SD300 high speed cards

[Tremendo]

Yesterday I locally found the SD300 and bought it. I have an S230 and an S100. I was concerned also about the quality, but photos are great and video is really amazing! The screen is clear and a perfect size and also protected by the camera (concave and "inside" the metal) as opposed to the Casios which have the screen surface as the edge of the camera. The whole thing works quickly and is easy to use. This is the best camera for me, after extensive research, including this forum. Purple Smirple. I'm sure in certain situations it could be more apparent, but these cameras are not made to replace pro SLRs.

I got a good deal on a PNY 512MB SD card with the camera so I bought it and am using it. I wanted a high speed card, but this seems to work for even a 30 second video I just did (over 50 MB).

How much quicker does a high speed card make picture taking and operation for the SD300? I'm surprised that the card I have works for the 60 frame/sec 320x240 video, but it seems fine. Also, the only lag seems to be flash re-charge.

Great camera overall!

[michaelchan]

I picked up an SD300 last week. I already owned a 256MB Sandisk SD card. It's about 2 years old and nothing special as far as speed goes. I purchased a high-speed Kingmax 1GB card as well. I shot a few 640x480 test clips on the slower card, and noticed that the playback was jumpy in-camera, but the clip was fine after loading it onto my laptop. I probably should test a longer clip. The 1 gig card did not display the notched playback phenomenon (in-camera playback). File transfer seems faster with the 1GB, but I haven't done any quantified measurements.

Notes about the camera:

VERY responsive in recording mode. It's a blast to shoot with due to how quickly it reacts
VERY responsive in playback mode. Great zoom; picture to picture review is extremely snappy
The 60fps 320x240 movie mode is great fun. It has an in-camera slow-mo playback mode for the regular and high-speed modes as well. Can't wait to try it skiing.
Superb LCD
Controls are very intuitive
Pictures are about as good as my friends' S400
I have big hands, but I can still work the controls relatively easily
It's recognized by GThumb (Fedora Core 3) so synching with my linux laptop is simple
Battery charges quickly

I did notice some corner softness in certain shots
No way around the red eye
Case marks easily. I need to get a sleeve for it of some sort.

[David Metsky]

Notes about the camera:

VERY responsive in recording mode. It's a blast to shoot with due to how quickly it reacts
VERY responsive in playback mode. Great zoom; picture to picture review is extremely snappy
The 60fps 320x240 movie mode is great fun. It has an in-camera slow-mo playback mode for the regular and high-speed modes as well. Can't wait to try it skiing.
Superb LCD
Controls are very intuitive
Pictures are about as good as my friends' S400
I have big hands, but I can still work the controls relatively easily
Battery charges quickly
Excellent. I'm planning on picking up this camera for ski season (lots of backcountry trips and some lift served telemark) and these are the important parts for me.

- Good picture quality in most normal situations
- Small size, easy to carry, stash in a pocket and not get in the way
- Can use with gloves on, or at least not requiring great dexterity if you must remove gloves
- 60fps video for skiing sounds great, the 640x480 mode may be better, time will tell

My big concern is battery life in cold weather. I'm sure I'll be buying a second battery soon after I buy the first one. I'll also need to stock up on SD cards, but the prices are really dropping quickly.

-dave-

[Tremendo]

My PNY 512 SD goes unlimited for the 60 frame/sec 240x320 mode, but at 30 frames/sec 640x480 mode, it stops after about 15 seconds or so, due to the write speed. I need to get a high speed 1GB SD and use the slower 512 as a back up. The video chows memory (512MB = 5 minutes of high speed, 3.5 minutes of 640x480). But I had the high speed 320x240 in slow motion on a 10' projector screen today and it looked still OK. I am impressed with the video.

Speaking of skiing...

Last year I took my S230 with me skiing a couple times and for the most part it worked fine (the year before my S100). But, if it got too cold, they didn't seem to be happy. My external jacket pocket still allowed it to get well below freezing in December skiing, but the worst that happened is it stopped working for a bit, warmed up and was fine. It might have been the lens motor that was freezing.

Anyway, the SD 300 is smaller and easier to keep way inside the jacket, as long as you don't mind tearing off the layers to access it. The faster frame shot will be better for fast action shots.

[Tremendo]

I just ordered a 1 GB 60x high speed SD card, That should do it for now.

[dmc]

To cut on your topic, I have been looking at getting 430/500 or a 40 and I'm leaning towards the 40, I've got a brand new 256MMC and wondered if anyone had tried using MMC cards in a 40 yet, I'm guessing that they may not work for video but would I notice any difference in speed for taking pics? if they work ok it would save me some money as I wouldn't have to buy another card straight away. Any help would be appreciated.