Is faster better?

[dheiser]

Has anyone found that memory speed makes any difference in the S2?

Last year I tested a 20x Ridata vs a 4x Sandisk in my Epson 3100z and found no measureable difference in any of the operations I could think up to throw at it.

Now I'm getting ready to upgrade to the S2 and I don't want to waste money on expensive "fast" memory if it's not necessary.

Speed tests for the S2 on www.dpreview.com seem to imply that memory speed doesn't matter unless you go with a Microdrive.

[Swampy]

I have a Lexar 80mb 12x that's about 2 years old and I've also got a 2 month old Kingston 512mb. Kingston does not provide any "x" speeds, but I do notice that writes to the kingston are faster than the 12x card in camera. Maybe I'll have to time it with a stop watch if I have time today....

[SSonnentag]

I haven't done any precisely timed tests writing to fast vs. slow CF cards in the camera, but I use a card reader to get the images off my CF card and into my computer. I found the 28X Transcend card to be MUCH faster than my old SanDisk card. I really suspect that the camera writes to the memory faster also, but like I said, I haven't timed the flashing red light.

Shawn

[snapshotmd]

I have 2 Ridata 512 20x cards and a Sandisk 256 ?x card. After using the Ridatas for a month, I used the Sandisk shooting at the lowest size/resolution and it was noticeably slower than the Ridatas which were shot at 3024/fine.

[Andre]

Remember that when a manufacturer puts a speed rating on their card, like 12X, it doesn't mean 12X faster than another card. It means it is 12X the speed of a 1X CD-ROM drive. A 'regular' Sandisk CF card is not 1X - I believe it's more like 8X.