I just got a new camera and it says it takes HD stills. The guy I bought it from told me you need an HD memory card. My old camera had an SD card and it seems to work in the new camera. But I am wondering, what’s the difference and should I be using the HD card? Thanks for advice!
It’s not a difference between “standard definition” and “high definition” - The “SD” stands for “Secure Digital” and refers to the type/style of memory card - i.e. not a Sony Memorystick, “Mini SD” or larger Flash memory card…
What the seller probably meant was a newer “SDHC” (high capacity, 4GB or more) card. There are different “classes” of cards as well, which refers to the data transfer rates. Class 6 is the highest so far I think.
In addition to significantly larger storage capacity, higher data transfer rate with SDHC cards helps when trying to record a larger amount of data within the same time period between pushing the shutter & saving the image data to the card. That way you’re not waiting around for your camera to reset & can keep taking photos without missing shots.
If your camera is set to its highest resolution (should be - otherwise why bother w/new camera?) and the old card isn’t at least 1GB, it’ll fill up very quickly anyway.
You won’t likely find anything larger than 8GB in most stores, but any Class 6 SDHC card w/4GB or more should meet your needs.
Amazon.com offers 16GB Class 6 SD cards from “Transcend” for a much lower price than other brands (SanDisk, Kingston, etc). In fact, ordering online seems much cheaper all around compared to walking into a store to buy one.
[quote=“sjhuz01”]It’s not a difference between “standard definition” and “high definition” - The “SD” stands for “Secure Digital” and refers to the type/style of memory card - i.e. not a Sony Memorystick, “Mini SD” or larger Flash memory card…
What the seller probably meant was a newer “SDHC” (high capacity, 4GB or more) card. There are different “classes” of cards as well, which refers to the data transfer rates. Class 6 is the highest so far I think.
In addition to significantly larger storage capacity, higher data transfer rate with SDHC cards helps when trying to record a larger amount of data within the same time period between pushing the shutter & saving the image data to the card. That way you’re not waiting around for your camera to reset & can keep taking photos without missing shots.
If your camera is set to its highest resolution (should be - otherwise why bother w/new camera?) and the old card isn’t at least 1GB, it’ll fill up very quickly anyway.
You won’t likely find anything larger than 8GB in most stores, but any Class 6 SDHC card w/4GB or more should meet your needs.
Amazon.com offers 16GB Class 6 SD cards from “Transcend” for a much lower price than other brands (SanDisk, Kingston, etc). In fact, ordering online seems much cheaper all around compared to walking into a store to buy one.[/quote]
Sandisk is marketing some SDHC cards with the term “HD”. Perhaps that’s what confused the guy.
Thanks for clearing up that confusion!