What type of memory card?

[ErickSaint]

Since I will be getting the 5n at some point, given the price drop, I started looking at memory. I'm having a hard time sifting through the fact and fiction. Most of my shooting will most likely be raw+jpeg. Probably not much use in burst modes except maybe an occasional sports event or playing around with the feature. HD video will probably be used pretty regularly. How many shots can I get on say a 16GB card using raw+jpeg?

Would something like a 16 or 32GB class 10 SDHC be fine or do I need to be looking at Memory Stick Pro Duo cards? It seems the only real advantage of the Duo cards are in the HG cards, and even then it really only effects how fast the camera clears out the buffer to the card after burst shooting.

This will be my first digital camera that is more than a point and shoot, so I'm not really sure if the added cost of memory sticks over SD is really worth it in my case for how I'm going to be shooting.

 

[Bimjo]

Memory cards have always been a bone of contention with photographers. One one side are the "bigger is better" group. On the other is the "less is more" group.

Both have valid points:

Big card capacity- 1) fewer cards needed, 2) no worries about running out of space in the heat of battle, 3) less chance to lose cards, especially if you only have one card. Lose that & you lost the camera so losing the card is sorta moot.

Smaller card capacity- 1) less chance for picture loss either through card damage or loss, 2) less time to transfer pics from card to computer, 3) one card- one DVD (assuming you use 4 Gb cards)

I've always been in the more smaller card group, but you may find that fewer larger cards works better for you. Cards don't fail that often, but I'd rather lose 4 or 8 Gb of pics than 16 or 32. And I have had cards fail twice. Fortunately they weren't full at the time.

hth & ymmv

 

[Dioptrick]

Adding to that, the read/write speed is crucial especially for burst shooting and HD video. I would get the "fastest" memory speed you can afford, regardless of what capacity you decide to go for.

I got the fastest Sony card available at the time when I bought my 5N, a Sony PRO-HG Duo 16GB and I've never run out... but I only do day shoots and always copy over to my Mac and delete as soon as I get home. I never leave anything on the memory stick, it's always empty and ready to go.

Check out Sandisk, I think they make even faster sticks these days...

 

[korn_2956]

I'm sure any class ten will work just fine. Pny, sandisk, and samsung have all worked great for me

 

[freddytto]

Sony PRO-HG Duo 16GB and I've never run out... but I only do day shoots and always copy over to my Mac and delete as soon as I get home. I never leave anything on the memory stick, it's always empty and ready to go.

dioptrick you're right, i have the same card, is very good, fast data transfer to my laptop, usually I shoot in raw, some times raw-jpp and it's a lot of information, it works better..

Check out Sandisk, I think they make even faster sticks these days...

I had a lengthy review several months ago and found that brand are very good,
Sandisk is any day better than sony ones in terms of quality , performance and cost. I had used both of them and found that sony does not stand any where,so I am using a 16 gb extreme pro and works great..


SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC and SDXC UHS-I Memory Cards by SanDisk

 

[ErickSaint]

I was kind of leaning towards sd cards, SanDisk being my brand of choice. Just wasn't sure there was any particular benefit of going with the duo sticks. They seem to be on average higher priced than sd when all things like speed and size are similar.

I have a 16gb class 10 generic card in my tablet. Maybe I'll try that before I decide to invest in memory. I was just curious if other members preferred one type over the other.

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[Bimjo]

Well, there's always this thought- SD is pretty universal, duo sticks not so much. Should you ever need to replace one (or a reader) when you're far from home the SD is probably going to be more available. I've seen them at the grocery store checkout, never seen a duo stick anywhere outside a camera/electronics store.

 

[kevistopheles]

Typically you'll want to go with a Class 10 card for recording video. I use both Transcend and Sandisk 32GB Class 10 cards and I haven't seen that much of a difference. The Transcends are cheaper and I have a suspicion the Sandisks are more reliable (although so far they have both been good). If you shoot JPEG and not a lot of video 32GB is a bit excessive size wise. It holds something like 5000 images.

 

[ErickSaint]

I shoot video here and there. Currently with a Kodak Playsport HD camera, mostly while hiking. But the video is always so shaky while walking even with the built in stabilization I have gone away from video.

I'll price out some sd's over the weekend. I have some rebate cards to use up.

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[korn_2956]

Lexar just came out with a 256gb card for 900 bucks.

 

[ErickSaint]

Wow. Considering I'm going to have to cobble together the funds from limited to no overtime before I can actually even get the 5n, I'll hold off on that.

But if I ever decide to do that 5 month, every 5 second time lapse, I'll look into one of these.

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