Hardware Analysis - Need an SD card

Re: Need an SD card

Mothow — 2008-01-04T18:39:56-05:00

Cool john

Re: Need an SD card

john albrich — 2008-01-04T18:31:56-05:00

I just found a program that can do some interesting comparison testing between flash drives.
http://www.flashmemorytoolkit.com/

The standard version is free for personal use. No time limit. But to use advanced features you have to buy a serial number. With the free version you can do some basic reliability and limited performance testing, and the erase, recovery, and backup features also look accessible.

You will be nagged for the serial number each time you start the program if you use the free version.

All I've done so far is install it and run some read scans, and "low-level benchmark" (READ-only) and "File Benchmarks" (read AND write) so can't say much else about this program.

But, I did learn some very useful info about my various flash drives. For example, on one 2GB Verbatim USB2.0 stick I found out that
1) The "low-level" READ performance varied from "83X" to "107X".
2) The "File-level" WRITE performance ranged from 3MB/sec (1MB size files) to 5MB/sec (5MB size files)
3) The "File-level" READ performance ranged from 9MB/sec to 14MB/sec for the same size files.

Basic functionality claimed:

Info
The Info function shows various interesting information such as detailed device capacity, file system, operating system and USB configuration.

Error Scan
A fast but reliable function to check the integrity of the device by performing a read or write surface scan.

Eraser
The memory device can be completely erased (wiped) or it can be erased quickly.

File Recovery
Quickly and effectively recover files which were lost after a format, hardware failure or an accidental deletion. Many file types are supported.

Backup/restore
In only a few minutes you can make a full backup of your memory device.

Low-level benchmark
Measure the read and write performance.

File benchmark
Measure how long it will take to read or write files of various lengths to the device.

Re: Need an SD card

john albrich — 2007-12-29T05:45:57-05:00

Adam Kolak said:

...I doubt the ratings of the speeds acctually are accurate and comparable to other brands ratings. I'm willing to say those numbers don't mean a whole lot....

I think Adam is right on the speed ratings. A 256MB 60X card from one vendor was almost exactly as fast (aka slow) as a 256MB 32X card I got from another vendor on my camera. (I made sure the capacities were identical in the test because through-put on most FLASH cards depends greatly on capacity)

I'm sure the camera processor and architecture have something to do with it, but I tried the cards in 2 different half-way decent cams: a Vivitar and Canon, and I doubt the SD memory was 'faster' than the camera (which would mask SD card speed differences)

Re: Need an SD card

Mothow — 2007-12-29T04:18:09-05:00

Thanks Adam

Re: Need an SD card

Adam Kolak — 2007-12-29T04:05:36-05:00

A faster SD card will be able to transfer data from the computer to the camera. It will also enable the camera to write to it a bit faster.

My 128MB card holds about 80 JPEGS at 3.2 megapixels. The higher the resolution (megapixels) of your camera the more space the pictures take up. My mom's camera is 7 megapixels and a 2GB SD card is more than enough for it, it can hold around 500 or so pictures.

Re: Need an SD card

Mothow — 2007-12-29T03:59:39-05:00

Cool thanks Adam.But when you say fast you mean it will load or unload pic's and stuff like that?Also 2GB how many Pic's can that hold.What about a movie if your cam has a video option.I have one of those mini cam corders/digitalcam/mp3player's dohickies

Re: Need an SD card

Adam Kolak — 2007-12-29T03:27:13-05:00

You can format it from the camera or from your PC (using a memory card reader). There should be no reason to format it before you use it though as they usually come pre-formatted to FAT32. Right Click the drive in my computer and click format just as you would with a hard drive or floppy or basically any drive connected to your Windows PC. Check your camera's manual for how to do it on the camera, but on the three Canon's in my house its in the menu under format.

As for the speeds, any good quality brand name card will give you good performance. I doubt the ratings of the speeds acctually are accurate and comparable to other brands ratings. I'm willing to say those numbers don't mean a whole lot. That OCZ card should be fast enough. My bro did the mistake of buying a cheap RiTek SD card for his digital camera and it is noticeably slow. My Canon has a SanDisk CF card which is pretty fast and the SanDisk 2GB SD card that I got for my mom's Canon is pretty good too.

Need an SD card

Mothow — 2007-12-29T01:55:06-05:00

Anyone have any suggestions for a good SD card for my Digital camera?And whats the biggest most cams can use?I heard i might have to format the card how do i do this?Also whats up with the speeds? I see 150X and 60x etc.

How about this one i just bought it
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227155