SD card formatter?

[pally01]

Thought I'd see what y'all have to say about this one:

I just bought a new camera that takes SDHC memory cards. While reading about the camera on a forum somewhere, someone suggested that the memory card be formatted with a program available from the SD Association (!?) SD Formatter 3.0 for SD/SDHC/SDXC - SD Association. The reasoning is that this particular program will format the card properly so that it attains the speeds promised by the card manufacturer, and thusly one's camera will be able to process shots quicker.

Has anyone got any thoughts on this? Is there any merit to any of this?

[EzyStvy]

If your camera takes an hour and a half inbetween shots - replace the batteries

I wonder if your camera already has this software installed on it?!?!?

[pally01]

Haha! If my camera took an hour and a half, I'd give it all up and stick with pc's.

As with everything else it seems, fast is never fast enough for many folks. My particular camera is a Fuji HS-10 and I bought a Lexar card good for 15mb/s sustained write speed. I've only just picked this gear up, but it takes appx 3 1/2 or 4 seconds to process and store a raw+jpeg image. To me, it seems quick enough and I know I can tighten that up with some setting-tinkering.

I'm really just wondering about the validity of the program/theory I linked to. I thought it interesting and wondered if any camera buffs had any insights.

[EzyStvy]

but it takes appx 3 1/2 or 4 seconds to process and store a raw+jpeg image

Is that with using the flash and maybe the time is actually the flash recharge cycle time?

Its never crossed my mind that there is even software like the one you linked to... Its free so give it a test drive and report back..

[pally01]

Nope. No flash involved. Haven't even used the flash yet actually.

I will indeed mess around with the memory card and see if I can detect any difference between having it formatted with the camera or the program I linked to. Everything is so new to me that I haven't a clue about typical speeds yet.

[Statica]

3.5-4 seconds sounds awfully slow, and does not sound right at all! Are you sure you have it set on burst or continuous shooting mode and not on single shot mode? For cameras with these capabilities, there is a memory cache built into the camera that will allow for multiple shots to be taken and then written when the cache is exhausted. For example, the Fuji has a burst mode of 7 frames at 10fps (full resolution).
The Lexar card isn't the fastest out there .. but it should be adequate at 15mb/s. If you find yourself requiring faster SD, sandisk has 30mb/s cards. Also to be noted that 15mb/s is ONLY on reads Lexar® Platinum II Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC

The other thing to note when buying SD is that never get caught up in Speed Ratings but you should be looking at the SD class. Speed rating is the maximum available speed .. best case scenario number. The SD Speed class would tell you the worst case scenario number. So a Class 6 SD card would do 6mb/s as the minimum sustained rate. Of course, the speed class is more useful when using the SD for video.

I've never used a 3rd party software to format my cards .. I always let my cameras format them .. I trust them to format at the correct filesystem, cluster size and directory allocation .. more than a foreign OS.

[pally01]

Hey Statica.
The camera isn't on burst mode. I click it and it takes one pic. I know it has the capabilities you describe, but I haven't really messed around with it yet.

I forget the class of the Lexar card I have, but I thought it was class 10. I'll double-check that when I get a sec.

I formatted my card with the camera too. I haven't tried the prog I linked to.

I'll update this when I get more info on the gear I have.

[Statica]

If you want to take multiple shots.. Switch to burst and try taking a bunch of shots. That will give you an idea of whether it's your SD card that's the bottleneck.

Unless am mistaken, the 15mb/s Lexars are Class 6. I would stay away from the 133x Lexars and go w/ Sandisk's high end ones .. Abt 10mb/s faster.

[pally01]

Will-do, Statica.
Thanks for the heads-up on this stuff. I have already sourced a Sandisk card from Newegg.ca, but they are back ordered right now.

You definitely could be correct about the Lexar being a class 6. Still haven't had a look at it, but will tomorrow.

*Edit*: The Sandisk card I saw on Newegg.ca was a 16gb model and has now been deactivated. The 32gb model is still available: N82E16820171413. Is it a safe bet that a 32gb card will work in my camera if a 16gb Lexar does? The specs that I found for my camera only guarantee up to an 8gb will work, but if a 16gb does why not a 32gb?

[Statica]

Wow! Am certainly not being presumptuous about telling you how to spend your money but ~$7/GB is a lot! Prices of flash come down very rapidly.
I would certainly suggest shooting some pix on burst and seeing if you actually need a new card.
On a personal note .. I prefer shooting on multiple cards rather than buying one big high capacity card .. it seems very "eggs-in-one-basket"-y to me... just a personal pref.

Re: compatibility .. you've got PM! Actually two .. counting yesterday's suggestion on SD.

[Nuclear Krusader]

It's best to format the cards in the camera, rather than using the PC to do it andor delete files off them from the computer. There is a risk of data loss/corruption because the camera might handle the formatting differently. Just transfer your pictures to the computer using your card reader and then use the camera to format the cards.

Don't buy 32 GB cards. Best way is to have a few 4 or 8 GB cards and change them when they get full. Should you lose a card or should one fail, you have lost just a number of pictures and not all your shoot.

Try a different brand. I've been using a Patriot 8 GB class 6 and a SanDisk 4 GB class 4 and didn't find them to be slow at all.

I've used also Kingston and A-Data and they perform fine too. I shoot only in RAW, but when I initially got my DSLR I used to shoot in RAW + high quality JPEG with that class 4 SanDisk and didn't find it slow at all.

[David M]

The last time I was shopping for an SD card, I noticed that they had different speeds. The faster ones of course cost more money. This was a function of the card itself and not the device it was connected to. Of course the device also makes a difference.

[pally01]

I really appreciate the input, folks. Thanks. Statica I got your pm's. Thanks for those.

I'll spend some time with my camera and see if it works better on burst etc before looking for alternative memory cards. Thanks to all for your suggestions on size and brand etc. I really don't want to spend $200 on a card that's for sure, however those Sandisk cards seem to be getting tougher for me to find.

I'll report my findings a bit later today.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Kingston and Patriot are good. Another new arrival that's been good is A-Data. So no need to cry at SanDisks possible funeral.

[pally01]

Well I checked out my rig a little closer. The Lexar card I have is a class 6. I messed with some of the settings on the camera including burst mode and I was able to take pics appx 1 second apart (maybe 1 1/2 seconds. Somewhere in there). Definitely much quicker times than what I was getting originally, so it looks like the card I have now will suffice.

This particular camera has many, many more settings and features than the point-and-shoot I migrated from. It will take me quite some time to get some sort of a handle on what I'm doing with this new stuff.

Thanks everyone for your advice and input. This forum is the best