Got new Camera, advice on the peripherals

Squawk

Squawk

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James
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I've gone and done it, got myself a DSLR. Went with the canon reseller on ebay and got a Canon 400D refurb with the 18-55 kit lens for £276.

Now I need to get a storage card sorted for it. I thought this would be simple, but the array of possibilities is mind blowing.

So, advice required. Is it worth getting a top spec compact flash card or will the cheaper end do. I had a quick squint at the sandisk website http://www.sandisk.co.uk/CWIZ_PCT/ProductList.aspx?DeviceID=8358"]here and with all the different models and capacaties I just have no clue.

I can't see that I will require more than 2GB, I figure with a max image size of 10MB thats still 200 images, unless you chaps tell me different. For the sake of an extra couple of quid I might go for a bigger card anyway.

Note that I won't purchase off the sandisk website, I will have a good hunt around, found the ultra II for 11 quid delivered on ebay new, for example.



Any other advice would be great in terms of things to get. I suppose some kind of bag for it, something small and compact as I won't be adding lenses anytime soon and easy of carry/storage is a priority. I already have a tripod.

Is a card reader a good idea for image transfer, or do it right from camera?

Thanks guys.
 
Hi Squawk, welcome. :)

Whatever you do don't buy a card off ebay, there are so many fake sandiscs out there it is honestly not worth the risk! If you want to save a few pennies, Kingston are OK as are Calumet's own brand.

I have 7 genuine sandiscs and never had a problem with them so personally I think they are worth the investment, I've had the oldest for about 3 years now and not been let down.

I'd go for the 4GB size too, I'd always rather have too much storage than too little :)

As for card reader vs camera download. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. I have a built in one on my PC and use that because it's rapid and on a wedding I'll have about 1300 to download so I'm not messing about with slow downloads. The disadvantage is that there is more of a risk of bending/breaking the pins in the camera that fit into the card. Not had it happen but that does not mean the risk is not present. That one is your call.

Hope that helps.
 
Hmm good points about counterfit. Which sandisk cards do you have, ie model. 1300 pics from one wedding... that must be fun processing ;)
 
I'd tend to go for 4gb cards rather than 2gb, if you start shooting raw files (or raw+jpg) a 2gb one will fill up rapidly. Also, there are a fair few knock-off cards on ebay, I've bought cards from here - may not be the cheapest, but at least they were kosher :shrug:

As far as card readers vs straight from camera - i'd take a card reader every time - much faster transfer time in my experience - can't help with makes or models - I just bought a decent quality USB2 one that fitted in the second floppy disk area of my desktop machine.
 
I'd agree with other about not buying from ebay, I find amazon, play or 7dayshop are good for memory, but which is cheapest varies a bit. I'd definitely go for more memory, it's so cheap these days it's worth spending a bit more and being sure that you won't run out - just did a quick check in my camera bag and I'm curently carrying 31gb of CF cards and 12gb of SD! I use a card reader to transfer images (internal on the PC and external for my laptop), I just find it easier than trying to balance the camera somewhere when downloading (I just know one of my kids will end up knocking it off the desk).
 
Squawk said:
Hmm good points about counterfit. Which sandisk cards do you have, ie model. 1300 pics from one wedding... that must be fun processing ;)
Click to expand...


I have all sorts of models, 4gb/15 to 4gb/30 to 8Gb Extreme iV, whatever is the fastest they do at the time I'm buying. I don't want the read/write speed of the card to limit the buffer on the camera but I would not worry about that unless you are intending to shoot fast action stuff.

As for processing? The longest bit is sorting the ones to work with, they all have to be looked at. Once they are tagged as being OK, it's all batch processing and actions. Then individual attention to about the top 10-20 images. Takes a fair bit of time and it's one reason wedding photographers get annoyed when people think it's just turning up and taking a few snaps but then that's a whole different thread. :D and I'm not going there lol. :thumbs:
 
Amazon have a nice Sandisk 4gb at the moment for £16.99 delivered - that's a pretty good deal...

Sandisk Card at Amazon

Oh - and avoid Ebay like the plague when it comes to memory cards...
 
Cheers for all the info guys, ended up getting the 4gb one off amazon for 16:99. Thanks for the link B_M
 
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