SD card not used for the TZ5?

New to posting but have been lurking for awhile trying to decide between the Nikon P80 and the Panasonic TZ5 (currently have a Nikon Coolpix L3 but want to upgrade from the 3x zoom). Was in Best Buy this morning comparing both and the sales person told me that the Nikon would be better because 1) it had the 18x zoom and 2) it took the SD and/or SDHC card but that the TZ5 only took the SDHC. Researching the TZ5 I have not run across any mention of it not taking the SD card. Apparently it was only her second day working there but even the sales info card only mentioned the SDHC. Am I right that the TZ5 takes both? Is there a big difference between SD and SDHC since they had the SDHC priced higher? Thanks for any help, will be greatly appreciated.

Hi Melinda,
Yes, it can use the SD card. See : http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonictz5/
Just scroll down, near the bottom.
--
wfjw

Welkom on DP.

The TZ5 uses both SD or SDHC cards.
SD from 8Mb to 2Gb, the SDHC from 4GB to 16Gb.

I have an Sony A700 as main camera and since shortly a Panny TZ5 as everyday camera. Love it.

--
Math

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mathschlosserfotografie/
http://mathschlosserfotografie.googlepages.com/home

Thanks all. Is the only difference between the SD and SDHC the amount it can store?

Not sure about the answer to your question but Sandisk has a pretty good promotion going on right now. I bought a 4GB Extreme III SDHC for about $55 including shipping. The manufacturer's rebate is supposedly sending me a $30 prepaid credit card. So, thats only like $25 for a hefty card. I think I got a regular 2GB SD card a few weeks back for about $20 at a local office supply store. I should have held out.

The Extreme III has superfast download and processing times. I have virtually no delay shooting 3 consecutive images (multi-shot) holding down the button with this card. ITs a beaut!

SDHC cards cannot by read by a normal cardreader. My Extreme III came with a small micromate cardreader, usb.

I have a problem that my Gigaone, 40Gb mobile storage, cannot read SDHC although they can be plugged in.
--
Math

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mathschlosserfotografie/
http://mathschlosserfotografie.googlepages.com/home

While a BB this morning the sales person showed me the Extreme III, they have it on sale (don't know how long) for $53.99. She mentioned it would be great for the P80 but said nothing about it when we were disussing the TZ5.

Hi Malinda,

My personal opinion, would be to steer clear of the P80....From what Ive seen posted on review sites....the P80 has far too much Noise Reduction going on, even at ISO100...and makes the pics look very poor.....I would say the TZ5 pictures look better by 300%....but remember this is only my opinion.....try evaluating this for yourself of course....

The P80 has a lot of good features...EVF, greater zoom range, etc...but for me, much poorer picture quality especially from a landscape perspective, where foliage is involved........

Good luck
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Cheers

Rik

Sd cards will not give good video performance, because their write speed is to slow. However for still images the performance is adequate, but you might experience a little slower than stated burst speeds.
--
Steve Owen.
Three old outdated cameras, Two Fujis, and a TZ-1.

I have played with both and I have pretty much decided on the TZ5. I like the fact that the P80 has the viewfinder but have read that it does not show 100% like the LCD. Since the camera I am replacing also does not have a viewfinder I am considering that not reason enough to choose the P80. So far all the pics I took at the store look just as good with the 10x zoom as the 18x that the P80 has (plus the price is more affordable on the TZ5). My friend was showing me a website where you can compare pics taken by 2 different cams side by side and the TZ5 shots looked clearer (to my non-professional eyes).

A couple days ago I put a new A-data 16gb class 6 card in my fz18. $65 shipped from newegg. It works fine as an 8gb a-data has for 8 months. Newegg has the 8gb for 30 shipped. These prices are reasonable enough to make SDHC my first choice.

MelindaB said:

My friend was showing me a
website where you can compare pics taken by 2 different cams side by
side and the TZ5 shots looked clearer (to my non-professional eyes).

Click to expand...

I think you are referring to Imaging-Resource.
The link is http://www.imaging-resource.com/IMCOMP/COMPS01.HTM

Steve Owen Wrote

Sd cards will not give good video performance, because their write speed is to slow.

I don't agree because I have a Pannsonic 2GB SD card class (6) that read/write at 20mb a sec. a very nice and fast card I used it with my TZ3 before I sold it and now use it with my TZ5 and I love it for video or stills.

