Which memory card technology to go with?

[Fred Derf Veteran]

I am considering purchasing a HP8450 8-colour photo printer and it supports all of the above memory card technologies (along with USB flash drives):

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/un/WF...340-402149.html

I would also like to get a digital camera to go with it that supports PictBridge:

http://www.cipa.jp/pictbridge/CertifiedMod...edModels_E.html

I'll make the 4MP, 5MP decision based on monitary limitations but given a choice, what is the best memory card technology to invest in? If you feel like recommending a specific camera model then go ahead.

I gather that some are limited in capacity, some of mostly proprietary (Sony Memory Stick?) and others are just annoying (Secure Digital with Digital Rights Management?)

Please let me know what you think the winner is (from that group) and what the losers are (from the group).

Thanks in advance

[giga Veteran]

You can get up to 4GB CF cards. (Y)

[Fred Derf Veteran]

The early votes are going towards Secure Digital. I gather that the CPRM-technology is not an annoyance and it can be ignored.

I found this soundbyte:

  Steve said:

SD cards were originally designed to hold copyrighted musical content and prevent its unauthorized duplication. Although this use was not widely adopted, SD cards have become the flash memory card of choice for digital cameras because of their small size and low power consumption.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/flash_memory.html#sd

They also seem to be the most popular form of memory cards sold in cameras today (which theoretically is good for longevity).

The same site also says SmartMedia = RIP, so I'll avoid that one.

[Vice]

I would say Secure Digital aswell - all PocketPC's use SD (some feature both CF and SD) but SD is the way to go I am hoping everyone will switch to it soon.

Its great for camera's/pocketPC's since you can take a picture put the card in your pocketpc, edit it from your pocketpc (there are some really good pocket pc image editors) then slip it in an email / upload to your personal web space.

Nice and easy! I have a 1GB SD card its read/write times and low power consumption is what makes me recommend SD to you.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

What do you guys think of HP Digital Cameras then? They use SD for storage.

Future Shop has a Hewlett Packard Photosmart R707 5.1MP Digital Camera for C$350 and they have a refurbished 2003 model the HP Photosmart 935 5.3MP Digital Camera for C$250.

I gather then R707 is a lot better for taking video clips.

[b0m8er]

I use SD, my Digicam uses it, camcorder uses it and my Smartphone uses miniSD, which can be used as a normal SD card with special adapter (Y)

[jumungo4]

I have a CF card for my digital camera and a mmc card for my nokia mobile and they are both excellent and never fail.

[TheWahbinator]

CF for it's price, or

SD for size and the write protection thingy

Either one is good enough.

[morebaker]

I like sd because i use it in my hp camera and i also have firefox,

and various other programs stored on it.

with a card reader it is versatile and portable.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

  fred666 said:

What do you guys think of HP Digital Cameras then?  They use SD for storage.

Future Shop has a Hewlett Packard Photosmart R707 5.1MP Digital Camera for C$350 and they have a refurbished 2003 model the HP Photosmart 935 5.3MP Digital Camera for C$250.

I gather then R707 is a lot better for taking video clips.

585676805[/snapback]

Best Buy Canada has the HP Photosmart R707 camera for C$279.99

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.a...d=EN&dept=20006

Incidentally, the HP Photosmart 8450 printer is C$20 cheaper at Best Buy too.

[Skyfrog]

All of my stuff uses CompactFlash so that's all I've ever used. Secure Digital has some nice points but I don't like the exposed contacts.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

Is their a point in buying high-speed Secure Digital media? I hear that most media can write about 2MB/sec while Lexar 32x media can write at 4.8MB/sec and ATP high-speed media can write at 8MB/sec. My concern is what if the digital camera only writes at 2MB/sec anyway? That information isn't easily found from HP.

Futureshop has Kingston SD 512MB cards for C$59 after rebate while the ATP media is C$99.95 Is there a point to the extra C$40?

[+Random Stranger Subscriber¹]

get high speed if you want, but not at futureshop

always check canadacomputers.com they have many locations around toronto.

