Flash Card/Memory card?

[Fess]

Hello everyone,

I spent my vacation getting familar with my new Nikon D50.

As is doesn't come with a memory card I must purchase one.

1. What is the difference between a memory card & a flash card?

2. I noticed those long memory sticks/wide memory cards. Which one is for my camara? I'm still reading the manual and all I could find is the names of apporved cards.

3. Are some cards faster than others?

Any advice is appreciated
Fess

[JimG]

Your Nikon D50 uses the Secure Digital (SD) card. You may have noticed that in your research for memory cards they come in a variety of sizes and shapes. They also come with different capacity amounts and bit rates. For now it is only important that you get the proper card for your camera. When doing your shopping for one look for the memory cards that are classified as "Secure Digital" or SD.

Your uses a 6+ megapixel sensor so I would recommend an SD card of at least 512, but if it was me I would get several 1Gigabyte cards. Note the rating on the card, x4...x8...x10 and so on the more the "x" amount the faster the cards can written to and read from. The faster they are the more expensive they become, let your current budget be your guide here. In all things digital faster is generally better.

Hope this helped

[Fess]

Hey Jim,

Appreciate that detailed info.
I'll shop with your comments in mind.

I'm checking out the SanDisk SDSDH-1024-901 1 GB Ultra II Secure Digital Card here

Got some great reviews but also some bad ones......
One guy suggested getting 2 512mb instead of 1 1gig incase of corruption.....

This will take more research than I anticipated.

Fess

[fotodog]

I'm in favour of bigger cards.

I've got 2 - 2 gig cards for my D70s and I'm getting a third.

You'll be surprised how quickly you'll go through 300 shots.

SanDisk makes some good ones as does Lexar. Go for the high writing speed if you can afford to.

[JimG]

There are two schools of thought when it comes to the capacity of memory cards. Some people would rather carry several cards giving the the advantage of different subjects on different cards. The others want a card that can hold many more files. I happen to be one of the ones that would just assume carry several cards being that I am going to upload them as soon as I can I usually have empties just waiting to be used.

On the other hand if I am going to shoot a wedding for example I will use larger cards as I know I will be shooting hundreds of pictures at a single event and for a single purpose. For the everyday stuff that I do (mostly product photography) I find the 512 or 1gig to be enough...that is if I am not shooting via remote and storing the files directly on my desktop.

I think the final answer here is to have a variety of capacity's. When it comes to corruption that is something that I have never experienced (knock on wood) I still use one (32mg) that is over six years old.

[fotodog]

It is definitely a user preference.

I just remember the days of changing film every 5 minutes and I, personally, hated to be slowed down like that.

One thing, regardless of which card you have, is to do regular formatting on the card.

Clean off the old stuff and reformat it in the camera. This should reduce any corruption errors.

Also, keep the cards in their protective cases until you need them. Dust and moisture will send not only your cards, but your camera into a downward spiral very quickly.

[cfire]

Is it OK to keep it in the camera?

[fotodog]

Definitely!!

As long as the on/off switch is set to off when it's not active you'll be ok!

and make sure the camera is off and the light is off before you take it out you'll be ok too!

[Fess]

Jim, Foto,

Thanks for the wealth of info.

I'm going to go with the SanDisk SDSDH-1024-901 1 GB Ultra II Secure Digital Card to start with.

Most of my shooting will be making High Dynamic Range Images (HDRI) & reflection maps for my 3D app. So that card should suffice.

My experience with this card (using the care methods Foto outlined) will dictate what to get in the future.

I'll post my xperience after a few shoots.

Offtopic: I bought Kelby's "Digital Photograpy Book" and its outstanding.
I highly recommend it for noob's like myself!

Regards
Fess

[fotodog]

Look forward to seeing your work.
Let us know how it works out for you!

- - - - - - -
I've heard good things about the book.