Does memory card speed affect how fast your camera processes pictures?

[jdong217]

I'm assuming the answer is yes. I currently have a SanDisk SHDC class 4 16 GB card. I take lots of long exposures and up to 8" my camera is fine and loads it pretty fast. But anything longer than that and it has a fit. Sometimes I'll wait longer than my actual exposure time was!

So is there a fast card that is compatible with Nikon D3100 that you guys would recommend?

 

[MTVision]

I think it's recommended to have a class 6 and above for dslr. It might be class 8 - not 100%.

I don't take long exposures but I do notice that when trying to review my pictures (I think I have 1 that is class 4) it takes a long time to get to the next image.

 

[Jace]

I've never used anything under class 10 in my camera since I got a DSLR, and never had an issue with waiting for it to write or read, so I'm thinking it's quite possible. Normally when you buy a card it will have a 'recommended' use on the package, but I'm pretty sure class 4 is too slow for you.

 

[MattS2K]

I would highly doubt the speed of the card effects the speed with which the camera processes images. On the other hand I would expect it to effect how quickly the processed image is transferred from the camera buffer onto the card, so I would guess you could see a slowdown when shooting bursts of images although this would be a result of the camera buffer becoming full rather than the individual image processing being slowed.

If you are finding that long exposures are taking longer to be processed I would guess that you have some form of long exposure noise reduction feature enabled. As I understand it these often work by having the camera take a second 'black' exposure of the same length so that the noise in the 'dark' exposure can be determined and removed from the original. This would explain why long exposures are taking even longer to be processed than the original exposure time.

 

[StringThing]

The manual for your camera recommends Class 6 or higher for recording videos, and doesn't seem to state anywhere about image write speeds. But I will tell you that I have one-Class 6 card and two-Class 10 cards and the class 10s feel "snappier" and more responsive when I use them in my D3100. I do believe that with any camera you will be limited by the cameras bus speed.

edit: and I forgot completely about the noise reduction lag as the above poster correctly mentions. In the D3100 I find it a bit annoying but it can be turned off.

 

[Jace]

If you think about it though, the higher the class the higher the transfer speed. The OP may not be like me, but I normally do RAW+Jpeg files, which is probably around 20mg a shot if not more. I do remember seeing a difference once when I put a faster card in a P&S, it went from having a black screen for a second to snapping picture after picture.

 

[Ron Evers]

I just did a test with 2 cards, a 4 gig & a 10 gig in burst mode. I repeated the test 3 times with each card & got consistent results; 5 frames before hesitation with the 4 gig card & 6 frames with the 10 gig card.

I posted before my second cup of coffee. Above should read class 4 card & class 10 card.

 

[MattS2K]

If you think about it though, the higher the class the higher the transfer speed. The OP may not be like me, but I normally do RAW+Jpeg files, which is probably around 20mg a shot if not more. I do remember seeing a difference once when I put a faster card in a P&S, it went from having a black screen for a second to snapping picture after picture.

Oh I agree, you should be able to write the images faster to the card when using a faster card, and I would always recommend it. However, I don't think the speed of the card should have any effect on the speed of the camera processing the image (which it does using a buffer before transferring it to the card). For the card to have any effect on the processing speed would suggest that the camera uses the card in some way during image processing which I think is unlikely. The speed of the card will have an effect on number of images that can be shot in a burst before the buffer will become full and shooting will stop or have to slow down.

 

[KmH]

Does memory card speed affect how fast your camera processes pictures?

Up to a point.

Published memory card speed is usually about read speed, not writing to the card speed.

Flash memory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
NAND flash memory cards are much faster at reading than writing so it is the maximum read speed that is commonly advertised.

In the camera, the buffer write speed is usually the limiting factor, unless you are using slower than class 6 flash memory.

 

[ann]

With long exposure it is common for the download to take as long as the original exposure,

 

[dots]

With long exposure it is common for the download to take as long as the original exposure,

I'm sure I've had a few digital cameras where the long exposure takes about the same amount of time to process the image as it did to expose. NR on or off..I don't recall. I've never bought an especially fast card. Class 4 currently seems to be the cheap card, that i end up with. Seems ok for general, single-shot, use.