Memory Cards

Now that I have the new camera, D80, my next order of business is to find an SD memory card that will do the trick! It is unlike most other Nikon's in that it uses SD, not CF. During my hunt, I've come across so many options that I don't know what is necessary and what is overkill.

The most memory available right now is 8GB SDHC. The D80 will handle the SDHC cards. Do I really need 4 or 8GB if I don't want to remove the card between every dive?

Speed is a big question! A lot of the "high speed" cards out there are 133X or even 150X which translates to 20mb/sec read and 15mb/sec write on a 133X or 23mb/sec for the 150X. San Disk Extreme III/IV blow away the competition on paper and chew at my wallet like a termite. Is slower speed going to hinder taking action pictures as fast as my strobe can recycle? It might save me a big hunk of change if the camera only processes so fast to be the limiting factor and I can do without the latest and greatest SD card.

I'm sure most of you have made do with older cards that aren't as fast, 30X or 60X, or have less memory, but what would you have now since the technology has arrived? Is your SD memory card your limiting factor?

If you're shooting raw, you'll probably need about 1 gig per dive. So a 2 gig card should be all you need for a standard 2-dive boat trip.

As far as speed, see: http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_pag...p?cid=6007-8531

Thanks William! I've never seen that site until now. There is a lot of what I was looking for there.

Unfortunately, we do a lot of 3-4 tank dive days here on So. Cal. boats, so I guess I see where I need to be on capacity if I don't want to open my housing between dives. :-)

You are welcome Pat.

I'll just add that the most noticable difference between a fast card and a slow card is the time it takes to get the pictures from the card to the computer. Especially underwater. Even the slowest card will more than be able to keep up with your strobes but when you have to wait while it takes your computer 30 minutes to copy the card to your hard drive you'll wish you had splurged for a faster card.

Also, make sure you have a USB2, Firewire, CardBus PC Card, or Expresscard card reader.

If you use a standard USB 1.1 reader or a standard PC card reader (non-CardBus), you'll be in a world of hurt at 15 minutes/GB transfer time to your computer.

I'm using a 4GB CF card with my D200 (file sizes are the same as D80.) This is more than enough to get me through a day of normal shooting. I think it's a waste of money to buy the fastest cards. I find the Sandisk Ultra II's to work fine

4 GB on a D200 RAW gives me 240 pics I have found that enough for the average 4 dive day; though I did have to clear some space by deleting during the dives toward the end of the day at 'Shark Shootout' where the action was pretty intense.

A good idea is if you can maybe test a few cards in a photo store, shoot as fast as you can and see if and when (after how many shots) the camera stops shooting while it writes to the card. If it's not enough for you (unlikely) get the faster card.

Thanks William! I've never seen that site until now. There is a lot of what I was looking for there.

 

Unfortunately, we do a lot of 3-4 tank dive days here on So. Cal. boats, so I guess I see where I need to be on capacity if I don't want to open my housing between dives. :-)

As far as capacity goes, you might want to consider a 4 gig card if your preference is to shoot all day without changing or emptying cards. 2 gig would work in most cases and 4 gig is a bit of overkill on a D80 but that area in between the two card sizes might just become important on certain days.

Be sure to check buy.com for cards. From time to time they have really good prices on quality cards and it might be worth the time to check their prices while you are looking for where to buy them. It's not always the least expensive, but there are times when their prices are the lowest I can find.

By the way, don't buy card speed just for underwater because while it is highly unlikely you will ever have a concern about buffer uw, it may come into play topside. So a faster card allows your buffer to empty faster.

Instead of an 8gb I´ll get a couple of 4gb or at least a 4gb and a 2gb, just for backup...

I'm having good luck with the relatively inexpensive, relatively fast Ritek 4GB nominal 150X cards -- only US$70 here.

I'd probably go for two 4GB cards instead of the 4GB & 2GB. That way, you'll always have a 4GB card in your camera. Nothing would upset ya more than to accidentally load up the 2GB card instead of the 4GB at the beginning of the day and run out of room on the 4th dive of the day!

I'm having good luck with the relatively inexpensive, relatively fast Ritek 4GB nominal 150X cards -- only US$70 here.

That CF card won't do pat a lot of good. He needs an SD card.

Well, after looking around a bit more and reading your posts, I've decided to get the 4GB SDHC card. In another year there will be 32GB cards out there and we will all be wishing we had one...if it weren't for the investment in the numerous small cards we all carry now.

What brand of 2 and 4 GB cards do you have? Ritek makes SD card also, though a little more expensive than $70US. SanDisk seems to be the most well known brand and most trusted? Costs more too!

Eric, you mentioned that I should pay attention to the reader I get with the card. It my be the slow factor. Most of the memory cards come with their own readers that I have seen. Or, they are given away "free with the purchase of a card".

How about connecting your camera directly to the computer/storage device via the supplied USB 2.0 cable? Is this slower than a reader directly in the USB port?

See http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/no_nav.asp?cid=6007-8472 for SD card Reader speed ratings.

I also use the SanDisk Ultra II 4gb, not the fastest one, but fast enough and a great value.

I don't like connecting the camera directly to the computer because of a few reasons:

1) It eats up camera battery and if I don't download from the camera the battery in my D2x will last for about 800 shots, but if I download it will be less than half of that.

2) I can remove the card without removing the camera from the housing, just opening the housing, replacing the card and closing the housing. I don't know if that would work with all housings or with the D80, but the battery consumption issue remains.

3) I find my card readers to be faster than the camera to download.