Fuji Finepix S8000fd - Which memory card?

[leorest]

Just bought a Fuji Finepix S8000fd. First impressions are... Well impressed!
Anyone know what the pros/cons are of the different memory card types supported? or do I just go for whichever is the cheapest?
Of particular interest would be which type saves images quickest.

fuji said:

Storage media
Internal memory (approx. 58MB) /xD-Picture Card ™ (16MB - 2 GB ). / SD memory card /SDHC memory card

http://www.fujifilm.co.uk/consumer/digital/digital-cameras/d-slr-long-zoom/finepix-s8000

[carlymart]

i have one of these and use a standard 2gb sd card and get around 500 pix in 8mp fine mode
xd cards are more costly i picked up a 2gb card for well under £10 online

[leorest]

carlymart said:

i have one of these and use a standard 2gb sd card and get around 500 pix in 8mp fine mode
xd cards are more costly i picked up a 2gb card for well under £10 online

Thanks.
I currently have a 1Gb SD card. Before I buy a larger card I just wondered which types give better performance if any?

[AlfaFoxtrot]

The card should specify a read/write speed - higher is better!

The Sandisk Ultimate III is one of the fastest cards you can get without paying through the nose, I just bought a 4GB one with an included USB reader widget for 24.99 of play.com. I've got a DSLR, which benefits from the higher speeds more than point and shoots, so you could go for a slight cheaper one with no issues.

[leorest]

AlfaFoxtrot said:

The card should specify a read/write speed - higher is better!
The Sandisk Ultimate III is one of the fastest cards you can get without paying through the nose, I just bought a 4GB one with an included USB reader widget for 24.99 of play.com. I've got a DSLR, which benefits from the higher speeds more than point and shoots, so you could go for a slight cheaper one with no issues.

Thanks for that.
I appreciate the more cubic inches philosophy but I was really trying to find out what the difference is between these card types "xD-Picture Card ™ (16MB - 2 GB ). / SD memory card /SDHC memory card" as in the manual it seems to recommend the xD-Picture Card ™ but gives no reason why. Is there a functional reason or is it just marketing?

[AlfaFoxtrot]

Haven't heard of an xD card myself, SD is pretty standard. SDHC is the same format, but can have higher capacities (up to 32GB in theory, but only up to 8GB available at the mo). A normal SD card is limited to 2GB (whether you want one big card or several smaller ones is up to you and the kind of photography you're doing).

If the camera will take SD go for that, it must be more widely used than xD as I haven't heard of that, and so will probably be cheaper per GB.

ETA
Just looked up xD on Wikipedia, read/write speeds aren't any different to a good SD card - they are more expensive and can only be used in Fuji/Olympus cameras, I think SD is the obvious choice!

Edited by AlfaFoxtrot on Friday 28th March 21:58

[Scot 62]

I use the older S5200 with Fuji or Olympus XD cards.

Check out - 7dayshop.com- for all your photography, film or digital requisites

[leorest]

Just looked this up on Wiki myself. Don't know why I didn't look earlier.

It seems that there are only two conceivable advantages to Xd
1 It "might" be lower power consumption.
2 It's an otherwise empty memory slot so you could increase storage without risking loosing one of those pesky little cards.


Think I'll stick with a fast SD card and if I ever run short see if Xd has got a lot cheaper...

Thanks to those who answered.