[Tom S.]

Not quite. It is an upgraded model of the model used by a guy called Noah, to navigate a big wooden boat around eons ago. (lol)

Just bought a USB port card reader from a local electronics store. It works just fine on my ancient, wheezing P.C.

Great! Throw the reader in your camera bag when you go out shooting. You never know when you might want to down load a picture you shot to someones computer. I learned this the hard way...

[Bellakelpie]

Good thought. I will buy another. One for home and one for "the bag."

[stewart_photo]

(snip) Are there any differences (besides capacity) between the plethora of SD card brands on the market? (Is "Brand X" better than "Brand Y"?)

I agree most of the brand name cards are fairly decent. Since Panasonic/Matsushita, SanDisk and Toshiba co-developed the SD card standard, I can comfortably recommend shopping for one of these three brands.

I personally use Panasonic cards (2GB SD cards with the K10D and 4GB SDHC cards with the K20D), but haven't found them to be any better or worse then the cards made by the other two. However, the Panasonic cards are often less expensive than the SanDisk cards, while the Toshiba cards just don't seem to be so widely available.

stewart

[snostorm]

Transcend SDHC Class6 8GB cards are cheaper than chips on Amazon. I'm not sure if I'm missing something by not getting the Sandisk Ultra/Extreme. No complaints yet with the 2 x 8GB Transcends. Personally I dont't think our Pentaxes can really take advantage of the high speed cards

Hi keith,

Actually, My experience says that write speed can be important in at least one respect. I bought 2 ea Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 6 cards when I got my K20 in March. I didn't think much about the write speed, assuming that a Class 6 was apparently the fastest card spec that I could get.

I shoot birds, and since they don't take lighting into account when and where they choose to perch, challenges to correct exposure can be a bit of a problem, so I had gotten to rely on chimping quite frequently to make sure that I've got settings right. Since getting the K20, I've been a bit frustrated with the wait before I ccould see the review on the LCD after taking a multi-shot continuous burst. I figured that the large file sizes were the cause, and that long write times were just the price I had to pay when using such a high res sensor.

I recently used a older 133x Ridata 1GB SD card for a few shots, and noticed that after a 5 hot contiuous burst, there was a much shorter delay before I could see the display on the LCD. I tried the Transcend 4GB again, and had to wait about 4 sec while the orange "working" light flashed before I could chimp. Back to the 133x Ridata, and with the same 5 shot burst, it took somewhere between 1 and 2 seconds (measured "scientifically" with the "one-one thousand. . .two-one thousand" metodology). I did shoot the same scene with both, so variations in file size due to content was negligible.

I looked around on the net for some 4 GB Sandisk Extreme III, 20MB/sec and 30MB/sec cards from the same dealer and ordered one of each thinking that I could compare them with the same kind of test, however, when I got the cards, they were both the same (20MB/sec), so I can't comment on the faster spec cards, but the 20MB/sec cards are about as fast as the 133x Ridata, which is to be expected because 133x is roughly equal in spec to 20MB/sec. I've since found out that the Class 6 Transcend 4GB cards that I had been using were rated at about 7MB/sec, and this also seems to check out since they took over twice as long to write the test burst.

My conclusion is that the K20 is capable of taking advantage of at least 20MB/sec contiuous write speed. I remember reading a post somewhere by someone who tested the write speed of a K10, and it was over 16MB/sec.

I realize that with most users, this really doesn't matter, but I'm a happy camper with my new fast chimping K20. With the Sandisk Extreme IIIs, I can chimp about as fast as I had with either my DS or K10. This should make a bit of a difference in my shooting workflow for next spring.

Scott

[EvilPentaxUser]

well, this is my opinion, and just that. any brand will work to a point... I have brand name and have brought some really cheap memory cards $30 for 2 4BG PNY class 4 cards were just as fast to save as a sandisk II, reason being, both are a class 4 cards. if you can find a known brand of memory stick, look for the class rating on box, 4 is OK for a start, but 6 is as fast as you are going to get, though there is a X rating on some that are a class 6 that will save much faster than a cheaper class 6, but still, I would my self but a sandisk III if it is on sale at staples.com store, but to buy a PNY at walmart... they look similar, but the walmart card will be cheaper, but not as fast. but about as often, staples saless memory chips and external hard dives about every other week cheaper than walmart does here locally. mail order is a good idea, but check resellerratings.com on them, no rating or NA, look elsewhere. Ebay is notorious for fake cards, a card will be rated for 2 GB, when in fact, it is a compressed 1 GB. just look up memory stick videos from youtube for fake cards, the packaging is so close that you would not know the difference. only buy your memory cards form stores and online sellers that you trust. last, transcend sounds to be a good brand, cannot buy local, but amazon, adorama, bhvideo sell them and are usually a few dollars cheaper than a sandisk brand.

[losecontrol]

A pentax k20d with 14,6 mp burst pretty large image-files. What is the fastest SDcard on the market to write it down on?

Regards

Emil

I picked up a panasonic class 6 4gb SDHC card ( gold coloured) in Japan in september for a resonable price, Its the fastest card I have used so far with the K10D but then again I haven't tried the top of the range cards so I can't really compare to them. I wouldn't advise using budget class 4 SDHC cards if you are looking for high speed writing, I have a few and some take 30 seconds to write a 9 shot burst in DNG + jpg. I spent some time photographing a show jumping event last year and they were far to slow.

[DanLoc78]

The SanDisk range is very plentiful and very reasonably priced as you say. Thank you to all.

Bought a card reader today and used it to clear the 830 or so unwanted images out of my wife's Pentax M30 Optio.

also keep in mind that with 4GB cards and higher you will need a card reader that recognizes SDHC cards. I found this out when I got an 8GB card and couldn't use my card reader with it...had to buy a new one.

[Tom S.]

also keep in mind that with 4GB cards and higher you will need a card reader that recognizes SDHC cards. I found this out when I got an 8GB card and couldn't use my card reader with it...had to buy a new one.

HUGE MISTAKE!!!!!!

It should have went down this way:

You: "Dear, our funky old computer won't read these new cards, so I need to buy a new super-duper one plus a 24 inch flat screen."

Wife: "Oh... OK."

[Vylen]

A pentax k20d with 14,6 mp burst pretty large image-files. What is the fastest SDcard on the market to write it down on?

Regards

Emil

I think it would be the SanDisk Extreme III's - especially their "Speed Bump" line which supposedly provide 50% faster speeds than normal Extreme III's... so you'd get a minimum of 20-30mb/s supposedly...