Memory cards for digital cameras

[pretzel]

I thought I'd pose this here as I know there a number of disciples of the photographic arts that contribute regularly.

I currently have a 'bridge' type digital camera and, as it is fairly new, I am loathe to just discard it if favour of a full blown DSLR for the few occasions that I will be using it to take action shots at race meetings etc. (and it's petty good anyway for all my other amateur photographic tasks).

I understand that having a fast writing SD card could give me a bit more leeway when taking said action shots. Would anyone care to recommend any particular manufacturers and types? I know there could potentially be compatibility issues but I can check that with the camera manufacturer.

FYI my camera is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50

Thanks in advance.

[termietermite]

For Nikons the Lexar Compact Flash cards were traditionally thought of as the fastest cards.  However, new generations are popping up all the time with theoretically faster download speeds.  I bought a couple of really cheap SanDisc (the originators of compact flash) from play.com and could not tell the difference from the Lexar ones when at Ricard. I was using a D2H and no job I gave them was a problem even though I was at 8 fps at times.

[Steve Pyro]

I use Sandisk Ultra II SD cards in my Nikon DSLR - these have a minimum 9 MB/sec write speed.

Alternatively, Sandisk Extreme III cards write at 20 MB/sec.

However, it's no good using a 20 MB/sec writeable card when your camera can only process / send data to it at 5 MB/sec.

So it's worth checking your camera's spec.

Card details here - http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(1039)-SanDisk_SD_Cards.aspx

Don't bother with Jessops / Dixons etc for cards, they just mark up to a price they think they can get away with.
I use http://www.mymemory.co.uk/SD-Card based in Jersey and good value prices.

[LangTall]

Damn, Steve has beaten me to it (was checking the specs of the camera to see what cardtype there should be used)

[Pam the Weather]

if speed is important to you, you should buy the fastest card you can afford, don't forget the write speed works two ways.

from the camera (READ) to the card AND (WRITE) from the card to your computer.  Lexar are doing some very good deals at the moment and are very worth looking at, their construction and performance is far the best available.

[fagey]

I use http://www.mymemory.co.uk/SD-Card based in Jersey and good value prices.

  Theres that luverly paradise mentioned again!!, so when you looking at coming over for a drinky business

[Papa Lazarou]

Also check out Amazon and their sellers for some good offers from time to time...

[SIMONR]

Check out the Sandisk prices at http://www.warehouseexpress.com/. Cheap-as-chips at the moment. Annoyingly I got a few more cards while I was in Hong Kong in January, only to see them half-price at Warehouse Express.

Simon

[termietermite]

And even cheaper at
http://www.play.com/Search.aspx?searchtype=ELEC&searchstring=compact+flash&page=search&pa=search&go.x=43&go.y=9
Fagey will no doubt now mention Jersey again!
The cards Steve refers to are £25 for 2 gig including postage.

[tommy84]

I can highly recommend Transcend cards.

I'm using a 2GB CF card that equals the Extreme III performance at half the price. (dating back to mid 2006)
Nowadays you save around 10€
Transcend is specialized on memory related things at all sorts of computer/multimedia

I didn't find them in a shop, I've ordered directly from Transcend via Creditcard and it was in the mailbox the next day (delivery within Germany)

http://shop.transcend.de/index.asp?exid=4

[termietermite]

Makes you yearn to go back to film cameras doesn't it?

[Steve Pyro]

Makes you yearn to go back to film cameras doesn't it?

Not especially 

[pretzel]

Many thanks to all who offered advice on this.

In the end I have gone for the Sandisk Ultra II as it is (1) reasonably priced for the size and performance and (2) so far as I can make out for the camera specs, I don't really need a write speed faster than 9Mb/sec.

Having taken the thing out to take some pics at Castle Combe on Monday I conclude also that the camera/card combination far outperforms the operator when it comes to the quality of the pictures taken.

A good excuse for attending more meetings to get in more practice......

[Lorry]

It really is amazing how cheap these cards are.  A few years ago a small one was £80, now you can get 2Gig for a tenner.

I've only bought cheap ones, but I did have a Sandisk one fail a couple of years back.  And they all come from Jersey - I use 7dayshop, (good for Lithium batteries too)  e.g. Sandisk Ultra2 1gig was £99, yours for £9.99.  Where are you nicking these from Fagey

[fagey]

I couldnt possibly comment