Shell, I was looking for exactly the same information about 2 months ago. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a single place that would have comprehensive series of tests answering your (and my) questions.
Here is a nice page comparing variety of cards (more on CF side, but includes some SD as well). It does not have any test results for Pentax bodies, but it gives some idea of differences between the cards. http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-7345 (Use the pull-down menu at the top on the right to navigate). The rest of information I found in bits and pieces from variety of sites, technical information, and opinions. Based on that, I decided that Ultra II 1GB was the way to go for me. I've recently was shooting at a wedding of my sister-in-law, with two DS cameras. One had Sandisk Ultra II 1GB, the other Sandisk "standard" 1GB SD card. The images were stored in RAW. While I didn't time it, I did not notice any slowdown due to the "standard" SD card while shooting. The only situation when I _thought_ I noticed the difference was when I needed to review the image I just took, and the after-shot review was gone, so I was going into the review mode, and it was taking just a bit longer with SD to wait until the image is recorded. It is, however, possible, that I was biased. The speed could differ when transferring the files to the computer, but I didn't time it. Take a look here (read the text on top of the table for the factors affecting the speed): http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-6894 As for "Extreme III" version, I see that the speed difference (if any) is not justifiable with the DS. (I don't remember, there might be no speed difference at all, even in the specs). I read that Extreme III is a "hardened" version of the SD card, i.e. it has a wider range of conditions (temperature/humidity, mechanical stress) that it can withstand. I am not sure about other brands, but based on the website mentioned above and opinions of users experessed in various forums and short reviews, I made some tenative conclusion that nowdayws SanDisk makes more predictable quality cards, i.e. all models have good solid performance, close to the specifications (unlike the cards from some other manufacturers), and have no or minimum issues and minimum variation in performance with various camera bodies and card readers (SD 512MB, 1GB, CF 512 MB and above). I would be interested to hear impression of other people about the cards from other manufacturers, and especially test results if one is aware of those. One important moment to keep in mind: there are/could be different generations of the same card from the same manufacturer. You might not be able to distiguish them by their looks, only by the serial numbers, if you know them. But the performance can be VERY different. So, be aware of this when comparing different test results, opinions, etc. I hope this helps. Igor PS. Two month ago I bought a 1 GB Ultra II card on Amazon for ~$91 minus $20 manufacturer MIB. This was approaching the reasonable price of a "standard" Sandisk 1Gb SD card. I guess, if you are not in a harry and can afford waiting 1-2 weeks, you can catch yet another rebate like that on Amazon or elsewhere. > Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 21:13:40 -0700 > From: "Shel Belinkoff" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [email protected] > Subject: Recommended SD Cards for istDs > Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII > > Which brand and speed cards do you recommend for the istDs? I was thinking > of the San Disk Ultra II, or a comparable Lexar, but I've no "brand > loyalty" at this point. > > Can the Ds use the speed of this, and similar cards? Having cards that > will DL a bit faster to the computer is nice, so it might be OK to have a > card that's faster than the ability of the Ds ... anyway, your comments > would be appreciated. Thank you. > > Shel >
