resolution etc.!

I hope to go digital I'm buying a sony Alpha but I need to know what card I

should get!

2GB minimum, 4GB preferably. Major brand. High write speed.

Amazon says Compact Flash, but you can use a memory stick. Walmart is usually the cheapest place to get memory. There is usually a chart at Walmart telling you how many pics you can get for the megapixel camera you have. Usually 1g is about right for these cameras.

I have two 1GB cards for my 10MP canon XTi. This seems to me to be a pretty reasonable size, and you can get them at a decent price... I only paid $20 for my second card. I don't recall exactly but it seems that each of these cards holds a couple hundred shots.

What's up with these exclamation points and your total lack of punctuation?

 

What does reolution on a Sony Alpha have to do with "what card you should get?"

 

My recommendation to you is to get your feet wet with a cheap point & shoot and see if "digital" is where you wanna be.

"What does resolution on a Sony Alpha have to do with "what card you should get?"

 

More resolution = more space on card means higher capacity card or faster card to dump pics off of buffer faster than lower resolution. Or that's my guess.

 

Sandisk and Lexar are the biggest names in the flash card market. If you buy one of those you can't really go wrong. It's also better to have multiple cards rather than one large card. I would buy a cheap 1 gig card and see if you outgrow it's use before investing in a fast expensive card.

Responses like Ken gives just aren't answers.

 

I have a Canon 30D, shoot regularly in RAW+JPEG, and have a variety of CompactFlash

cards. (2) two gig, (1) one gig, (2) 256meg, and (1) 32 meg cards. I keep the 32 meg for

nostalgiac purposes. The 256 cards I keep because my little digi does video. You can see

the progression from digicam to DSLR. I would suggest a 2 gig card if all you are going to

shoot is JPEG. In the largest JPEG format on my cam I can get 422 shots per card. Last time

I checked, 2 gig cards were the best bang per buck. But....since you are purchasing a

quality DSLR, you will not be shooting just JPEG for long. You should buy some RAW

capable manip programs (like Adobe PhotoShop 5, or better), and learn about the

wonderfull world of RAW.

 

I like the division between my 2 gig cards because they help me sort my files. I can use

them to divide up the days that I shoot. 4 gig cards have a more expensive per pixal price

component to them. And remember, you can loose these things.

 

I don't have SD cards, but some reports say they are the future. Smaller and faster. When

Canon changes over in their major line DSLRs, I'll listen.

 

That was all to size. So now as to brand. Sony is historically proprietary. You may be given

a limited choice. Other manufacturers are not so limiting, It is one of the reasons I have

never chosen Sony. I have both Lexar and Sandisk. Never had a failure. You might consider

a cam that allows as much leniency as possible as to third party options. My fave CF cards

are the Sandisk Exteme III 2 gig cards.

<<It's also better to have multiple cards rather than one large card. I would buy a cheap 1 gig card and see if you outgrow it's use before investing in a fast expensive card.>>

 

Common myth. If you took it to it's logical conclusion, you'd have hundreds of 16MB cards. I've been shooting with digicams for 7 years now and have yet to have a memory card go bad.

 

Shooting RAW I would say a minimum of a 2GB card. That will hold ~135 RAW files. Easy to fill up, but not too quick to fill up. If you take a lot of pictures, a 4GB or 8GB card is very nice to have.

OK! Just sticking to the IGB compact flash cards etc. What's the quality of image like,or perhaps I should ask is the resolution of image related to the number of shots one takes!

BTW What's the difference between a card and a memory stick!

Niall

Come on now, take a minute to do a search first.

Quality depends on the resolution and format that you choose, the A100 has several options and I'll go through them here:

 

RAW: A 2GB card holds approximately 135 RAW files. They range from 8-12 MB each depending on the complexity of the scene. A RAW file is straight data from the image sensor that is not processed. This allows the greatest freedom for editing with a program like Photoshop, but it also takes up the most room and requires an investment of time after the fact to process the photo on your computer. You can only shoot at the full 10MP resolution in Raw.

 

RAW + JPG: The camera stores both a RAW file (so you can edit it later and make adjustments) and a JPG file. The JPG file is processed and won't necessarily require work in photoshop afterwards. This mode allows you to have an easily-distributed JPG straight from the camera, while still having a RAW file available if you want to manipulate the shot later. A 2GB card holds about 105 photos with this setting. You can only shoot in the full 10MP resolution in this mode.

 

Fine: The least-compressed JPG available. Allows shooting at the full 10MP as well as at 5.6MP and 2.5MP. JPG is available straight out of the camera and is easy to send off or view. A 2GB card holds 496 Fine JPG images at 10MP, 857 at 5.6MP, and 1,775 at 2.5MP.

 

Standard: High-compressed JPG. Allows shooting at the same resolutions as above. This setting is typically not used as it produces lower quality output. Also allows a JPG straight out of the camera that is easy to send off or view. A 2GB card holds 773 Standard JPG images at 10MP, 1,309 at 5.6MP, and 2,582 at 2.5MP.

<<Sony is historically proprietary. You may be given a limited choice. Other manufacturers are not so limiting, It is one of the reasons I have never chosen Sony.>>

 

The A100 is fully compatible with all major brands (and most minor brands) of CF card. There's absolutely no reason for you to spread rumors otherwise. Sony has NEVER been brand-proprietary, only format proprietary (third-party memory sticks work fine, as did third-party Betamax tapes and as do even third-party A100 batteries).

 

The only card that gave me trouble in my A100 was a no-name microdrive that was not fully compliant with the CF specifications (the microdrive caused issues in some other brands of cameras I tried it in as well).

.....I believe Sony are now marketing their own compact flash card,too!

I want to know what size I can get up to in printing digital .tif prints from my 5.1MP Nikon Coolpix. Any help is much appreciated.

>>Responses like Ken gives just aren't answers. <<

 

Plus, he doesn't know how to spell. ;-)

Well,I'd like to thank AAron for his fullsome answer to the question!

As for Ken and Roger,don't call us we'll call you!