SDHC Memory

[Spencer]

I've got a couple of questions about the speed classification of the SDHC memory cards (you know the ones that are replacing the smaller SD cards that are 2 GB or less). As with every type of memory (and the storage capacity of said media) it will most likely go down in price significantly or increase capacity within a couple of months or so.

My questions revolve around the speed classification of the SDHC cards. There's (2), (4) and (6). I get that 6 MB/s is most likely the best because it's the fastest, or is it? Say, if I had an SLR that was compatible with SDHC or a G9 what kind of speed rating should I be considering?

Again, thanks for helping out the guy that knows the corporate world but doesn't know squat about photography :D

[LAVrod]

Not sure what camera you have, but the faster the card and if your camera can support the speed, the faster it can write to the card. This would mean there will be less delays between shots or if it has a cache, it would allow for a longer burst speed at a faster rate.

[LAVrod]

Not sure if my last answer made sense. To make it simple, just get the fastest one you can afford. If the price difference is minimal then it is a no brainer.

Depending on the speed it can feel like the difference of browsing a photo intensive site with a modem vs broadband. The pictures load and save much quicker with the faster card.

[Spencer]

Thanks LAVrod. Basically what I'm wanting to know is if it's overkill going with a higher speed rating. What I'm hearing is that if the camera can support a certain speed than it is better to go with the highest.

[Michael Hetrick]

Thanks LAVrod. Basically what I'm wanting to know is if it's overkill going with a higher speed rating. What I'm hearing is that if the camera can support a certain speed than it is better to go with the highest.

If you have a 10 mega pixel camera you need to transfer all that data for each shot. I assume that there is some on-board memory to buffer the data, but the frames per second rate would have to be limited eventually by the systems ability to transfer to the card.

Faster has to be better......it's the American way.

[LAVrod]

If you have a 10 mega pixel camera you need to transfer all that data for each shot. I assume that there is some on-board memory to buffer the data, but the frames per second rate would have to be limited eventually by the systems ability to transfer to the card.

Faster has to be better......it's the American way.

Exactly and depending on your camera your buffer can be pretty big, but why limit your nice camera with a cheap mem card, inversely if you have a lower end camera, the memory card may help make it more efficient.