MelindaB said:

Thanks all. Is the only difference between the SD and SDHC the
amount it can store?

Click to expand...

Not exactly Melinda...

The SDHC had to use a different type of coding to break the SD 4GB barrier. This is why you neeed a special SDHC reader for them, and the regular SD reader won't work.

However, any camera that can use the SDHC card is backwardly compatible with SD cards. But older cameras that are SD only cannot use the newer SDHC cards.

You may not need a SDHC card at all. The advantage of the SDHC card is greater capacity and faster speed, but it comes at a much higher price. The larger capacity is very useful when you shoot long video clips or if you shoot in the RAW format, since RAW creates 20mb files. But the TZ5 cannot shoot in RAW, so unless you plan to use your still camera as a camcorder, you may not need to spend extra money for SDHC cards.

The regular SD cards are quite cheap right now, and they will work fine in your TZ5, Currently, you can get a Sandisk 2GB SD card on Amazon for under $6. while a 2GB SDHC card will cost around $25, plus you will need to get a high speed SDHC reader.

If you shoot at the highest resolution and at the best JPEG quality, then a 2GB card will hold over 500 pictures. That means you will have to change your battery twice before you run out of room on a regular 2GB SD before you will fill up the card!

Maybe I'm a cheapskate, but I never could think of a good reason to buy something for four times more money, simply because it has some feature I don't need.

Enjoy your new camera!
Take lots of pictures.
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Marty
http://flickr.com/photos/7735239@N02/sets/72157604030772272/detail/?page=5

Panasonic FZ7, FZ30, LX2

Marty, thanks for the explanation, I don't plan on using the video much (if at all) so it looks like the SD card will be just fine. Thanks again everyone else also.

Own the TZ5, L1

Hey, check the deals on Extreme III as the media reader does all SD cards, great for travel and includes life time warranty and.. the CD for recovery!

For about $20 I got the 4 gig.. the reader and CD plus warranty. This is the max for the L1 so I now have 2 $ gig SDHC, and a few 2's for just in case. Started shooting RAW so this can be a matter of concern later.... you will want to move to a SLR someday.
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Tom
Yorba Linda, California

Any difference in quality between the A-data, Transcend, and Sandisk SDHC cards? I've used only Sandisk memory cards to date. Thanks.

Bonnie RV said:

Any difference in quality between the A-data, Transcend, and Sandisk
SDHC cards? I've used only Sandisk memory cards to date. Thanks.

Click to expand...

Bonnie... that's a tough question to answer.

Memory Cards work a lot like computer RAM chips. If they work, then they are fine. If they don't work, then it's due to some quality problem when they were made. And when you buy a card, and it works fine, you are gung ho about that brand. But someone else might have bought the same card and it was DOA.

And the only way you can tell if a particular card or maker has a quality problem iis to look customer ratings on the various selling sites.

As an example, on another thread someone praised the A-data card they got from Newegg. And someone here mentioned it too. Well, I went to Newegg and looked up the customer ratings for that card and discovered that According to the customer reviews on Newegg, this brand seems to have quality problems:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16820211245&SortField=3&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&SelectedRating=-1&PurchaseMark=&VideoOnlyMark=False&Page=

It seems the card will work fine, or not work at all. Something like 11 of the 112 customer reviewers said thair cards were DOA! Personally, I would be very leery of a product with that high a failure rate when brand new.

But remember, 101 of those 112 people think the card is great. So you just have to take that information in, and decide for yourself. Naturally, the larger the number to ratings, the more accurate the results will be. And it is the percentage of problems that tends to be more important than the number. 11 problems out of 112 is a lot more significant than 200 problems out of 18,000.

If you go to Amazon.com and look at the customer ratings for the same card, then you find 7 reviews. 6 saying the card is great, and 1 saying it just won't work with their Canon camera.

http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B0010LPBRK/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?%5Fencoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

This information actually tends to support the Newegg rating if you look at the percentages. 11 DOAs out of 112 equals a 10% failure rate. 1 out of 7 at Amazon equals a 14% failure rate, but you must remember it is a very small sample.

I suppose having this information is better than not having it, but in both cases the overwelming majority of the customers who bought that card were thrilled with it.

And somewhere there must be someone who bought a Yugo and thought it was a great car.... and even BMW probably builds a lemon every once in a while.
--
Marty
http://flickr.com/photos/7735239@N02/sets/72157604030772272/detail/?page=5

Panasonic FZ7, FZ30, LX2