MEMORY CARDS & WRITE SPEED

When deciding which brand of memory card is best, consider the write speed. The faster/higher the write speed, the less time your camera’s image processor will spend processing an exposure (writing the data) and the faster it will send it to the LCD screen for viewing.

Most memory cards use the same formula for data transfer rates as the CD-ROM industry—a data transfer rate of IX equals 150 kilobytes (KB) per second. So, a memory card that offers an 80X write speed is faster than one that offers a 40X write speed—and of course, you pay a bit more for speed. And note: All things be­ing equal, your camera’s processor speed is of equal importance; your processor must be able to write at the speed listed on your memory card; if it can’t write at as fast a speed as listed on the card, it doesn’t make sense to buy that faster card.