are cards universal?

[pogo]

Hi.I have a fuji camera with xd card,and my daughter has a Jenoptik with sd card.If I buy upgrade cards,do I have to buy specifically for those cameras,or are the can I buy any sd and xd cards off the shelf? Thanks for any advice.Pogo

[JLV]

I can't speak for xd, but with the sd I use many brands. I have not had one that would not work.

[K1W1]

Hi.I have a fuji camera with xd card,and my daughter has a Jenoptik with sd card.If I buy upgrade cards,do I have to buy specifically for those cameras,or are the can I buy any sd and xd cards off the shelf? Thanks for any advice.Pogo

SD is easy there are plenty of different brands. DO NOT buy San Disk brand from ebay because you have a 90%+ chance of getting a pirate knock off version. If you want San Disk (the genuine ones are great) buy from a bricks and mortar store. Just be careful about SDHC. A camera designed for SD CANNOT use SDHC but a camera designed for SDHC is backward compatible and can use SD.

XD is a problem. It is a format developed by Olympus and basically only Olympus and Fuji have adopted it. Compared to other types of card (SD, Compact Flash, even Mempry Stick) XD media is expensive. Personally unless you love the camera I would consider getting a new camera that takes SD so both cameras use the same media.
To answer you basic question XD is XD and any brand should work.

[AlexMonro]

xD cards come in 3 varieties. The original ones, without a "type" letter, the type M, and the type H (high speed).

There are some compatibility issues with some older Fuji cameras and some types of xD cards. Check the Fuji website for information on your specific camera model.

[pogo]

Thanks all for your advice.Pogo

[Beowulff]

I don't really think their relative costs are a deciding factor in whether you use XD or SD cards any more. For example, an Olympus Type H 1GB XD card is $44-00 and a SanDisk Ultra II 1GB SD card is $34-20. I know a lot of people quote how "expensive" XD cards are, but that just ain't the case any more — particularly as you only ever buy a couple, rather than dozens of 'em!

Admittedly, the SD has a speed of 9/10MB/sec whereas the XD only has a speed of 4/5MB/sec but that's not necessarily gonna make a whole heap of difference to the average snapshooter.

As long as you buy the Type H card, you'll be fine, but as the other guys have said, you need to check its compatibility with your particular camera.

And with all due respect, I have to disagree with this:Personally unless you love the camera I would consider getting a new camera that takes SD so both cameras use the same media.It doesn't make sense to spend maybe hundreds of dollars on a new camera simply to avoid using XD cards — it doesn't gel financially. And what's the point in necessarily having the same format cards for two different cameras? We've got a couple of SD cameras and an XD camera and we NEVER interchange their cards. Why would you?

Cheers :)

[Opensourcer]

I found an article (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6451_7-6296352-1.html) claiming that "some cameras have hidden limitations; for instance, many models don't support cards larger than 2GB." It's about three years old now, so I'm not sure if it's still relevant.

We've got a couple of SD cameras and an XD camera and we NEVER interchange their cards. Why would you?The only case I could think of would be one person carrying two or more cameras at the same time, and using one memory card for all of them.

If you have to format the memory card every time you put it in a camera, you're unlikely to upload all the photos first (too lazy), so you just buy as many memory cards as the number of cameras you're using, which is good for businesses. I guess that's one of the reasons why all camera manuals tell you to format the card before you use it.

Currently, the price per 1GB up to 2GB capacity is pretty similar, but if you look at the prices of the 4GB or bigger models, you have to pay a lot more for every additional GB of memory (the price grows exponentialy).

Correct me if Im wrong, please :)

[outpost05]

.Currently, the price per 1GB up to 2GB capacity is pretty similar, but if you look at the prices of the 4GB or bigger models, you have to pay a lot more for every additional GB of memory (the price grows exponentialy).

Correct me if Im wrong, please :)

BeachCamera has the Ultra II 1 gig for $12.99, 2 gig for $19, 4 gig for $34, and 8 gig for $64.99.
So it looks like you get more memory per dollar the larger the card.
The 4 gig and 8 gig are SDHC.

Unless I was shooting videos, I think I would rather have a few 2 gig cards than one 8 gig in case it went it bad. Wouldn't want to lose all vacation pictures.

[SONYNUT]

2 gig is my limit too....more than that and it takes way to long to download to the computer

[StillMatic]

2 gig is my limit too....more than that and it takes way to long to download to the computer
Man that is the truth. And I usually delete mine off of the card when done uploading to the PC. Takes too damn long with USB 2.0 so imagine those who still have USB 1 on their PC.