digital memory!

[SLIDER]

Does anyone know the big difference with digital memory? For example on a 1gig card is there really a difference between an ultra high speed & a regular card?

See at Future SHop they have a 1gig ultra high speed Valgear GXT card for 79.99 & then there is a Sandisk 2gig card but isnt high speed for $99.00! Any suggestions on which one is better from personal experiences?

Thanks in advance

[Neophyte]

Does anyone know the big difference with digital memory? For example on a 1gig card is there really a difference between an ultra high speed & a regular card?

See at Future SHop they have a 1gig ultra high speed Valgear GXT card for 79.99 & then there is a Sandisk 2gig card but isnt high speed for $99.00! Any suggestions on which one is better from personal experiences?

Thanks in advance

All digital camera memory is digital. Your picture will always be stored as a series of 0's or 1's as long as the card is compatible and fits in the camera. So the image quality will never change. The difference with the "Ultra" and standard memory cards is the speed in which memory can be read or written. That extra speed is helpful with some features on large megapixel camera's and while transferring to the PC. Also, aside from other security features that may or may not be available to the card, that's really about the only difference.

Things to consider: Does your camera support "burst" mode or rapid fire shots which can record X number of shots per second? Do you use that feature often, and does it require the Ultra memory? A feature such as that would really take advantage of the faster memory. But if you don't use that, and especially if you're not taking full framed 16x20 photo's every time (I think 800x600 pixels = 4x3 photo resolution) then you can certainly get by with the slower memory and save a few dollars.

[Baron[CotC]]

I believe he said he had a Canon Powershot S2 IS

using Large/Fine quality settings:
1.5 shots per second as its continuous shooting speed (0.67seconds per shot)
the file size at that setting is 1.4MB (its using JPG compression so it varies)

So, if my math and reasoning are correct, your camera needs a ~2MB/s memory card to reach its continuous shooting mode's top speed.

Mind you this doesnt take into account any buffering the camera does, or how large that buffer is -- also lower quality images need even faster memory than that to keep up, since the files are smaller.

A quick glance at the SanDisk website says that the cards are rated using a system that makes 1x = 150KB/s

so you'd need something over 13x to clear 2MB/s

I cant find any info on that Valgear card, and I cant even find a website for that company, given that customers are rating that card low I'd stay away from it -- and that 2GB card is too slow for your camera as far as I can tell. (unless you dont care about the wait between photos and want large capacity)

I checked some review sites and found another card you might prefer to get from futureshop:

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/prodde ... 364&catid=

Kingston has a good reputation with all types of memory and their elite digital camera memory is very fast, and will outperform your camera with ease. the 1GB card is rated at 7.7MB/sec write speed, it could keep up with 4 of your cameras hehe.

Hope that helps, I'm always around if you have questions.

[SLIDER]

ty very much for your help it does clear some of the questions up!

[SLIDER]

only trouble with the Kingston is it doesnt ship that card! who knows why but it doesnt