[dmcd11]

hello, I have just bought a new k-r and this is my first DSLR, so I have a lot to learn

can anyone advise me which is the best memory card to buy for this camera

which memory card do you use? why

I will be taking animal/nature shots; portrait; macro mainly

thank you

[loco]

I have two Transcend 8 GB cards (one a Class 6 and one a Class 10) and they have worked flawlessly since March. I chose Transcend because they are cheap. Lots of people like the Sandisk Extreme's and I'm sure they're good, but they are out of my price league.

[daacon]

Although I don't own a K-r , I will second the Transcend comment - while I do have some Sandisks I bought for the K5 my K20D was living (and still is) on a couple of 16gb Transcends Class 10 I think. I believe I bought them from Costco online and have never had an issue in over a years use (with two vacations in there litteraly thousands of shots).

[lammie200]

...I stepped up from a Class 4 card to a Class 10 card recently. No lag for shooting RAW on the Class 10. Painfully slow on the Class 4. I think that I got a PNY Class 10 32gb for around $80 USD. Seems to work great and I really like the capacity.

[einstrigger]

I've used Transcend, Adata, Patriot, and recently the SanDisk Extreme. Never had a problem with any. For the K-r, I'd go with the cheaper brands, but get a class 10 card. Save those pennies for another lens since this is your first DSLR.

[hcc]

The Sandisk Class 10 Extreme II are wll regarded by Pentaxians.

You do not want to loose your shots because of a incident. Consider to have two cards (one for backup) instead of a big one.

[Joe Nation]

I was asking myself the same question only yesterday. After some quick wikipedia research, Class 10 is definitely the way to go. The Class refers to a card's minimum read and write speed, you can get Class 2, 4, 6 or 10. Class 10 is equivalent to 66x CD-ROM speed. There are faster cards around but they're crazy money (I've seen 100x and 133x, but bear in mind that the Class is the minimum speed, 100x is the max, so it may be no faster in reality).

I would recommend you get two smaller cards (ie two 8Gb, rather than one 16Gb). It shouldn't cost too much more and you'll always have a spare in case of a problem. You could save a bit of cash by getting a Class 10 primary card and a Class 6 spare; or buy one now and save for another one later. Don't bother with Class 4 or 2, they're just too slow to cope with RAW, in-camera processing or burst shooting.

The other thing to consider is the card type. The Kr can take SD and SDHC out of the box, but you'll need to upgrade the firmware to use SDXC. SDHC should be fine though (they go up to 32Gb, you can go up to 1Tb with SDXC). Regular SD only goes up to 2Gb so a bit outmoded these days. And of course make sure you get a full-size card, not a MiniSD or MicroSD

For the record I have a 4Gb Class 4 Sandisk, it's ok but takes a couple of seconds to deal with RAW pictures. I'll definitely be getting a Class 10, as soon as I can find an 8Gb one (only seen 16Gb and 32Gb on the high street).

[Lord_Maxwell]

i have a 32G class 10 card, work fine

[sany]

Like most of the response above - no matter which brand you go for atleast try to settle anything above Class 6 or if you don't mind spending go for class 10. I am using a 16GB class 6 in my K-r, so for no issues.
I need to stress once again on the class of the SD card more, still there are many cards out there that does not even mention anything about the type of class on their label (many cards that will be usually part of a discount sale etc.,, you can right away reject those as these will most probably from unknown or smaller known brands and they are mostly class 4 or less.
Because of the absence of the type of class missing in some of them, many people have doubts as to where it will be printed and to help that here is a sample image where you see the type of class, this will totally be missing in those shady ones. There will be a number in a broken circle imprinted and sometimes it will read as 'class' followed by a number inside a broken circle, in the image below the number 6 signifies the type of card.

Originally there used to be only these 3 Classes and Class 6 used to be the premium out of the three, so Class 6 should do fine unless you have enough room in your budget for storage.

[RonHendriks1966]

Classe 10 card (when cheaper) or even better a UHS-I card. You will be using this card also in your next camera. Cards go (just as lenses) longer then cameras.

To add: any class 6 card will do all functions (including HD movie) off your K-r, they are just a little slower in writing.

[Hegemon]

I use and recommend the 16GB Lexar Professional 133x, Class 10. There isn't a noticeable difference between this card and the Sandisk Extreme.

[Swapnil]

I see a lot of praises for class 6, class 10 in this thread
I would like to share my own experience, I have two 8gb Sandisk Class 2 micro SD card that I use in my K-r with SD card adapter. It wont be fair comparing a Class 2 Sandisk with Class 2 Transcend :P because Sandisk Class 2 outperforms Transcends Class 6 in terms of write speed.

Class 2, Class 4, Class 6 and Class 10, all represents write speed i.e. Class 2 cards will have minimum write speed of 2mbps where as class 10 will have minimum write speed of 10mbps in fragmented state.

I performed a test on formatted Sandisk Class 2 SD card and found maximum write speed of 9mbps (its was formatted so no fragmentation, it was sequential writing)

I never found any issue while shooting vidoes too, I took 3-4 mins clips and file size where whooping 600-700megs. So looks like a minimum write speed of 4-5mbps will be good enough for HD recording.

I am very happy with my Sandisk Class 2 cards but that doesnt mean you should go buy a class 2 card I would recommend you to buy a Sandisk card with Class 4-6 (that will not burn your pocker) rather than going for Class 10 Transcend

Also, just format your card before you start your trip, its a best way to get max write speed

[Philoslothical]

Interesting that your mini SD card adapters work with the camera. I've seen several posts saying to forget about micro SD or mini SD, saying they don't get detected.

It'd be cool to compile a list of brands of mini/micro SD cards that will work with Pentax cameras.

[Swapnil]

Interesting that your mini SD card adapters work with the camera. I've seen several posts saying to forget about micro SD or mini SD, saying they don't get detected.

Sorry! did i say mini
I meant micro SD (Corrected in my post)
I have two 8gb Sandisk Micro Class 2 SD card. They work like charm

[sany]

I agree, I've noticed Sandisk to be better than others