Sd Card Speed

[sheltie_prince]

Hiya.

I just bought my Canon IXUS 800IS and am looking into buying a bigger storage card that what was given (512MB).

However, when I was shopping for one, I then realised that there is a 120x speed or faster version.

My knowledge of a PC is that when the motherboard is clocked at the RAM access speed of 533MHz, buying a 677MHz DDR II RAM will be a waste of money since the 677MHz will be clocked down to the RAM access speed of 533MHz. SO applying this theory to a PnS camera, will using a faster speed SD card be meaningless?

My question and advice from the experts here is :
a) Will a faster speed SD card improves / benefits a PnS camera user? Such as better battery optimisation and significantly faster saving of image on your PnS.
b) If it does benefit, which is a better one to consider? ScanDisk Ultra II, Ultra III or Kingston 120x, etc...

Hope to get your valuable feedback on this topic. Well if there is no benefit to a PnS camera user like the Ixus 800is, then I might as well get a 1GB normal speed and buy an extra battery... cos a faster speed 120x 1GB SD card cost almost the same as a 2GB SD card normal speed ~S$80.

Appreciate it folks.. Have a good weekend ahead.

 

[jdredd]

faster SD card wont make a diff on a P&S.
you really only notice the difference if you shootting several frame a second and you need it to write fast. and even then, the difference between average cards and fast cards is maybe 10%.

 

[+evenstar]

when you're shooting many frames till your camera buffer is full. that's when the write speed of the card comes into place IMO

 

[davsmiths]

Faster speed cards are faster for the camera to write the files to the card. it would show on a P&S if the flash is disabled. when you're using flash, the speed would then be restricted to your flash recharge speed.

faster sd card do have performance benefits beyond your camera operations as it is much faster to download pictures into your computer when using a good card reader too.

 

[jdredd]

Faster speed cards are faster for the camera to write the files to the card. it would show on a P&S if the flash is disabled. when you're using flash, the speed would then be restricted to your flash recharge speed.

huh?
im sorry, but i really doubt you would see any difference in frame rate on a P&S by using a fast or slow card... dont forget, the camera also has a buffer.

even on DSLRs, if you check ron galbraith, the times are only off by about 5-10%. and thats shooting 5 FPS till buffer is filled.

 

[scramblur11]

think for ixus to take video up to 1G / ard 1hr, u will need a high speed card leh.....previously I email canon to ask abt their ixus 700 and was told tat it need a card of at least 40x to take continuous video....nt sure whether the new models now need still need it anot leh....anybody can confirm?

 

[jdredd]

there was a thread discussing this previously. in any event, a standard card still can write faster than a P&S high speed video, which is about 1.5 mb/second if i recall correctly

 

[sheltie_prince]

THis is what I thought too.. the bottle neck would not be the card's speed, its the buffer or flash. However, thanks for confirming my analysis... you just saved me some $$$ and may just go for a 1/2GB normal speed card + an extra battery. ;P

faster SD card wont make a diff on a P&S.
you really only notice the difference if you shootting several frame a second and you need it to write fast. and even then, the difference between average cards and fast cards is maybe 10%.

 

[kietgnoel]

there was a thread discussing this previously. in any event, a standard card still can write faster than a P&S high speed video, which is about 1.5 mb/second if i recall correctly

Based on a Powershot S3 IS and the reported available recording time remaining on the LCD, the video recording speed for the highest quality + size setting is about 2 MB/s. I also did a speed test on the Kingston normal speed SD (512 MB). The write speed was about 2.5 MB/s. This means that the normal speed Kingston SD card can be used for video recording without problems.

Lastly, I did a test video recording using the normal speed Kingston SD card (I had all the while been using higher speed cards). The video was smooth.