What size memory card?

[Ann Maree]

Hopefully what Im about to ask makes sense!

purchasing a memory card for camera (i currently have 128mb)

Considering Im allways running around looking to upload photos to computer from memory card was thinking of purchasing bigger card 1GB.

I was told however that i would be better off purchasing 2x 256mb cards
AND something about needing a firewire - I have no idea what im talking about here.

Any feedback advice would be appreciated

[Margie]

ah, i can't help with the firewire sorry. but i did get a 256 before our bahamas cruise and i was worried i'd need more. but i didn't, it was plenty. as to one card or two, that might depend on how you use them. if you generally have one in the computer and one in the camera or if you just take it out to dump the pics, etc. i personally only take the card out for a few minutes to dump the pics onto my hard drive then empty it, so one works just fine. but with 1 gb, you'd feel pretty safe you have enough room! not so helpful, sorry! :)

[Emma]

We have 1 256mb card, and it's bigger than our first card. I may have filled up the first card once...but we haven't taken it on vacation yet. This new card writes a little faster I think... (faster card, faster write, less shutter lag)

The firewire is just the type of "plug" that goes into your computer. You have USB (universal serial bus), which is pretty standard. Macs commonly have firewire, and USB 2.0 is out now and a lot faster than USB 1. We bought a USB 2 card reader, and uploading is so fast now. I still have a USB 1 port via my printer, so when I upload it's still suuuuper slow compared to when Troy does it on his computer.

Firewire is faster than USB 2, or maybe USB 2 is faster (jury still seems out on that...) Firewire gives more accessibility or control of the actual device (like running digital video camera through the computer rather than just uploading). Digital video uses firewire, things like iPod can use either USB or firewire

There's a lot of tech info I don't understand, but to me firewire vs USB 2 is kinda up to computer nerds ;) Yeah...that would be me...

So if you travel a lot and take tons of photos away from home, a larger card is great. If 2 256mb cards are cheaper than 1gb, then just get two. It's like a 24 roll of film vs 12 roll...who really cares? Do you want 1 roll or two? Is your USB 1 so slow that you let it upload while you pop in another card and go?

Those are the questions you need to evaluate. Let us know what you decide!
Good articles on USB and firewire
http://www.g4techtv.com/freshgear/features/39129/USB_20_Versus_FireWire.html

http://www.usb-ware.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm

[Lauren]

I have a 256 and 2 128 mb cards - I have only needed to use them all while i was on holiday in Aussie for a week - The thing with a 1 gig card is that if somethign happened to it - you've lost everything where as if you have several smaller ones it just means youve only lost some!!- a 256 holds quite a few 3mp pictures but if you had a 5 or 6 mp camera you might want a bigger one

Hopefully what Im about to ask makes sense!

purchasing a memory card for camera (i currently have 128mb)

Considering Im allways running around looking to upload photos to computer from memory card was thinking of purchasing bigger card 1GB.

I was told however that i would be better off purchasing 2x 256mb cards
AND something about needing a firewire - I have no idea what im talking about here.

Any feedback advice would be appreciated

[Ann Maree]

Thanks for the feedback - I was determined to go to a bigger card - as forever having problems with running out - mainly on holidays - will let you know what i end up with

[susan]

Adding on to Lauren's answer...

The number of pics you can get on a media card depends on the megapixels your camera supports. Most of the camera store weekend flyers include a picture conversion chart that I find handy for this piece of math. So, if you have a 5 megapixel camera with a 128mb card, then you can get about 51 picutes vs a 3 megapixel camera where you can get 106 pictures.

So the first question you need to answer is how many pics do you take at a time or on a typical trip.

And yes, I'd rather have two cards than one, just for the reason Lauren mentioned. The other weekend we had a professional take our portrait at the beach and found it interesting that half way thru the shoot he changed cards. I asked him about it and he said you never know what can happen to the card, so this way he always has a "backup" of the shoot - just in case. Obviously, he wouldn't have all the pics, but he'd have at least half - far better than none.

[Ann Maree]

Thanks susan - I have to say while I am sick and tired of running out of room - I can now see the sense in buying 2 cards -

Been a very interesting thread of info. TFS

[SharonK]

Another vote for 2 256 cards vs 1 GB for all the reasons mentioned already. Actually 2 will only equal 1/2 GB but that's HUGE.

I attended my DM retirement convocation and luncheon last Friday and filled a 256 and started on my 128 - took over 300 pictures at best setting on my 4MB.

another + to 256 cards is price - the rebates and sales make them very cost effective.

Also, absolutely consider a card reader vs download from your camera to computer. A multi-card reader was available last week for less than $8 (after rebate) from Office Max and the readers are incredibly fast compared to the USB camera/computer connection.

[elizabethlmccoy]

I have the drebel and I got the 1GB memory card and it holds around 300 full sized pictures (6.3 MP) and I love it!!!! I can almost take all the pictures for a vacation on it. I did 500 pictures on the chicago trip and that was 4 days...so I may need my laptop to remove them from the card.

If you shoot in RAW format with the drebel it is a huge memory hog I think it drops down to 70 or something when I use RAW format on the 1GB card....anywhoo.

Let us know how things work out for you.