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General discussion

1gb or many mb cards...which is better to have?

Jun 21, 2005 3:05PM PDT

I am a newbie. I was wondering from all ya'll experienced pros out there about the compact flash. I'm getting a Canon Powershot g6. I was going to get a 1gb flash because I like to get more than I need rather than one day wish I had more....but my question is this... I tend to wonder if it is better to have many smaller flash cards (i.e. four 64mb cards) than it would be to have one 1gb card because then you could seperate days and shooting events by card? Am I wrong? Do you guys do this? Or do most pros go big all the time and just have one big gb card rather than many mb cards...

Discussion is locked

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At the moment, I have a 1 gig card, and a 512 meg card. I
Jun 21, 2005 4:44PM PDT

am thinking about getting an additional 1 gig card. The 1 gig cards are somewhat faster in recording images, and my camera can use the speed boost.

When I'm in the field, I download the cards to a small harddrive to free them up so that I can continue shooting. You may be surprised at how fast they fill up.

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thanks
Jun 21, 2005 5:15PM PDT

Thanks, that helps a lot. I figured it would work that way...so I might as well start with 1gb because I'll need additional ones eventually anyway...When you say you download them to a hard drive, what do you mean? I thought the cameras have no memory, and that's why you need the cards...(I'm a newbie, you may recall...)

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The one I own is the Vosonic.
Jun 21, 2005 9:18PM PDT

The Vosonic units (look up on google.com) allow me to slip the card into the Vosonic and tap a button to copy it to a hard disk. You select a hard disk size from 1 to 120 GB. Per GB, it's cheaper than cards.

Bob

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(NT) (NT) That's what I use also.
Jun 22, 2005 12:32AM PDT
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wow
Jun 22, 2005 3:20AM PDT

Thanks!! I know nothing! That helps a lot. How long does it take to transfer the data? Does the vosonic need a power supply, or can it go on the road with you? Or does it use a battery, if so, which one? Thanks again!

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I went for weeks without charging my VP300.
Jun 22, 2005 5:00AM PDT

The VP200 went longer, I've never tested how long you could run it on battery power but here is a SWAG.

It takes about 2 minutes tops to transfer a 512MB SD card. I think I can play MP3s on my VP300 for 2 hours. So that gives my 60 transfers before I'd need a charge. Now I have my camera set to as high a resolution as I can so that's 114 pictures or so per card times 60 or...

6,840 pictures between charges of the VP300.

Hope this helps.

bob