Which SDHC card?

[Costa reefing]

Hello, ive been looking at which memory card would allow me to take the best quality picture possible, I dont know much about how these cards work other than the higher the class # the faster its able to record pics/video on the card. The memory would be for a Canon S95 and im stuck between these two, im not sure if its overkill though.


Either the:

Lexar 8GB Professional 133x SDHC

SanDisk 8GB Extreme SDHC Class 6

At this point I am leaning more towards the Lexar. Are there any recommendations for other memory cards?


Thanks!

 

[BlueCorn]

I like sticking with name brands. Either of those would be fine. While shooting, card speed is only important if you're doing HD video or taking rapid bursts of images. Where it's more noticeable is when you start downloading images.

Make sure you get a card reader that's able to take advantage of your speedy cards. Fir example, I use a Firewire800 reader which is several times faster than a standard USB reader.

 

[Costa reefing]

Thanks for the quick response!


Although I don't understand how the card reader makes a difference. Since all the info is on the card should it not all load to the comp? It would just take longer i assume.

I have a built in card reader on my Vaio laptop which i got only a few months ago, could the driver just be upgraded in order to keep up?

 

[TWallace]

Thanks for the quick response!


Although I don't understand how the card reader makes a difference. Since all the info is on the card should it not all load to the comp? It would just take longer i assume.

I have a built in card reader on my Vaio laptop which i got only a few months ago, could the driver just be upgraded in order to keep up?

You are correct that the only difference the card reader makes is speed of download. It does not affect quality of images. Beerguy is talking about external card readers, which typically use USB to connect to a computer, but can use Firewire, which is much faster. Since your card reader is built-in to your laptop, I wouldn't worry about it. It likely uses a USB connection inside the laptop, and no driver upgrade would alter that.

The card itself also does not affect image quality. The different cards will typically only affect how fast you can shoot images back to back, and even then only on a DSLR. Point and shoots don't have the speed to take pictures faster than the card can store them. Since your camera is a point and shoot, I wouldn't worry too much about speed. Your camera can shoot 720p video though, and I believe Class 6 or higher is recommended for that, though I believe Class 4 would likely work as well. I'd go with something like this.

 

[Costa reefing]

Ok, now i understand. That definitely clears things up.

 

[jbird69]

question for you guys....If your camera is rated to shoot 4 fps, will a lower quality card slow this down? or would the highest quality card allow you to shoot even faster?

 

[BlueCorn]

The camera's FPS rating is based on a number of things. Most cameras write to a buffer and as long as it can clear that buffer, by moving the data to your card, performance won't suffer. The actual limitation on speed and number of consecutive shots is a function of how your camera is engineered. Using a faster card than the camera requires will not improve that specification but it can impact how long it takes to upload images to your computer.