[GRudger]

I just bought a Canon IXUS 55 aka SD450. I was just wondering what SD card I would need. There is 40x, 60x and 133x...Extreme...Ultra...Extreme II...Ultra II...Wicked Fully Sick speed (not really )

But seriously, I just want the photos to store well, and the movie mode to work properly. Would the standard SD card be fine, or do I need these "Extreme" fast write ones.

Also, should I go for the 1G or 2G? It is only a 5MP camera...

Thanks in advance!

[linskyjack]

That camera doesn't support high speed writing so I would get as big an SD card as you can afford and not worry about the speed rating.

[slipe]

A “standard” speed card can be as slow as 5X. If the card doesn’t list a speed you can pretty much guess it is slow. Standard cards are still being made. I just checked Sandisk’s site and they are making standard cards up to 2Gb. They don’t like to list their read and write speeds for their slower cards, but I assume they aren’t bare minimum spec for the card type in a 2Gb card.

Your write speed for best quality movies on the SD450 is over 2Mb/sec. The write speed for still pictures is also over 2Mb/sec. There are definitely cards out there that won’t sustain that write speed. My camera has MPEG4 movies with ¼ the write speed requirement and the manual says it can drop frames with a slow SD card.

I have a standard Sandisk 256Mb SD card in my Palm Tungsten and decided to compare it to my Ultra II card in my Casio Z750. Cycle times were a second faster with the fast card. One second in cycle time takes the camera from being quick in its class to sluggish. Comparing file size and cycle times, the SD450 would require about the same write speed for still pictures as my camera. A standard Sandisk card will slow your camera. A standard brand X card might really slow it. With a USB 2 interface a standard card would probably slow your download as well.

A single X is usually considered to be around 150k/sec of read speed. Write speed is a bit slower than read speed and is what is important for camera speed except for downloading pictures. Theoretically you should be able to get by with 20X, which is much faster than “standard”. I would want 32X to be sure and probably higher in an off brand card. You won’t likely benefit from anything faster than an Ultra II at 66X read and 60X write.

[GRudger]

Thank you very much for the detailed response slipe, much appreciated!