Good Memory card (size & brand)?

[zarif]

What will be a good memory card for EOS camera mainly for still photos (no videos). Size & brand both.. I can find starting from $8 for 8GB to $50 for $16 GB etc with various brands/types?

Does it really makes a difference in photo quality or camera performance? Or just anyone is fine?

Thanks,

[Bazsl]

Which EOS camera? Some use SD cards, some use compact flash and some use both. What do you shoot? If you shoot action and take strings of shots at five frames per second or more the speed of the card will make a difference in how fast images can be written from the buffer to the card to free up space in the buffer for more images. I have had good luck with SanDisk cards.

[David]

I also recommend SanDisk, never had one fail. As far of size I see no advantage in going with one large card over a few smaller ones if you are shooting stills, if you end up having a card failure you will lose all of you images if they are all on one big card.

[BrickR]

SD cards: I have 3 Transcend, 3 Sandisk (2 are micro), and 1 PNY (purchased in summer 2009, oldest of my cards) and none have failed me.

I try to pick up a Sandisk whenever they are on a really great sale since they are usually more expensive and I don't HAVE to have more right now. -(got a 16gb for >$12 total a couple of weeks ago)

Earlier this year I started writing the month and year I got the card on them so that for paid stuff I only use the newest cards

[Scatterbrained]

Most memory cards will be fairly reliable.  A lot of the failures I've seen are people who just constantly delete the photos and reshoot without reformatting the card.    Personally I run Sandisk CF cards and Transcend SD cards.  I've not had any issues with any of my cards.   The rated write speed can be an issue if you're shooting video or shooting raw bursts with a fast camera like a 7D or 1D.         

  One thing I have seen is people having some issue with the latest batch of Transcend 32Gb 400x CF cards where the card doesn't want to transfer video files to the computer.   Beyond that issues really are pretty rare and random.  Get a card from a quality company like Sandisk or Transcend, and remember to reformat it in camera before each use and you'll be fine.  

[jfo]

I also hear that Sandisk is the "reputable" brand, but I have not had any problems or failures at all using:

• Kingston SDHC's (4gb's and a 32gb)... used these with my T2i for over a year
• HP SDHC (32gb)... was on sale
• Transcend 32gb CF's... felt comfortable buying these after seeing a medium-sized video production team use these almost exclusively.
• Sandisk (Ultra) 64gb SDXC... pretty speedy
• Sony 32gb SDHC... relatively new purchase, a bit slow

[cicopo]

I also have an assortment of cards, about 1 TB worth but most of my  SDHC's  are  class 6 & my CF cards are all Sandisk but I just sold my 7D & included the Lexar Pro 400 X card with it. I've never had a problem with any of the cards but I do notice a speed difference between the brands of SDHC's (all the same class 6 rating) while shooting long bursts. I use pro bodies that write to 2 cards & at times the SDHC card slowed things down to the point I removed it & hoped the CF didn't fail. 

With costs going down, & speeds going up I recommend 8 or 16 Gb class 10 (or better) & that you buy from a reputable dealer, NOT Ebay. There are a lot of reports of fake cards being sold, & Ebay is where a lot come through. Just be sure to have at leat 1 spare card & that you transfer regularly & BACK UP before erasing the card. NEVER trust your photos to 1 hard drive. You must back them up or some time in the future you'll loose them, either to a hard drive failure or computer theft etc.  

[p4pictures]

Depends on your camera, faster more expensive cards can extend the effective buffer size if you shoot a lot of images in a continuous sequence. Faster cards also clear the buffer faster so even if you fill the buffer then you can get back to shooting faster. For SD cards it's best to aim at class 6 or higher specification cards, not all the cameras are capable of getting the benefit from UHS-1 cards.

My own personal preference is for Sandisk cards - I've had many over the years, and even after leaving them in a shirt pocket that then get's put through the laundry they still work fine.

Brian

[Nazareth]

for my 1DX I'm finding that I really like the lexar 1000 UDMA 7 32 mb cards- very fast, quick buffer renew, and holds a ton of JPG's- Got a double pack which saved me a little money- if you buiy them around Christmas or right after, you might get a sale on them in additions- Note- I'm aqlso using htese cards on my 7d- I just had to update the 7D firmware to get the cards to run at full speed- but it was no big deal really- just a download, follow instructions carefully making sure you have a GOOD battery with full charge so that hte process doesn't stop midway through the update- but as with any kind of flash upgrade, do so at your own risk- I've doen a couple and have no problems

[LJG]

Another Sandisk user here. I have never had one fail yet.