Fast SD cards

twopenny

Don't know if I'm using the right initials but it's for a camera to record photos.

When I bought a cheapie point and shoot I got a fast micro card and it works surprisingly well.

My main camera has bog standard ones and I'm hoping a fast card may improve my ability to photograph wildlife that doesn't stand still.

I don't want anything expensive as the camera is on its last legs but I can't replace it with what I want at the moment.
Tried searching but seems a lot of technical jargon that I don't understand.
I can't give a size for what I have but it's common 

Any help would be welcome 

victor2

There's different ratings for SD cards. Look at the good one you have and see if it shows any. There's an explanation here:

https://www.kingston.com/unitedkingdom/en/blog/personal-storage/memory-card-speed-classes

If you're doing rapid repeated shooting, a faster card may help. I usually try to get a known brand, such as Sandisk (just an example name), and go for their higher spec cards.

twopenny

Thanks Victor, I'm not sure I'm nimble enough for micro SD cards so reluctant to handle it. Perhaps when someone younger is present 🙂
However looking at those cards bells rang so nothing too much wrong with the memory.

I was able to get them at Tesco but recently they aren't up to much here. Worth a rummage there though to get an idea of price.

flaneurs_lobster

Are you able to extract your fast micro card and tell us what the narrative says there, or even take a photograph (although I hear what you say about handling small cards).

Might let people suggest SD cards for your larger camera.

The price of cards varies enormously and there are stories of counterfeit cards being sold online so be wary of your sources.

Vitor

What is make and model of main camera?

- I'm hoping a fast card may improve my ability to photograph wildlife that doesn't stand still -

TBH Unless you're shooting in burst mode of many frames per second and the card is buffering, a lens with a wide aperture that allows shooting at 1/1000th of a second is likely what's needed.

MyRealNameToo

twopenny said:

Don't know if I'm using the right initials but it's for a camera to record photos.

When I bought a cheapie point and shoot I got a fast micro card and it works surprisingly well.

My main camera has bog standard ones and I'm hoping a fast card may improve my ability to photograph wildlife that doesn't stand still.

I don't want anything expensive as the camera is on its last legs but I can't replace it with what I want at the moment.
Tried searching but seems a lot of technical jargon that I don't understand.
I can't give a size for what I have but it's common 

Any help would be welcome 

If you lookup the model of camera you have it will tell you what types of cards and speeds it supports then just buy the fastest one it supports from a decent brand. 

The only thing it will help with in actually capturing images is if you are doing bursts and the camera is stopping capturing because its buffer is full as it's taking time to load the data to the card. Most cameras can hold a reasonable number of images in the buffer before it stops taking images

twopenny

Thanks, that's lots of useful information 🙂

I've never got around to multiple shooting, always think that's cheating until I see shots someone else has taken.
Especially with a duff hip and enjoying watching and learning.

Vitor, it's half a century since I used manual. Always mean to but may try what you specifically say.

Tesco's do still have fast cards and there is one at £12 so I can experiment.

I had one of the first digital cameras and it had sports mode which was brilliant.
Pocket Samsung can capture birds in flight sharp as you like. That's the one with a fast card.

My other is a Canon Coolpics A1000. Thanks to the peeps on here. It's great but second hand and dying bit by bit.
Finding a new one another that will fit small hands, have a viewfinder and good for distance, is tough. I'll get on to it when the weather changes.
Too nice to go to town. Been photographing butterflies and dragonflies in quiet sunny woodland this after. I should have been filing and emailing 😄

jshm2

Card speeds tend to vary wildly between card brands.

But some of the newer high speed cards won't utilise that high speed in some older cameras, so you're wasting money buying them.

Best check the camera manufacturer site for the speeds the camera supports. 

vacheron

twopenny said:

My main camera has bog standard ones and I'm hoping a fast card may improve my ability to photograph wildlife that doesn't stand still.

Any help would be welcome 

By "doesn't stand still", do you mean the photos are blurry or you are taking bursts of photos, but the camera is not keeping up? (I think it is the blurry situation based on your reply a couple of posts up)

If the photos are blurry, it is because your camera shutter speed is too slow, this is a very long and involved topic, but a faster memory card will not help in this situation.

Changing some of your camera settings might, but will only go so far depending on the camera (there is a reason why professional fast wildlife photographers have £2000 camera bodies and £5000 lenses!) 

This page from Kingston does a good job of explaining all the card speed classes avilable, but basically the more MB/second the better, but no point in paying loads of money for a card that can store photos quicker than the speed your camera can write to it.  

twopenny

Good point.
I am 'competing' with people who have pots of money.
But the more I take the more precise I want to make it, ie the movement of wild ponies tails, hair etc.

Yes it's not only the professionals, people locally have super cameras for photographing deer. I wouldn't go that far. Multiple shots with a supersonic machine isn't skill at getting the shot that grabs attention. 
I got mine with just fabulous antlers showing above heathland plants.

But I do need a replacement camera.

MyRealNameToo

twopenny said:

Yes it's not only the professionals, people locally have super cameras for photographing deer. I wouldn't go that far. Multiple shots with a supersonic machine isn't skill at getting the shot that grabs attention. 
I got mine with just fabulous antlers showing above heathland plants.

Its a lesser version of a group of monkeys eventually typing the complete works of Shakespeare (Ignoring the Plymouth University experiment that showed after 2 months they'd only typed 5 pages and it was mainly S - plus they found it more fun to pee on the keyboard than type with it). 

In principle yes a better camera makes capturing certain photos easier and if you can take 30 frames per second you've got more chance of being lucky but luck isnt the only thing. If you dont know what you're doing and set the lens to a 13 fstop doesnt matter how many FPS the camera can do you arent going to get a crystal clear animal and nice smooth blurred background. 

A friend was a proper professional photographer and his normal walkabout camera was far from the latest and greatest (though he did also have some incredibly expensive medium formal cameras too) but despite me technically having the better camera 99.999% of the time he came back with the better images but he had an exceptional eye for lighting and no in camera tech can out perform someone who's fundamentally better at setting up the shot.