[tomtom]

OK, Shiny new D5000 winging its way to me (hopefully..) and I need to get an SD card for it..
its confusing!!
Do I really need a class 6 mega 20mb/s job or would a normal (cheaper) one do?

Does it depend more on whether or not I'm shooting loads of video/action pics etc..?

Reviews of cards (for camera's) online are confusing some say lower class ones are fine, others say not... any experience out there? 

[Johnny Brown]

I'd be inclined to recommend a 'name' brand just on reliability, but the odds of failure are still small. Speed will not really be relevant for idle snapping without an 8fps motordrive, video maybe, I'm not sure. Size depends on what you plan to do. 2 or 4Gb are fine of you plan to download regularly, bigger maybe better if not. For a trip, I'd go for a few 4Gb rather than one mahoosive one - eggs basket etc.

[Jim]

sandisk are the best IMHO, I've had a kingston fail on me but they have lifetime warrenties. Currently using a 2GB patriot in my D50, fastest card I could get, been reliable so far. I would recomend getting a 4gig card as the file sizes are bound to be bigger than my D50

this might be of interest
http://photo.net/filters-bags-tripods-accessories-forum/00Obe9

[tomtom]

Cheers Jim & Johnny,
I went for this in the end:

Not the fastest but not the slowest..
Someone on Amazon had used this with D80 and said it was fine/great..  £16 inc P&P...

[Jim]

I love how cheap memory cards are these days. I remember getting a 128mb card for my 1st digital camera for £70 

[tomtom]

Cheers Jim & Johnny,
I went for this in the end:

Not the fastest but not the slowest..
Someone on Amazon had used this with D80 and said it was fine/great..  £16 inc P&P...

Just to follow on - used this for a few days and no problems whatsoever. No slowdowns in recording HD video or rapid shot pictures... Works very well indeed.

[SA Chris]

Nice meaty size for the price, plus I love one click ordering!

[Paul B]

as I'll be taking the plunge on a 550d I'm going to need a Class 6 SD card, any opinions on how much size I'm going to need to record a reasonable amount of footage and what I might expect to pay? They certainly aren't cheap!

[Jim]

Sd cards are cheap as chips?
16gb class 6 is around £30

[Paul B]

Sd cards are cheap as chips?
16gb class 6 is around £30

I take it SDHC Video Cards, Class 4, are no good?

[Jim]

I've no idea, you said you needed a class 6.
What is the difference between a normal sdhc and a sdhc video card?

[Paul B]

I've no idea, you said you needed a class 6.
What is the difference between a normal sdhc and a sdhc video card?

I'd assumed I did, the latter was the quesiton I asked you...

[north_country_boy]

I've no idea, you said you needed a class 6.
What is the difference between a normal sdhc and a sdhc video card?

I'd assumed I did, the latter was the quesiton I asked you...

Pretty certain this is correct. Its certainly what most of the forums said when I bought them for my 500D. I have two (8GB) of these http://www.mymemory.co.uk/SDHC/Integral/Integral-Ultima-Pro-SD-HC-Card---Class-6 and one of these (8GB) http://www.mymemory.co.uk/SDHC/SanDisk/Sandisk-Extreme-III-SD-Card-%28SDHC%29-30MB_s---Class-6 and can honestly say there is no noticeable difference in performance etc

[tomtom]

I checked the reviews (online) and specs of the cards - as despite the class rating the data transfer rates still varied alot between cards. The one I bought (big piv posted above somewhere) is only class 4, but the transer rate specs were really good and online bods said it worked fine with video, rapid shooting etc.... so I'm not convinced that the 'class' rating is as useful as some of the other stats. I'm sure I saw some 'generic' cheaper class 6 cards that had lower transfer speeds..
Anyway...
Its been fine in my D5000 - records the 720p video fine and I've had no problems whatsoever. It also means it uploads to the PC fast too (mine has an SD slot).

[Tris]

as I'll be taking the plunge on a 550d I'm going to need a Class 6 SD card, any opinions on how much size I'm going to need to record a reasonable amount of footage and what I might expect to pay? They certainly aren't cheap!

On my HD camcorder (Full HD 1920 x 1080 highest quality setting with Dolby 5.1 audio) I get about 1h 45mins of footage on an 8gb card. I paid a tenner inc postage for it (Sandisk Class 6).

[dontfollowme]

Where from Tris?

[Tris]

Oops slight error on my part, just checked and it is a Kingston card not Sandisk. Still a reputable brand though...

I got it through work from one of our main suppliers but Google says you can get them for £12:

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=kingston+class+6+sdhc+8gb&cid=7020112926246989875&ei=ntrOS_36KYO0wwXX9b2ABA&sa=title&ved=0CA0Q8wIwATgA#scoring=p

[Paul B]

I checked the reviews (online) and specs of the cards - as despite the class rating the data transfer rates still varied alot between cards. The one I bought (big piv posted above somewhere) is only class 4, but the transer rate specs were really good and online bods said it worked fine with video, rapid shooting etc.... so I'm not convinced that the 'class' rating is as useful as some of the other stats. I'm sure I saw some 'generic' cheaper class 6 cards that had lower transfer speeds..
Anyway...
Its been fine in my D5000 - records the 720p video fine and I've had no problems whatsoever. It also means it uploads to the PC fast too (mine has an SD slot).

I didn't get around to ordering one before the camera arrived. Good job as well as my Class 4 Kingston works fine with it, shot test footage without any trouble whatsoever