.

eric-holmes · Apr 30, 2010

Brian, I love how you have listed your memory card as part of your gear.

Goontz · Apr 30, 2010

eric-holmes said:
Brian, I love how you have listed your memory card as part of your gear.

Goontz · Apr 30, 2010

Also, on that note, I do think you're putting way too much thought and weight into your memory card decision, but I'm also trying to provide helpful links and informationn.

BRIANxJDM · Apr 30, 2010

AHHA, well I just want to know which is the best choice to get, and someone did told me that a memory card does affect your picture/camera so I just want to make sure.

BRIANxJDM · Apr 30, 2010

eric-holmes said:
Brian, I love how you have listed your memory card as part of your gear.

Well it is part of the gear since thats where all the pictures goes after the capture LOL.

Goontz · Apr 30, 2010

BRIANxJDM said:
AHHA, well I just want to know which is the best choice to get, and someone did told me that a memory card does affect your picture/camera so I just want to make sure.

The only thing that it affects is how fast your camera can transfer to the card, or your card can transfer to the computer. Don't worry about it too much! :thumbup:

BRIANxJDM · Apr 30, 2010

Goontz said:
BRIANxJDM said:

AHHA, well I just want to know which is the best choice to get, and someone did told me that a memory card does affect your picture/camera so I just want to make sure.

Click to expand...

The only thing that it affects is how fast your camera can transfer to the card, or your card can transfer to the computer. Don't worry about it too much! :thumbup:

Alright, thanks man!

Vinny · Apr 30, 2010

Memory cards do NOT affect your photos 99.9% of the time, they only affect your photos when they become unstable and they lose their memory. They only affect how many photos that can be stored and how fast they can be stored/transfered. If you take 1 photo a day every other day the slowest card will work and if you downloaded the photos once a week a 1 Gb card is all you need. But if you plan to shoot the action at the Indy 500 at the highest frames per second then you better get the fastest and highest Mb card you can get. These cards are just to hold your photos, all the manipulations are done either by your camera or by the software on your computer.