Camera Labs

Hi
i'm looking to buy a panasonic g3 and have seen different speed sd cards around. Eg 30 mgb/sec and 45 mgb/sec. Would it be a waste to spend the extra money on the higher speed card... Can the camera download to the card that fast?
Thanks

Hello and welcome to the forum.
As far as i know the speed of the card will be most effective when you will be in the process to download your data into your computer.So take this into consideration when you estimate the amount of money you want to spend.There are several classes of SD cards, the higher class the better overall speed and performance.You should consider also the type of files that you want this sd card to store for example if you shoot raw you need a high class sd in order to transfer your data faster or if you plan to capture HD video. As for the transfer speed between the camera and the card from my own experience you won't see huge differences between them.
Overall i don't think that a high speed card would be a bad choice but remember to check panasonic's site for full list of compartible sd cards before you make the purchase.

I think you may have misunderstood his question as the OP seems to be aware of the benefits of a faster card. What he's asking is whether the transfer speed when writing from the camera to the card is quick enough that having a 45MB/s (write speed) SD card is beneficial or if it's so "slow" that a 45MB/s write speed on the card is overkill so you'd be better off with a 30MB/s card.

_________________
Bodies: Canon EOS 550D w/ Magic Lantern
Lenses: Tokina AT-X 116 Pro DX f/2.8, Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS, Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
Accessories: YongNuo Speedlite YN-468 Flash, Neewer Macro LED Ring Light, Meike Battery Grip, YongNuo RF-602 Wireless Flash Trigger & Receiver YongNuo WR-128 Wireless Remote Control

Sorry aragorn1980, Rorschach is correct!
Will check Panasonic website to see if they offer an answer
Cheers
Exklman

Ok sorry for my misunderstanding, wish i had more solid information about your problem.

I submitted my question to Panasonic here in Australia; below is their response....


Thank you for taking the time to contact Panasonic with your enquiry.
           
Details on the SD CARD accepted and able to be used with the DMC-G3 are advised on Page 25 of the attached manual. The fastest card we are able to advised would be a Class 10 22mb/s
Kind Regards,
Gavin
Customer Service Representative
 
Customer Care Centre
P 132 600   
E ccc@panasonic.com.au     
W www.panasonic.com.au    

This probably means that the internal construction of the camera ( CPU, bridge connections, memory etc.) can only transfer data up to a certain rate and speed.So whatever you choose this is probably the highest transfer speed you will achieve between camera and card.

It's not so much about the CPU, bridge and memory but rather the buffer's transfer rate to the card.

The CSR's advice suggests that with a 22MB/s write speed, an SD card with a 30MB/s maximum write speed is already redundant at the top end so unless the 45MB/s card's average write speed is higher than that of the 30MB/s card, you probably won't be better off with it.

_________________
Bodies: Canon EOS 550D w/ Magic Lantern
Lenses: Tokina AT-X 116 Pro DX f/2.8, Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS, Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
Accessories: YongNuo Speedlite YN-468 Flash, Neewer Macro LED Ring Light, Meike Battery Grip, YongNuo RF-602 Wireless Flash Trigger & Receiver YongNuo WR-128 Wireless Remote Control