ATP Secure Digital Super High-Speed Card (60x) 512MB = $60

SanDisk Ultra II Secure Digital Card 512MB (10MB/sec read speed) = $75

[Fred Derf Veteran]

  panacea said:

get high speed if you want, but not at futureshop

always check canadacomputers.com they have many locations around toronto.

ATP Secure Digital Super High-Speed Card (60x) 512MB  = $60

SanDisk Ultra II Secure Digital Card 512MB (10MB/sec read speed)  = $75

585677409[/snapback]

Thanks for the info.

I was just at the Pacific Mall yesterday (my first time).

[neoufo51]

  panacea said:

get high speed if you want, but not at futureshop

always check canadacomputers.com they have many locations around toronto.

ATP Secure Digital Super High-Speed Card (60x) 512MB  = $60

SanDisk Ultra II Secure Digital Card 512MB (10MB/sec read speed)  = $75

585677409[/snapback]

KINGMAX 256MB Platinum 60X High Speed Secure Digital Card with PiP Technology -Model SDC-256M3P 256MB

= $23.05 and the highest 5/5 rating on Newegg.com (45 votes)

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-155-256&depa=0

I own the 256mb card and its the best card I ever used. Holds 98 pics at highest image setting on my Canon 5mp camera.

KINGMAX 512MB Platinum 60X High Speed Secure Digital Card with PiP Technology -Model SDC-512M3P

= $43.01 and 4/5 star rating on Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-155-257&depa=0

[HilariousNinja]

I've got a mermory stick, its worked fine for me so far.

[neoufo51]

  fred666 said:

Is their a point in buying high-speed Secure Digital media?  I hear that most media can write about 2MB/sec while Lexar 32x media can write at 4.8MB/sec and ATP high-speed media can write at 8MB/sec.  My concern is what if the digital camera only writes at 2MB/sec anyway?  That information isn't easily found from HP.

585677393[/snapback]

If a camera has USB 2.0 output, then it is a safe bet that it will take advantage of a fast card.

Oh and here is the SD card I own. Just took a quick low quality shot.

Edited March 27, 2005 by neoufo51

[+stereopixels Subscriber²]

Personally I use Memory Sticks; only because I own Sony Cameras and they accept them. SD cards seem to be the best technology to go with at the moment, mainly because so many devices nowadays are supporting them.

[Vice]

  nquinnathome1 said:

Personally I use Memory Sticks; only because I own Sony Cameras and they accept them. SD cards seem to be the best technology to go with at the moment, mainly because so many devices nowadays are supporting them.

585679213[/snapback]

:yes: Compatibility is what counts when buying Flash Memory buy the card which the majority of your devices support you don't want to buy CF for example and only be able to use it in your camera.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

I ended up getting an ATP 60x Secure Digital card from CanadaComputers.com as Panacea suggested. I'd rather drive 30+ minutes in traffic than bother with online retailers, thank you very much.

I considered the KingMax that they also had but it didn't have a lock to make the card read-only. I thought that might be useful if I dropped the card off to be developed.

[insanekiwi]

i have mmc/sd. make sure to post some nice pics soon fred :D

[Brandon]

Check out Canon's A520 camera. its 4mp and i have the 3.2mp version and its great!

[ZZOOzzoo]

I use Memory Stick Duo because I'm always attracted to Sony products.

Most of their products are super sexy compared to the competetors.

Right now, I'm using Cybershot DSC T3 and Handycam P1, and they both accept Memory Stick Duo.

Here's my Memory Stick Duo 512mb that I bought last december at Manhattan.

It's very tiny, but I took a magnified shot.

[Echilon]

I'd go with SD, because it's the most universal. My Camera and iPaq both use it, and my phone uses TransFlash (soon to be MicroSD), which fit's into an SD slot with an adaptor. Hitachi have just released those new 6Gb Microdrives which fit into CF slots, but maybe they'll make something similar for SD slots.

[eye_see_you]

I currently have a Canon EOS 300D SLR and Nikon 3100 Coolpix for point and shoot. using CF 40x and 80x Write accelerated cards has made a difference on high speed transfers and speed photography as well. I've used SD before but think the CF performed better.