should I get one big fast card or invest in smaller ones as I need them

[Kim M]

Ok, to those of you who have been at this a while. Do you prefer to have one memory card that will hold lots (1 gig, perhaps type II) and respond quickly (which is where I'm leaning-buy it once and have enough storage for most of my needs) or are there reasons for choosing several smaller cards that I'm not aware of...

Thanks,
Kim M

[David Metsky]

Only buy a fast card if your camera can take advantage of it. With many (most) cameras a faster card won't make a difference.

The other reason to get a faster card would be download speeds with a USB2.0 card reader.

-dave-

[Kim M]

I have ordered a Nikon Cookpix 5400 and apologize in advance for being a digital dummy.

Thanks :D

Kim M

[Fred]

I haven't been at it that long, but do prefer using a couple of smaller capacity cards rather than one large one. I prefer the security of having at least two separate cards in case of problems with one, or if I manage to lose one.

[gschoen]

There's also a point at which the largest cards become far more expensive on a $/MB basis. Currently, a 512MB Secure Digital card costs about the same as two 256MB ones. But a 1GB card costs more than two 512MB cards.

A smaller card not only lets you add on as you need more storage, but provides file security (as mentioned above... if a card fails, you don't lose everything, just that card), flexiblity to use in other devices, etc.

Going too small can make the card obsolete for the future, but this is hard to predict since everythign changes so quickly. As an example, I have a 48MB Compact Flash from a few years ago that doesn't have much use since it's total file size is so small.

I'd look at the point of diminisihing returns and go from there. A 1GB seems a very reasonable size for a compact flash. If your camera supports it, high speed is good, else I would only get high speed if the price was close (for the future possibly)

[goofey_knight]

wait a few months, then the 1gb cards will probly b about £30 to buy but i think its best to buy a exspensive one and keep it 4 a while.

[Rhys]

I'd buy a few smaller cards on the basis that should you run out on holiday, small cards will (or should) be cheaper to obtain. I went on a long holiday, taking as much memory as I thought I'd need (2x 64mb cards and 3x 128mb cards) by the time I returned (1500 photos later) I had purchased another 6 x 128 mb cards. Sure, it might have been cheaper to buy a bigger card at the start but my photos were spread around more cards so that if anything happened to any of them then my losses would be minimal. Personally, I feel that if you can get 100 photos on a card then you're not doing too badly.

[Debdube]

Now how fast is 'fast'? Just now I came back from our local Panasonic dealer, and he had an 1 Gig SD card, 20 MBit/sec. Is this fast/fastest?

Now the products they sell are PAL, and they only had the Lumix FZ3 for about 4 months, while I want the FZ5 which is coming out soon. He said there might be compatibility issues if I buy an NTSC camera and then buy PAL SD cards or something, so is this true? Will SD cards work on all SD cameras no matter where they come from?

I don't know if the Lumix FZ5 will benefit from high speed or not, but the reviews say some modes require high speed cards (burst, etc.) But like I said, I don't know how fast is fast :).

[jbcm]

Just keep in mind that if you can shoot in RAW it takes alot of space so having at least one big card like 1Gb is very nice. But I also agree that having a few smaller ones is nice by not having all the pictures of your trip or whatever on juset one. In case you lose one or it gets broken some how.

[dwig]

There's also a point at which the largest cards become far more expensive on a $/MB basis. Currently, a 512MB Secure Digital card costs about the same as two 256MB ones. But a 1GB card costs more than two 512MB cards.


IMHO, this is a major part of the consideration, although the prices are changing by the minute and 1gig CF cards (as the cp5400 in question uses) now fit well into the linerar $/mb portion of the curve.

Spreading your pictures across 2 cards is good security when traveling although CF cards seem to be much, much less likely to become corrupted than SD cards or the old SmartMedia. Having a second card in the bag when you suspect a problem with the current card is comforting.

KimM, I would recommend that you get two somewhat large, but not huge cards. Fast cards won't be faster in your camera (Nikon CP's don't currently support any of the accelerated write modes) but can be faster for downloading if you use a USB 2.0 card reader that supports the card's high speed transfer functions. Consider getting a 256meg to 1gig card now and a second in the near future. I definitely wouldn't suggest that you get anything smaller than 256meg. I used 2 cards, 40 & 64meg, with my old 2mp cp950, and now use a 1gig card in my new cp8400 with plans to pick up a second 1gig card before going on my next out-of-town trip in a few months.

Long ago and far away the world considered it a good rule of thumb to plan one roll of film (36exp) per day of vacation, discounting days of pure travel. If you shoot at the highest quality, other than RAW, with your cp5400, then a 256meg card would equate to 2 rolls of 36exp film or about 2 days shooting. I one week trip with 2 days pure travel would need between 512m and 1g storage space; two 512meg cards would work fine.

[Rhys]

Long ago and far away the world considered it a good rule of thumb to plan one roll of film (36exp) per day of vacation, discounting days of pure travel. If you shoot at the highest quality, other than RAW, with your cp5400, then a 256meg card would equate to 2 rolls of 36exp film or about 2 days shooting. I one week trip with 2 days pure travel would need between 512m and 1g storage space; two 512meg cards would work fine.

That was with film though.

I reckoned on between 90 and 190 photos per day when I went abroad with my digital camera. If you shoot videos as well (which can be tempting with the cameras that have good video modes) then you'll need a lot more memory.

Personally, I'd say prepare for 1,000 photos per week or 100 minutes of video.

[gary_hendricks]

Ok, to those of you who have been at this a while. Do you prefer to have one memory card that will hold lots (1 gig, perhaps type II) and respond quickly (which is where I'm leaning-buy it once and have enough storage for most of my needs) or are there reasons for choosing several smaller cards that I'm not aware of...

Thanks,
Kim M

The main reason to buy a few smaller cards is to 'not to put all your eggs in one basket', if you get what I mean. If that single 1GB card crashes, you've nothing to fall back on, compared to having say, two 512MB cards. ;)

[Rhys]

The main reason to buy a few smaller cards is to 'not to put all your eggs in one basket', if you get what I mean. If that single 1GB card crashes, you've nothing to fall back on, compared to having say, two 512MB cards. ;)

I remember when I used smartmedia, putting each day on a different 64mb card.