SD Cards - are they all the same?!

[polar_ben]

I need to buy a shedload of 512mb SD cards for storing photos on my next expedition. Shopping around, I've seen some for £200+ and some for £125 - is there really any difference??

Cheers
Ben

[brumster]

None that I'm aware of - it's imaginable that some use better quality memory - by that I mean slightly faster - but I seriously doubt you'd notice much of a difference. Maybe some professional photographers on here could comment...?

[beano500]

brumster said:

... but I seriously doubt you'd notice much of a difference.

On the other hand, perhaps you could get some info from the manufacturers as you will be using them at some extreme conditions no doubt!

If it's cold enough for your fingers to drop off, you won't be too happy if the camera fails.............

[simpo two]

I can't speak for SD, but mine uses XD and if I don't get the pukka (Olympus) cards, the panorama function is not supported.
However, if you want to make a panorama you can always stitch the pics together with PhotoVista or similar, so it's not a make-or-break feature. Maybe ir's worth reading the small print that says 'operating range 0-30deg C' or similar, or check with the makers, just for peace of mind? Or stick one it the freezer and do a test. Electrical resistance decreases with cold temperatures, so perhaps it will work better?!

[d3ano]

I picked up 256MB for abouty 50squid.
Best place to look for SD memory is at www.pricerunner.com
Saved myself a foutune there. goodluck

[ron1n]

The SD card manufacturer has nothing to do with the quality of the photos you will be able to store on it. Its just ram in a proprietary form factor, so pretty much any kind will be fine as all you are storing is data, the form the data takes is irrelevant.

[polar_ben]

Cheers guys. Have just bought 2 gigs worth from Dabs

[jam1et]

My bro-in-law is a pro photographer. He said never go for cheap SD cards as they just are not as reliable as the decent makes. Mind you, he also runs a photography shop so he would say that

[manek]

My experience (and a lot of Web searching) is that there is a big difference between worst and best SD cards with, guess what, the cheapest being slowest, the fastest costing more. It may not matter to you in which case buy on price.

But when I did that for my Palm T3 and used the card to record an interview over a period of 90 minutes, the card was so slow (it was a rebadged Toshiba) it picked half of what my interviewee was saying and threw away the other half. The result was unintelligible -- and very very annoying and embarrassing.

Learn from my mistake.