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Memory card recomendations for a D200

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vinny29538

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What are you guys using 1,2,4 gig cards.Any particular makes that shine,are reliable,speedy.
Txs in advance for any recomendations.
 
Since the cost of CF cards has come down so much since the beginning of the year, 4GB cards (under US $80) are readily available. 8GB cards under US $160 are readily available these days.

SIZE:

Shooting compressed RAW (avergae 9MB per image), I can fill up a 4GB card with one high school basketball game. So I prefer to use an 8GB card, and I don't worry about running out of room. For most non-pro shooters, a 4GB is plenty big enough (800 - 1K JPEG images).

SPEED:

For some cameras, there is a benefit/advantage to using a fast CF card. The D200 is NOT one of those cameras, and here's why: the D200's large internal memory buffer allows 22 or so RAW images (or 37 JPEG images!) to be stored before images need to be written to the CF card in order to make room for more images.

So unless you take more than 22 RAW (37 JPEG) images at a time (4-7 seconds of continuous shooting @ 5 FPS), the speed of the storage card doesn't impact the D200's performance, one way or the other. If you need a fast card for write performance, this puts you in a rare class of continuous action sports photogs.

Likely the only time you may notice your card's perfomance is when you are transferring images to your PC. Theoretically, it would take around 25 minutes to transfer 8GB of files to my PC at 5MB per second transfer rate... but that doesn't happen very often !!

Of course, if money is no object, by all means pursue 8GB ULTRA EXTREME III cards or equivalent, at better than US $340 apiece.
  • Bob Elkind
 
Hi bob

i have a couple of 4gig ultra 11 cards not the latest specs but going to give those a go.With just lashing out on the camera cash a bit tight for the extreme 4s at the moment.
But now i have the info for later purchase.
 
I,m using the ridata 2gb cards for weddings, and have had no problem so far, you can get them at new egg.com for about $40.00 each. Their writew speed is 150 (very fast)
 
(NT)
 
bob elkind said:
Of course, if money is no object, by all means pursue 8GB ULTRA
EXTREME III cards or equivalent, at better than US $340 apiece.
  • Bob Elkind
Click to expand...
If I read it correctly on their website, the ULTRA EXTREME III cards of which I have a 4GB version only count the Extreme speed in uploading images to the computer and the cameras can not take full advantage of their speed. The idea was that pros come in with 10 cards full of images and it takes all day to upload, that's the issue the ULTRA EXTREME III cards were designed to address.

If I'm per chance wrong you can just tell me that, no need to flame me.

ray................

--

'When trying to make art, don't make the camera do all the work.' from CBS Videographer Darryl Barton at NPPA boot camp.
 
I am amazed at the drop in prices of Cf cards.
I purchased my first 2GB card a year ago for $250.
I just got a Sandisk EX III 4 Gb for less than that.

The SDF cards for the D80 are even less.

Got to love it.

--
Sam
http://www.samjsternphotography.com
 
I like to stay with the 2 gig size, because if something goes wrong, then not all is lost
 
First, as someone else suggested, check out Rob Galbraith's site. What's interesting is that somewhat off brands (i.e. not Lexar or Sandisk) have as fast or faster write speeds.

Trancender has a slightly faster write speed. Last week (Warning! Dirty word follows - my apologies), Frys Electronics had the Trancender 4gig cards for $79 plus a $20 rebate. Can't beat that.
--
'Work is for people who don't know how to surf'
 
I started with 2 Ultra IIs but found them to be too small since I shoot RAW-jpeg large. I now use 2 Extreme IIIs , they show 189 on the counter after formetting; of course the actual number varies. The download speed is also noticeably faster than the IIs.
 
Ray Stuff said:
bob elkind said:
Of course, if money is no object, by all means pursue 8GB ULTRA
EXTREME III cards or equivalent, at better than US $340 apiece.
Click to expand...
If I read it correctly on their website, the ULTRA EXTREME III
cards of which I have a 4GB version only count the Extreme speed in
uploading images to the computer and the cameras can not take full
advantage of their speed. The idea was that pros come in with 10
cards full of images and it takes all day to upload, that's the
issue the ULTRA EXTREME III cards were designed to address.
Click to expand...
You make a good point: For some photogs (sports pros, in particular), storage cards with blazing read speed are not just nice to have. Anyone with boatloads of images to transfer on deadline, they are the ones for whom the fastest cards are worth the extra money.
Ray Stuff said:
If I'm per chance wrong you can just tell me that, no need to flame
me.
Click to expand...
Nahhh, no need (or desire) to flame you. We're both on the same side...
Ray Stuff said:
ray
Click to expand...
Postscripts:

1. Notice that Rob Galbraith's CF/SD database concerns itself predominantly with rankings based on in-camera WRITE performance, not READ performance (e.g. transferring files from the card to your PC). For the performance that matters to pros with boatloads of images to download (which is what this followup post is all about), make sure you check the "CARD-TO-COMPUTER" page in Rob Galbraith's performance database.

2. There is no manufacturing COST difference between a high-speed storage card and a low-speed storage card. The flash memory costs the same, the package costs the same, and the storage card controller costs the same. So why are there high-speed cards that sell for $300+ and "low-speed" cards that sell for less than half that cost ? There are several explanations that come to mind:

a. "crippling" of low-end cards to create market slots for both budget and high-profit high-performance product lines.

b. low-speed cards have last year's controller design, regardless of marketing or packaging or spped ratings.

c. Particularly for 3rd party vendors (but may also apply to major players), the difference is production timing. The newest/fastest controllers are designed into the high-profit cards first, then trickle over to mid-range and budget lines over time. If a fast controller comes on the market just as you're putting together your latest storage card design, then a 3rd party card mfr will use the new/fast controller, regardless of what market niche the storage card will fall in.

If I had to guess, I'd say that newly announced 3rd party storage cards are liikely to be as fast as mid-range or even possibly very-high-end product line equivalent cards from one of the major storage card manufacturers.
  • Bob Elkind
 
I recently switched from a D70 where I got over 300 RAW on a 2GB card to a D200 where I get about 120. I will be shooting things where I want more memory, such as baseball games, so I'll have to get some 4GBs!
 
I use a sandisk 8Gb card in my d200. Have used it for many thousands of shots, no problems. Holds approx 700-800 compressed nef files.
 
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