Which digital SLR for landscapes?

[DougPaul]

I’ll attest to the excellence of SanDisk cards. Our shop (a daily newspaper) has some for Nikon DSLRs that have been in daily service for 5 years (and look it) that have had 10s of thousands of images “run through” them and still function reliably. What we call good goods. And not outrageously expensive, either.

The basic technology in memory cards eventually wears out. Each time you write a bit, it causes a small amount of wear. The typical max number of write cycles is hundreds of thousands to millions. (The software controlling writing the card is designed to maximize the lifetime by spreading the wear out over the entire card.)

So, while they will eventually wear out, one would have to take an awful lot of pictures for it to be a problem.

Doug

 

[Grumpy]

I conservatively figure each of those those SanDisk memory cards that we use in our news work typically grabs around 200 images a day -- maybe around 50 - 75,000 images a year. What amazes me, also, is that they get no respect in terms of care. Naked cards are carried around in pants pockets or purses, or in camera bags, loose; we have a couple with substantial dents in their cases, the labels barely readable . . . and they keep on working. The memory cards definitely are not a weak link in our digital photo system.

G.

 

[David Metsky]

You can bend the pins in the CF cards, so keep that in mind.

-dave-

 

[Grumpy]

You can bend the pins in the CF cards, so keep that in mind.

Being fussy about care and feeding of photo gear and materials of all kinds, I worry about the casual -- even careless -- way in which the CF cards are handled in the newspaper photo shop where I work. My concern about the CF cards is a natural holdover from film photography days -- where it was important to protect unexposed and exposed film from moisture, grit, etc..

Personally, I prefer keeping cards in their protective cases when they aren't in a camera (if I can find the cases), but the other folks in the shop aren't so tight-***** about it. (Their experience is not so rooted in the film era.) Thus, the abuse described earlier.

As posted earlier, too, I am astonished by how much use and abuse those CF cards will take and continue to function reliably. I'm not recommending that anyone abuse CF cards or even be careless about handling them. Just offering reassurance that they are remarkably tough and durable.

G.

 

[4000'er]

I worry about the casual -- even careless -- way in which the CF cards are handled in the newspaper photo shop where I work.
G.

I agree, I've seen this too where I shoot. It is amazing that the cards keep on working.
I am to blame as well, as I ran a 1GB card through the washer AND dryer by accident once. I thought the card would be dead, but it it still works. Amazing.

 

[David Metsky]

I agree that the cards are far more robust than we have right to expect. The CF cards, by their design, have some exposed pins that can be bent, but it seems they rarely do. The SD cards don't have this problem, but it's not a big issue in deciding which camera to buy.

-dave-

 

[dvbl]

Long story short....I ended up getting the Canon 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III EF lens from B&H Photo. Canon is NOT giving me the rebate for it. They said the UPC is not valid for rebate. Not sure if this is B&H Photo's fault for listing a product as being under rebate, when it shouldn't have. Or if it's Canon's fault for not honoring a rebate on one of their products. BTW, I filled out everything completely and correctly and sent in everything correctly and on time, so that's not the issue. The issue is that one of these two companies screwed up and I'm $10 lighter.

 

[David Metsky]

I would definately follow up with B&H. They are good folks, if they are responsible for the mess up I'm sure they will help you out.

-dave-

 

[Tom Rankin]

The purchase has been made! The Microdrive will now be the backup unit. It had a good long run, and served me well, never failed in the field, and captured over 10K pictures! When it came out it was by far the largest CF device available, and had a good price/capacity ratio. All these things were important to me then, but it's time to move on.

I now have the 2Gig CF Card and it works a good deal faster, but not 60x faster, as I was lead to believe. I guess I need a USB II reader, correct?

 

[David Metsky]

I now have the 2Gig CF Card and it works a good deal faster, but not 60x faster, as I was lead to believe. I guess I need a USB II reader, correct?

Your camera is really the limiting factor at this point. The MicroDrives are not 1x, that number is fairly arbitrary. This card is 60x some base number, but there really aren't any cards or drives that run at 1x. Either way, your camera cannot work faster than this new card, although it might have been able to exhaust the microdrive when shooting in burst mode.

The USB II reader will be faster with this card than the drive, that's for sure. But make sure you have the "fast" USB 2 reader, it's awkwardly named. "fast" isn't really the faster mode, it's messed up.

-dave-

 

[arghman]

The USB II reader will be faster with this card than the drive, that's for sure. But make sure you have the "fast" USB 2 reader, it's awkwardly named. "fast" isn't really the faster mode, it's messed up.

USB speeds are called "full-speed" (12Mbits/sec max) and "high speed" (480Mbits/sec max), somewhat confusing.

In addition to a card reader that supports USB2, you also need a computer with a USB2 port. (which I guess is not an issue with recent computers, but mine just has the full-speed USB1.1 port and I had to buy an a USB2 card.)

 

[Tom Rankin]

USB speeds are called "full-speed" (12Mbits/sec max) and "high speed" (480Mbits/sec max), somewhat confusing.

In addition to a card reader that supports USB2, you also need a computer with a USB2 port. (which I guess is not an issue with recent computers, but mine just has the full-speed USB1.1 port and I had to buy an a USB2 card.)

Well, now I've got a backup, more capacity, and faster transfers, but I saw this card reader for just $14.00. Is that one that would do the trick?

 

[David Metsky]

Yes, that should work, but lots of others will for the same price. I've never heard of that manufacturer, I have a Sandisk 8-in-1 reader that works fine.

-dave-

 

[dvbl]

I would definately follow up with B&H. They are good folks, if they are responsible for the mess up I'm sure they will help you out.

-dave-

So far I've contacted B&H twice, and both times as I was explaining the issue with the Canon rebate (which at this point could be Canon's fault or B&H's fault), I was interrupted with, "That's a problem between you and Canon. What do you want us to do about it?" No joke, that's a direct quote. Very abrupt and rude. But then again, when I look at the address and area code, what did I expect. To steal (and paraphrase) from George F. Will, I guess they value courtesy so much, they dispense it sparingly.

 

[Tom Rankin]

... But then again, when I look at the address and area code, what did I expect. To steal (and paraphrase) from George F. Will, I guess they value courtesy so much, they dispense it sparingly.

Since I live in NY, I just can't pass this up...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060621...j45M9zgd8PtiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-

 

[deanmacg]

Not at Adam`s Fairacre Farm on 44.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Am just reading this thread now, but FWIW - I like Canon, and while the better camera is my S500, the one I always carry hiking is the little SD10, which is one the earlier super compact ELPH digitals, as it's very light, and at 4 mega, it's fine for most stuff I need. When I want a panoramic view (which is often) I take several overlapping shots, and use the great freebie Autostitch program.

 

[deanmacg]

Thanks for that heads up on the autostitch.