Lets talk about memory cards

[davetucker]

Hi all
My ponder is simply this, does the choice of memory card have an impact of the quality of the photo. I have recently puchased "scan disc ultra 3" and up to now have used "Scan disc ultra 2" memory cards, will I notice a difference in performance/quality relative to the price hike???
Dave

[Little Firewall]

I have used very cheap memory cards and have not noticed any difference in the quality even after a lot of use.

[Paul mabbott]

I shouldn't think it would impact on picture quality - rather how reliable the saving-recovery processes are? I think that the problem most people have found with recordable media is that sometimes that just don't work ... but when they do, there is no quality problem!

Originally Posted by davetucker

Hi all
My ponder is simply this, does the choice of memory card have an impact of the quality of the photo. I have recently puchased "scan disc ultra 3" and up to now have used "Scan disc ultra 2" memory cards, will I notice a difference in performance/quality relative to the price hike???
Dave

[glsammy]

I suppose it really depends on the write speed of the camera and the cameras buffer size. On my 20D, using raw images, the faster the card the faster it will save the data and the sooner I can shoot again. The difference is noticeable, between a 133X and a 52X.
Using JPEG, I can't tell any difference at all. The size of the file is small enough to be easily covered by the camera buffer, so no noticeable write performance difference. I've never bothered about at the other end, i.e. copying the data onto the computer, there may be some difference, but not enough for me to be bothered about.

[Ollie]

I have several different brand cards that I use including a Scan disc ultra 2. To be honest I can't see any difference between the write speeds of the dearer Scan disc ultra 2 or the download speeds to the computer with the cheaper versions. There is certainly no difference in image quality from any of my cards. the cheaper versions seem as reliable as the dearer ones, so far at least.
Roger

[goosey]

Originally Posted by davetucker

Hi all
My ponder is simply this, does the choice of memory card have an impact of the quality of the photo. I have recently puchased "scan disc ultra 3" and up to now have used "Scan disc ultra 2" memory cards, will I notice a difference in performance/quality relative to the price hike???
Dave

An extra question: - Does the quality of the cards decrease with time? Like with a video tape if you keep rewinding and re-using the first part, but the end of the tape gets less use.
I tend not to fill the cards with images before I delete everything and start again. Does this do damage like recharging batteries if they are not completely empty?

[RogerTheCat]

Originally Posted by goosey

An extra question: - Does the quality of the cards decrease with time? Like with a video tape if you keep rewinding and re-using the first part, but the end of the tape gets less use.
I tend not to fill the cards with images before I delete everything and start again. Does this do damage like recharging batteries if they are not completely empty?

I am no expert but I do not think the quality of the image will be effected by the age of the card. However the card is a componant that will wear like every other componant. Certain sectors on the card may become defective so reducing its capacity as can happen with hard drives and floppy disks. Also with time the card may just wear out or just give up the ghost. I have a Sony compact that I use for work and the card on that just stopped working one day.

The one thing I do every few months with my cards is reformat them. The camera a Nikon D100 does this but do not ask me how

[Pete W]

It really is about write speed. if you have a 3fps camera then a Ultra II is more than capable. If however you have a 10fps camera then you may find a delay in write and get camera busy with a Ultra II and require an Ultra III or Extreme IV card to get the faster write speed.
There are no moving parts in a CF card so less likely to get bad sectors etc like a hard drive....

It is an individual preference on what card to use which is usually influenced by price and recommendation...

[Roy C]

Originally Posted by goosey

An extra question: - Does the quality of the cards decrease with time? Like with a video tape if you keep rewinding and re-using the first part, but the end of the tape gets less use.

This is the beauty of digital, it is just a load of 0's and 1's at the end of the day and if your data is on the card there cannot be any decrease in quality. The only thing that effects a card is write speed and reliability.

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by goosey

An extra question: - Does the quality of the cards decrease with time? Like with a video tape if you keep rewinding and re-using the first part, but the end of the tape gets less use.
I tend not to fill the cards with images before I delete everything and start again. Does this do damage like recharging batteries if they are not completely empty?

I hope not because I empty mine every day! Good question, though - does a part of the card become unusable? Does it matter because the camera won't write to the unusable part - you'll just get fewer pics to the card? Worrying when you start asking all these questions!