Railfan Technology > SDHC Card Advice requested.

I'd appreciate words of wisdom, counsel and advice concerning what manufacturer, speed and size of
SDHC card would be appropriate for a Pentax K-20D (14.6 megapixels.)

Is the speed of a 4 or 6 class card needed?

Which manufacturer(s) make(s) the most reliable card?

Which manufacturer(s) should be avoided?

Please suggest an honest merchant where a SDHC card may be purchased.

What size (in gigabytes) is common for railfan use?

Please suggest a maker and model number for a SD card reader.

I'm willing to give up speed, and pay a premium for reliability and durability.

Be Well,

Tim Colbert K3HX

I've been using several 2GB cards for years with no problems, I just bought a 4GB card but have not had time to see how it works. Go to http://www.pentaximaging.com/support/manuals-and-literature/ and click on 'Firmware' to get the most recent downloads that I understand is to help the camera deal with the SD cards... When I got the download for my K10D, I downloaded it to my Desktop, and then loaded it on a SD card. Put it in the camera and hold the 'Menu' button on the back when you turn it on... It should load it to the camera automatically.

Ok... After thoughts- I use Toshiba and have had good luck with them. I bought mine from Sam's Club, the 4GB card I bought last week was $12. (The first 1GB card I bought 3 1/2 years ago was $75). I have a port on the front of my computer that accepts the cards. If you don't have ports on your computer, use the cable that comes with the camera. I used that for years before I bought the desktop that has the ports for the cards. I still use the cable on road trips with my lap top. A suggestion I saw on these forums some years ago was to reformat the card everytime you insert the card in to the camera to remove any artifacts left from the previous crop of pictures. I've never had a problem following that suggestion.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/09 20:24 by mojaveflyer.

>
> Ok... After thoughts- I use Toshiba and have had
> good luck with them. I bought mine from Sam's
> Club, the 4GB card I bought last week was $12.
> (The first 1GB card I bought 3 1/2 years ago was
> $75).

I just bought a 8Gb CF card for $39. I have an old 8meg (not GB) card somewhere around here. It used to be a bargan to get memory at a buck a megabyte.

> A
> suggestion I saw on these forums some years ago
> was to reformat the card everytime you insert the
> card in to the camera to remove any artifacts left
> from the previous crop of pictures. I've never had
> a problem following that suggestion.

That's a great suggestion. Your computer might format differently than the camera. Reformatting take about the same time as "erase all."

Tim, I got a bad "microdrive" one time. It got shipped out of Asia. I was going to send it back but buy the time I paid the shipping and all other expenses, it wasn't worth it. It was some off brand. Since the memory in the SDHC card has no moving parts, most should be pretty stable as long as you don't overheat them. It the price was only a few bucks more, I'd stay with the better known brands.

Hope you had a great FD. I didn't do anything this year.

73 John

I generally go towards the Ultra II (Class 4) or Extreme III (Class 6) series cards made by Sandisk. I have yet to hear of anyone having an issue with Sandisk SD cards. I own 2 2GB Extreme III SDs that are two years old now and have never had an issue with them. They are very reliable and tested heavily by Sandisk. Speed is not an issue unless you are shooting continuous in RAW for tmore than a short burst, as even with a 14.6MP camera the Ultra IIs are unlikely to have much of an issue. The main reason to buy a faster card is to download quicker to your computer! The Extreme IIIs can download completely onto my newer laptop in seconds, even at a full 2GB. If it is really a concern, the Extreme III 30MB/s cards are the best out there right now speed-wise. The Sandisk cards, particularly the Extreme IIIs, are very durable, NEVER format the card in the computer, but copy pictures from it and format only with your camera. Formatting in your camera before use is the best practice. B&H and Adorama are my two preferred online merchants, Amazon is good too as long as you buy from Amazon.com and not the Amazon marketplace (look for sold by Amazon.com). I bought my older camera and the memory cards from B&H, and my newer camera from Adorama. If I had to give a bottom line suggestion, I would buy this from Adorama, http://www.adorama.com/IDSSD4GE33X.html, a pack of 3 4GB Sandisk Extreme III SDHCs, for $50 after rebate. If you want to shoot all RAW, you can go with the 8GBs as well, that is up to you, the rebates on the 8GBs are excellent right now so it is worth going there as well. I would not suggest the 16GBs at this point, the 8GBs seem to be better price-wise. Considering the K20D going rate on Adorama is $650, $50 on 12GBs of memory isn't unreasonable. Tough to think each of my 2GBs cost $45 just two years ago!

K3HX Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'd appreciate words of wisdom, counsel and advice
> concerning what manufacturer, speed and size of
> SDHC card would be appropriate for a Pentax K-20D
> (14.6 megapixels.)

Make sure the camera is HC compatible. It should be with that camera. Even if the camera cannot fully use the higher speed of a 6 card the reader probably can. The card may last longer than the body if you upgrade the camera later so the higher speed may be useful in the long run.
>
> Is the speed of a 4 or 6 class card needed?
See above. If not on the input, probably on the output. Downloading a 6G or 8G card does take some time.
>
> Which manufacturer(s) make(s) the most reliable
> card?
Sandisk and Lexar are two brands I have had good luck with in SDHC and CF formats.
>
> Which manufacturer(s) should be avoided?
>
> Please suggest an honest merchant where a SDHC
> card may be purchased.
Costco, Wal-Mart. Your favorite merchant. You can mail order from B&H or Calumet but you might find a better price locally. Commonly, there is a big rebate way between the two manufacturers mentioned very close to Christmas. Yes, you do actually get the bucks back.
>
> What size (in gigabytes) is common for railfan
> use?
I like the 4G size because I can download an entire card and burn it to a DVD-R disk for archiving. If you are going to download individual files or groups instead of the entire card something larger may mean you do not change cards as often. I think the 4G works best for me, others will differ.
>
> Please suggest a maker and model number for a SD
> card reader.
I have a couple from Sandisk which came free with the card and one I bought which both work exceptionally well. The model numbers would probably be expired by now. Check out Best Buy to see what they have to offer. The reader MUST BE SDHC compatible. I doubt there are any new ones out there which are not but check before buying.
>
> I'm willing to give up speed, and pay a premium
> for reliability and durability.
Make sure you reformat the car in the camera before it's first use. If you commonly move files off the card but do not clear it entirely you need to plan on taking all the files off now and then to reformat the card. Unless you do that regularly the card gets gummed up with small chunks of space from files removed just like your computer HD. Reformatting cleans all that stuff off.

Good luck.
>
> Be Well,
>
> Tim Colbert K3HX

FYI, I just picked up 3 - 8gb Sandisk Extreme III for $55 each at B&H.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/524532-REG/SanDisk_SDSDRX3_8192R_8GB_Extreme_III_Secure.html

Then you send in for a rebate and get $90 back in a Visa prepaid card.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/FrameWork/Rebates_Promos/062709_SANDISK_70462.pdf

Thanks to all for taking the time to offer your good advice.

Be Well,

Tim Colbert K3HX



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/09 09:01 by K3HX.

Ritz Camera has the SanDisk III 8 gig SD cards a couple dolars cheaper than B&H (including rebate).

Ed