Memory Stick vs Memory Stick PRO Speeds

I've done some searching in the forums and elsewhere and haven't been able to come up with a difinitive answer, so I'll ask here.

The theoretical transfer rates of a Pro stick are much higher of course, but does it make any difference in the usability of the camera?

For example, if I'm taking pictures, and I want to review the shot I just took it takes a while for it to get the full detailed image up to a point where I can delete it. Or if I'm flipping through a bunch to decide to keep or not, it's pretty slow with a normal memory stick.

Does this improve with a Pro? Or is the camera's access times the limit of this, not the memory stick itself?

I understand other benefits (like faster xfer into the PC and much bigger sticks), but those are secondary to me. If the camera operates much faster with a Pro memory stick, that's worth the 50% premium for me. If not, then at this point (until the higher sizes come down), $87CDN for a 256MB Lexar is a good price point for me (vs $125 for the 256MB Pro).

t.i.

The Pro stick's only advantage at this point with current cameras is capacity. You would experience with current cameras only a 20-25% improvement in speed. But for practical purposes, that would not really amount to much in any operation that might matter.

Future cameras will take more advantage of the speed of the Pro. But not yet.

temporalillusion said:

Does this improve with a Pro? Or is the camera's access times the
limit of this, not the memory stick itself?

I understand other benefits (like faster xfer into the PC and much
bigger sticks), but those are secondary to me. If the camera
operates much faster with a Pro memory stick, that's worth the 50%
premium for me. If not, then at this point (until the higher sizes
come down), $87CDN for a 256MB Lexar is a good price point for me
(vs $125 for the 256MB Pro).

Click to expand...

--

Ulysses

Thanks for taking the time Ulysses, greatly appreciated. These are great forums, full of good information and people.

I'll go ahead and get the non-pro then and save myself some $$. I don't mind switching them.

Now if only I could find inexpensive batteries in Canada! I think I'm going to order a few off eBay and ship them to some family in the U.S. and pick them up when I go down.

I just got a V1 btw.. very nice camera, very happy with it so far. Haven't decided if I'm going to sell my SLR (Minolta XTSi) yet, but so far I'm happy with the quality of my shots.

Ulysses said:

t.i.

The Pro stick's only advantage at this point with current cameras
is capacity. You would experience with current cameras only a
20-25% improvement in speed. But for practical purposes, that would
not really amount to much in any operation that might matter.

Future cameras will take more advantage of the speed of the Pro.
But not yet.

Ulysses

Click to expand...

i did a quick comparison using my F717:

i just used the "burst 3" mode, and compared from the time the shutter button is pressed, to the time the LCD comes live again = m/s pro is approx. 16% faster. but if you are formating the 2 sticks, the pro's so much faster to format, it's amazing.

hope this helps.

AK

Can you explain this more? What do you mean by future cameras will take more advantage of the speed? Do you think that current MS Pro controllers and devices do not fully utilize the MS Pro's theoretical max of 15Mb/s? As for 20-25% improvement, that seems like a considerable speed boost to me.

Ulysses said:

t.i.

The Pro stick's only advantage at this point with current cameras
is capacity. You would experience with current cameras only a
20-25% improvement in speed. But for practical purposes, that would
not really amount to much in any operation that might matter.

Future cameras will take more advantage of the speed of the Pro.
But not yet.

Click to expand...

I have never timed the speed difference of the 32mb MS that came with the camera and the 256mb MS Pro I bought. The Pro seems faster, but whether it is worth the difference in price is up to you.

I guess if you lack patience, then the extra money may be acceptable. The main reason I bought the Pro was because I wanted the larger storage on one chip (256mp) which I got for under a hundred dollars. The other larger capacity MS Pro cards I feel are too expensive now. I will probably buy one or two 128mb MS not the dual.

temporalillusion said:

I've done some searching in the forums and elsewhere and haven't
been able to come up with a difinitive answer, so I'll ask here.

The theoretical transfer rates of a Pro stick are much higher of
course, but does it make any difference in the usability of the
camera?

For example, if I'm taking pictures, and I want to review the shot
I just took it takes a while for it to get the full detailed image
up to a point where I can delete it. Or if I'm flipping through a
bunch to decide to keep or not, it's pretty slow with a normal
memory stick.

Does this improve with a Pro? Or is the camera's access times the
limit of this, not the memory stick itself?

I understand other benefits (like faster xfer into the PC and much
bigger sticks), but those are secondary to me. If the camera
operates much faster with a Pro memory stick, that's worth the 50%
premium for me. If not, then at this point (until the higher sizes
come down), $87CDN for a 256MB Lexar is a good price point for me
(vs $125 for the 256MB Pro).

Click to expand...

--
C700uz, E100rs, V1, i950
http://www.pbase.com/gene
Life is just a stage and we all have enough pictures to proof it!

Tai Nguyen said:

Can you explain this more? What do you mean by future cameras will
take more advantage of the speed? Do you think that current MS Pro
controllers and devices do not fully utilize the MS Pro's
theoretical max of 15Mb/s?

Click to expand...

The problem is the cameras themselves. They are not designed to take advantage of the faster speeds. The current increase in speed is due solely to the faster Pro architecture. But the current cameras are the bottlenecks.

Tai Nguyen said:

As for 20-25% improvement, that seems
like a considerable speed boost to me.

Click to expand...

That's the ballpark figure, as measured during for example a Burst 3 process. During regular single shot mode, you really wouldn't notice any difference. It's also an upper figure. You're not going to see any faster than a 20-25% increase.

--

Ulysses

This question recently came up on rec.photo.digital and piqued my interest to actually do timings with an F717 camera.

I did timings with a stopwatch from start to end of write with both Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro cards using the write indicator light as a trigger. The cards are both Sony brand. I repeated each operation several times (seen in parens below) and averaged the results.

JPEG full resolution "Fine" mode: MS Pro - 1.9 secs, MS - 3.2 secs (20x)
TIFF (JPEG setting unchanged): MS Pro - 39.9 secs, MS - 47.1 secs (3x)
Format: MS Pro - 2.1 secs, MS 20.25 secs (2x)

By these measurements, Memory Stick Pro cards prove to be

• 40.6% faster on JPEG Fine write time, single shot mode
• 15.3% faster on TIFF write time
• 89.6% faster on Format time

than Memory Stick cards on identical operations performed in this camera

Percentage differences are calculated by the formula:
percent == 1 - (MS Pro time / MS time)

I find the incremental performance boost of the Memory Stick Pro cards along with the convenience of the added capacity satisfying enough that I have been selling off some of my 128MB Memory Sticks and have purchased a 256M and now 1G Memory Stick PRO cards. Having space for 450+ photos on one card the size of a stick of chewing gum is pretty amazing!

Godfrey

Hm, that's interesting. 40% write time is actually pretty significant..

If I could get them locally at a reasonable price I would just buy both and play with them and then return the one I didn't want, but I haven't been able to find it yet.

Thanks (to everyone) for the additional input. Either way I go, I'm glad I have the camera I do

Godfrey said:

By these measurements, Memory Stick Pro cards prove to be

• 40.6% faster on JPEG Fine write time, single shot mode
• 15.3% faster on TIFF write time
• 89.6% faster on Format time

than Memory Stick cards on identical operations performed in this
camera

Click to expand...

I appreciate every millisecond that the MS-Pro gives me in faster shot to shot, and shot to review times!

Faster transfer and format times, along with greater capacity are just extra bonuses.
R2