S3 IS write speed

[iem]

hello,

i ordered my camera today, so i don't have the book to be able to look this up.

yesterday i posted a message in the memory card forum about the difference between the x numbers in the SD cards. it was suggested that i find out what the write speed of the camera was.

the review of the camera on this site said the camera could take advantage of a 60x card. does this mean that the camera's write speed is 60x?

if i understand what i read, i don't understand why i need to buy 133x or 150x cards. if someone could give me a brief reason, i won't have a problem spending the money, but if the camera doesn't perform better with the faster card, i'd rather spend the additional money on a bag or something.

thank you.
indera

[KSM]

The camera writes at 48X so the 60X cards are all you need. The faster cards would only help your download speed, if you download from a card reader.

[iem]

hi ksm,

thank you - thank you - thank you!

i haven't seen many 60x cards, but at least i know i don't have to buy the 150x cards because i plan to plug the camera into the computer to download photos.

indera

The camera writes at 48X so the 60X cards are all you need. The faster cards would only help your download speed, if you download from a card reader.

[iem]

i've been thinking.

is the write speed more for video then it is for photos?

if i'm only going to be taking photos, can i use a regular SD card instead of a high speed card?

if not, does anyone know what types of photo shots require or work better with a high speed card?

i hope i'm not being a pain. i'm really trying to understand why there is such a variety of SC cards.

thank you.

[KSM]

i've been thinking.

is the write speed more for video then it is for photos?

if i'm only going to be taking photos, can i use a regular SD card instead of a high speed card?

if not, does anyone know what types of photo shots require or work better with a high speed card?

i hope i'm not being a pain. i'm really trying to understand why there is such a variety of SC cards.

thank you.

When your taking photos the speed of the card comes into play when you get into continuous shooting. With a standard card you can take about 12 shots before the camera slows down. With a 60X your camera will not slow down because the card won't slow you up. If you don't plan on shooting video or continuous burst more than 10 or 12 shots you can use a standard card just fine. It will be slower to download but that's about it. For 60X cards think Sandisk Ultra II or cards in it's speed class. Good luck.

[David Metsky]

i've been thinking.
Always a dangerous thing. :)
is the write speed more for video then it is for photos?
The function that requires the most speed is taking full size images in continuous shooting (burst) mode. That pushes the camera harder than video mode. Those two tasks (video and burst) are why you want a fast card. Since the difference in price between regular (which is about 40x) and high speed (around 60x) is pretty small, just a few bucks. If you ever want to shoot images in burst mode it's a small price to pay, IMO.

Otherwise, the standard speed card will work just fine. You may never notice the difference.

BTW, a $10 USB high speed card reader will make a big difference if you shoot a lot. It's extremely convenient and faster.

-dave-

[iem]

hi ksm,

ahhh, this is very helpful indeed.

just because the continuous shooting option is available, i would like to try it. it sounds like it would come in handy and would be fun when taking pictures of a sporting event or karate.

i will shoot some video with the camera, even though i have a camcorder. for that i ordered a 150x (i think) 2 gb card.

i think this is cool.
other than the 1gb limit per video clip, it seems like cameras that do video are better suited for the novice then camcorders, as the latter doesn't do photos well. . . . . very interesting indeed.

thank you so much.
indera

When your taking photos the speed of the card comes into play when you get into continuous shooting. With a standard card you can take about 12 shots before the camera slows down. With a 60X your camera will not slow down because the card won't slow you up. If you don't plan on shooting video or continuous burst more than 10 or 12 shots you can use a standard card just fine. It will be slower to download but that's about it. For 60X cards think Sandisk Ultra II or cards in it's speed class. Good luck.

[iem]

hi david,

yes, it can be dangerous when i think, because that often translates into more $$$. LOL

full size images - is that Large 2816 x 2112 superfine? that's the setting that i thought was best for everything, but i could be wrong.

ahhh, a regular card is about 40x, that is good to know. are things like this written anyplace? the reason i ask is because i've seen some cards marked as 40x and others without any x number.

i have 2 regular 512 mb cards from my other camera, which i can use, but i've come to accept the fact that any other cards i buy have to be at least 60x. i did order a 150x card because it was cheaper than the 133x.

i don't care if i notice the difference, i don't want the camera to slow down because of me wanting to save a few dollars.

i'm thinking (yes, i know . . . it's dangerous) that using the continuous mode in the beginning for shots that i really don't want to misss will be helpful because i will have several chances to get the one photo out of 12 that i really want - LOL

i take it the continuous mode takes more battery power?

$10 USB high speed card reader - ok, where do i get one? maybe i need to check the card readers that are built into the 2 laptops that i'm deciding between to see if they are high speed.

you are a wealth of information. why you don't write all of this down in book format is beyond me.

people here have info that a novice would never find or figure out, or if we did, it wouldn't be until we missed or messed up a shot of shots. i wish you would consider relieving some of us the pain that we go through.

thank you so much.
indera


Always a dangerous thing. :)

The function that requires the most speed is taking full size images in continuous shooting (burst) mode. That pushes the camera harder than video mode. Those two tasks (video and burst) are why you want a fast card. Since the difference in price between regular (which is about 40x) and high speed (around 60x) is pretty small, just a few bucks. If you ever want to shoot images in burst mode it's a small price to pay, IMO.

Otherwise, the standard speed card will work just fine. You may never notice the difference.

BTW, a $10 USB high speed card reader will make a big difference if you shoot a lot. It's extremely convenient and faster.

-dave-

[Elisha82]

regular SD card is 10x which is about 2MB/s i think and then there is 40x, 50x 60x, 66x (which is 10MB/s), 80x, 133x and 150x and higher.

you want a card that will write the biggest image size within the 1 second or faster.

a regular card may look like it is able to handle it but you will notice the difference with higher speeds.

so lets say your image size is 2.5mb, then the regular card will take little over a second to write it to memory. not that noticeable really but it does matter when you connect to your PC and also when you take shots in burst mode.

the cards that do not mention a speed or do not say hi-speed on it are normally 10x cards.

[David Metsky]

I'm not convinced that regular cards are only 10x. That doesn't seem right, as my regular sandisk card can keep up with my SD300 in the largest movie mode and full image burst mode (2.6 fps). I'm sure it varies by manufacturer, and I suspect Sandisk cards are faster than some generic cards, but the regular Sandisk cards can easily keep up. I know the camera is putting a load of at least 4MB/sec on the card.

The S3 can produce slightly greater data stream than the SD300, but not that much. The image size is larger, but the number of FPS is smaller. When I said you wouldn't notice the difference I mean that there will be no slowdown at all with your camera. Only in some odd situation where because of subject composition or lighting the images sizes with compression are exceptionally large you may run into the card speed limitation.

-dave-

[Elisha82]

thats probably cause the processor on the camera is faster and it may use some caching internally.
i have an HP R707 and i was using a 10x, 66x and 150x card and it didnt make a difference because the internal processing in the camera was slow.

Sandisk is notorious for not noting the speeds except for their Ultra series but if the speed is not mentioned, by default it is only 10x.

take a look here: http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6451_7-6296352-3.html?tag=bnav