does speed matters on memory cards on digital camera?

durain

need to get a SD memory card. there are so many cards out there with speed rating like 50x, 133x and 166x. do they really make a big difference when used in a digital camera?

f1charlie

Depends on the speed at which your camera can write to the card. Not all cameras can take advantage of the faster cards. If you have a fast card and a fast writing camera, then the camera will be ready to take the next photo quicker. This is probably of more importance when you want to take a rapid sequence of photos.

What camera do you have?

durain

it's a ricoh R5.

shopbot

It all depends on the type of photography you do.

If you use your camera to take a few snaps here and there then it won't. However if you need to take lots of shots in a burst or in sports mode then it will.

I recently had a situation where I was taking photos in continous shooting mode and having a non fast card really hampered me. I certainly missed some shots.

f1charlie

Some info on SD cards and speeds here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card

I did a search but haven't been able to find info on the R5's write speed. I thought that was usually detailed in the specs.

Stompa

f1charlie wrote:

I did a search but haven't been able to find info on the R5's write speed. I thought that was usually detailed in the specs.

Oddly I can't even see it in the user manual.