Poll: Are high speed cards worth the money?

[CameraNewbie]

Simple, please post your vote.

[propwash]

I don't think you can answer that question with a simple yes or no. If your camera can take advantage of the high speed cards, for instance in burst mode or when taking videos, the answer might very well be yes. If you are an occasional shooter whose camera can't use the high speed mode, then the answer is probably no. I don't do movies, and I rarely use burst mode, so for me the answer would probably be "no." On the other hand, you can sometimes find high speed cards for sale at a really good price. I have seen them as low as 10% more than the cost of standard speed cards. In that case, they are probably worth the extra cost.

[Rex914]

It depends on the camera. If I were buying a simple point and shoot, I wouldn't, but I would consider it a waste of a camera not to get one for say, a DSLR.

[CameraNewbie]

Ok thanks kids. Can you help me with this? I have SD400, and I was told that to shoot continuious video with it, this cam writes at 12x? Would a standard 1gb sandisk do? The blue card which is 32x write. I just wanna double verify b4 buying it. I got an offer brand new for $85cdn!!! That is amazing! I can get Ultra II 1gig for $110cdn.

I wont ever use burst mode (not like im a model or anything), but I would like to shoot lots of video, say full capacity - If I can shoot 8mins video with a 1gig, i wanna be able to do that in one shoot, smooth right through.

[camerafreak707]

If the movie is going to be recording at the highest quality setting(640x480 @ 30 fps) then you will definately need a high speed. Otherwise, if you are going to lower the quality of the video(giving you more time to record) or just take little 15 second video clips, then a regular would do. In my opinion, it would help a lot to get a high speed. Good luck

[LANNY R]

I have heard of people having video that studders that MIGHT be because they used the slower card. For me, my thinking when buying was that the card purchase is a one-time thing, I will have it for the life of the camera, and if there was even a CHANCE that being cheap on the card would limit the performance of my new prized SD400 or SD500, then why take a chance. I have also heard that you get faster read (i.e. down load) times off the faster card, but Im not sure about that.