Memory - Class 10?

[catfood49]

Hello all,

I have just upgraded to a Canon 60D and one of the first things I need to get myself is a memory card. My main question is, should I be ensuring the card I get is Class 10? I see the transfer speeds vary from 15mb/s, 20mb/s and 30mb/s a sec, but what I don't know is how is this is actually going to affect me while taking pics (and maybe take shooting some high def video).

Also, would anything less than a 16GB be quite annoying as I would be filling up the card reguarly? I generally d/l my photos off the camera at the end of each day but am I likely to be filling up my card in one day? Not having actually taken any shots yet (I went for body only and don't have a lens yet either ), I don't actually know the file size. I will be shooting some of the time in JPEG, and sometimes in RAW.

Thanks very much

[GeoffWessex]

Not sure about the Class 10 stuff but the 16Gb..... That's a heck of a lot of stored images - and, looked at another way, could be a heck of a lot of lost images. I've got an 8Gb card but generally I stick with several 4Gb - and even that would be a disaster if I lost one.
There again, if you intend to use the video capabilities of the 60D, you need lots of storage..... so the 16Gb would fit the bill (and if you get really stuck into video then a 32Gb would be a desirable item). Horses for courses.

[donoreo]

Many people never use more than a 4GB card. If the card fails or physically breaks you only lose 6 GB of photos.
As far as the speed, faster is better for video, but Class 6 would probably do. For still photos, it is more than enough.

Are you going to fill it up? Depends on how many photos you take

[adam_christie]

I don't know much about which brands are better than which (I know Kingston/Sandisk are good), but Transcend are selling their 16GB SDHC Class 10 card for £18 at the moment. That's pretty good!

@Donoreo: HD Video takes up loads of room - and being an owner of a 60D tells me he's gonna take some video with its tilty-flippy screen!

[Cathus]

You'd probably only need the fastest cards if you are recording video or are shooting long bursts of files, esp RAW files.

I got the fastest cards I could find because of the 10fps burst mode of my camera (I don;t do much video at all).

As to whether you'll run out it largely depends on whether you shoot RAW or jpg & how long you're shooting for.
At a typical Airshow I might shoot several thousand shots & have to download the cards several times to a portable drive during the day. I shoot RAW on these occasions

At a sports match I might shoot 700-800 shots over a couple of hours but I shoot jpg and have not yet filled a card. (I have 2 16gb cards fitted in one camera and an 8gb card in the other.)

[chris-p]

Don't forget that the speed ratings are only theoretical maximums. But, the thing that determines the read/write speed from camera to card is the cameras buffer and I/O cache, not the card.

I also tend to go for multiple, smaller capacity cards - it's the "eggs not all being in one basket" thing.

[rbarry]

I'm sure Photoplus magazine had an article testing various memory cards last year. It seems that what is "written on the tin" doesn't necessaraliy give the full picture. I own a 550D and needed a new memory card; from the data of this article I purchased a Scandisk Ultra 16gb card. I was rather anxious as the rating for this card is only class 4, but the results from the article showed it seemed as or more responsive than the majority of other class 6 rated cards. It has a transfer speed of 15mbs and I can honestly say I have never had a problem with the speed of this card with stills or video.
I would not buy any other maunfacturer's class 4 rated card, but from my own experience I would not hesitate buying another Scandisk Ultra.

As for the gb size of the card you choose, video capture is limited to either 30 minutes continuous shooting or a total file size of 4gb. At full HD quality, 4gb will give 12 minutes of video, so a 16gb card will give approx 50 minutes total recording time. For still images, set at the highest jpeg quality, each image will be approximately 6.5mb, and if shooting RAW then expect this to increase to 24.5mb. That would give total amount of images of 1977 and 570 respectively.
If you shoot in Raw then a 16gb card doesn't look so over size, and certainly video would demand such a size to be of any practical use. In fairness it would take a lot to fill the card in best quality jpeg setting, but I always download after each session of newly captured images, and I've never shot 1977 images in a day!

[OldBoy]

Originally Posted by adam_christie

I don't know much about which brands are better than which (I know Kingston/Sandisk are good), but Transcend are selling their 16GB SDHC Class 10 card for £18 at the moment. That's pretty good!

Just a warning, but some cheaper cards are rejects by the makers that are rebadged.

[Cathus]

& lots of Sandisk cards via eBay are Chinese fakes.

[rbarry]

Originally Posted by rbarry

I own a 550D and needed a new memory card; from the data of this article I purchased a Scandisk Ultra 16gb card.

....and I can't spell Sandisk