Digital camera memory question

[anarchy]

I have a canon a520 and I need to purchase a memory card for it. I've looked on ebay and they are very cheap compared to retail here, is there something I should be wary of? Or should it be okay to purchase one off there?

And the type of card it takes is SD but I've seen mini SD or something like that. Can someone tell me what all this is? And the Ultra II SD cards that Canon has, this allows faster speeds when taking pictures right? Will this be beneficial to me for my A520 or is this mainly for professinal cameras like the rebel? Thanks.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Depends on the card, I'd stay away from no-name brands on Ebay. However, some cards like the Sandisk Ultra II that you mentioned have lifetime warranties, so it really doesn't matter where you buy them from.

Mini SD is a smaller version of SD for smaller devices like cell phones. You cannot use a MiniSD card in a SD device without an adaptor. Most MiniSD cards come with that adapter, but it's kinda useless for you, as there is zero benefit for getting the MiniSD anyway. Stick to regular SD, it's cheaper and probably faster.

As far as write speeds go, highspeed cards are intended mostly for continuous burst-mode shots. On the A520, you'll get around 1.7 shots per second until the onboard buffer fills up, at which point it will try to simultaneously write to the SD card while taking pictures. This slows the shot rate down substantially - with a 512MB Ultra II, it slows from 1.7fps to ~1fps. On a slower card, that 1fps number would probably drop further. It really depends on how/what you intend on shooting whether you should shell out the extra cash for a faster card or not.

[anarchy]

Ahh interesting. Yeah I wasn't planning to buy a no name card, most likely a sandisk one. Just wasn't sure if I should go ultra II or just the normal one.

Will I notice a big difference in speed if I go for the Ultra II? It's probably going to be just for leisure and family events but if there's a noticeable difference and the price isn't that much different (on ebay anyways) might as well go or the Ultra.

[lint]

Originally posted by anarchy
Ahh interesting. Yeah I wasn't planning to buy a no name card, most likely a sandisk one. Just wasn't sure if I should go ultra II or just the normal one.

Will I notice a big difference in speed if I go for the Ultra II? It's probably going to be just for leisure and family events but if there's a noticeable difference and the price isn't that much different (on ebay anyways) might as well go or the Ultra.

You won't notice the difference in speed when you take pictures, but you will when you transfer them to your computer. Just order the 2gb sandisk ultra II from costco.ca (http://www.costco.ca/en-CA/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10282256&whse=&topnav=&cat=2255&hierPath=79*2255*)
Hard to beat for $106, unless you can find it in store.

[anarchy]

Awesome than
ks for the heads up lint!:thumbsup:

[anarchy]

I just realized that a 1 gb card will hold about 500 pictures! :eek:

There's no way I'd ever need to hold that many pictures, let alone a 2 gb card! Isn't it extremely annoying not to view your pictures on your camera becase you ahve to sort through the hundreds of photos just to see a certain one?

[dragonone]

also remember that a typical camera battery will not let you shoot the full capacity of say.... a 1gb card, esp. the slim point and shoot ones

[anarchy]

Well the canon a520 takes double aa batteries so thats not an issue
but someone brought up the fact that since my camera can take videos it'll take up more space, although i dont see myself doing much videos on this thing

but that 106 for 2gb ultra ii is a good deal. Still overkill though.

edit:
I just found on ebay sd cards that look fake! I was looking up 2gb cards and the "ultra" was in rainbow color while the ones on costco.ca is just white.

[Pihsiak]

you're better off with a 1 gig in my opinion

The A520 is still running with DIGIC generation one so it only makes 3 min movies with sound at 15 frames/sec.
If you had the DIGIC II process with unlimited movie at 30 f/s then i say the 2 gig is a good deal.

sometimes at BestBuys they have 1 gig Kingston pro speed (50x) for 70 bucks with a rebate so it becomes 50 or 40

[BerserkerCatSplat]

The 1GB card should do you just fine. I like the lifetime warranty on the Sandisk ones, myself.

[anarchy]

Thanks for all the help guys. I picked up a 1 gb sandisk ultra ii off ebay. It ended up being 68 cdn shipped.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Good choice, and that's a very good price as well.

[rony_espana]

you got a good deal, they're $129 at futureshop right now:

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10064253&catid=11433