Page 1 of Choosing an SDHC card for your camera how important is speed?

Photography Forum

Choosing an SDHC card for your camera how important is speed?

admars (Elite) posted this on Sunday, 28th December 2014, 09:19

I was wondering how important the read/write speeds are on SDHC cards for use with a digital camera. I guess a lot of it depends on the camera and type of photos you're taking.

Bascially, as my grandfather used to say, I take "snaps" not "photos".

I'd agree with that, I have a cheaps Panasonic DMC-S5 camera, and I just point and shoot at things, mostly the girls, going on the assumption, if I take 20 photos, at least 1 should turn out OK ;)

The manual says, for video, use at least Class 6, I think most, if not all the cards I have are Class 10, reputable brands, bought from reputable shops.

However, I noticed on hotukdeals, ppl post deals for cards, but often, say there's a

8gb extreme pro super smart XXL class 10 for £5 someone will say, but you can get a 16gb card for £2 more, and then some-one will say, but that's the class 10 XXL extreme super smart, which is a fraction slower.

So,
are all these speeds marketing mumbo jumbo?
Do they only make a real difference on high end cameras?
do they only make a difference on video?
is it only important for rapidly taking lotrs of photos ( I forget the term)?
will you only notice when transfering to your computer assuming the camera, or card reader is fast enough?

some combination of all the above?

I'm guessing test lab conditions show one thing, but in real life on my £50 camera as long as it's made by some-one like SanDisk, says Class 10, I should be ok and probably won't notice the difference?

RE: Choosing an SDHC card for your camera how important is speed?

RJS (undefined) posted this on Sunday, 28th December 2014, 09:30

Class 10 should usually be fine, the manual should say what the minimum class you should get is. Probably safe to ignore any marketing blurb after the class number. :)

The speed does make a difference, but mainly in as far as if you get one that is too slow there is a high chance of data corruption (or it not working at all) whenever you take a shot because the card can't keep up with the SD hardware in the camera.

But some hardware is very forgiving and will write at slower speeds if it has to.

Just make sure it's a genuine card and not a fake by testing it when you get it!

Editor
DVD REVIEWER
MYREVIEWER.COM

My Flickr Photostream

Thanks from: admars

Go back to Photography Forum threads, or All Forum threads