Camera Labs

Hi all,

I recently upgraded my 2 GB SD card and got a 4 GB SDHC card instead. I now use the 2 GB card in my compact and the 4 GB in my D80.

Only problem is: my laptop (an HP Pavilion) has a slot for SD cards but apparently isn't able to read the SDHC card (and it is able to read the "normal" SD card)! So now I have to connect the camera with a cable to my laptop, which isn't fun when there's a SD slot ready to be used...

Are there settings I can adjust so my laptop can read the card or am I doomed to use a cable forever (or get a cardreader)?

If I had known this I would have gotten 2 "simple" extra SD cards. It's quite annoying to constantly have to connect my camera and my laptop for putting pictures on my HD.

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.:Nikon D80 - AF-S DX 18-135mm:.
.:Canon Ixus 70:.

Hi Yves, I fear you're stuck with SD-only slot on your laptop. There's no known way to make it SDHC-compatible - not even for read-only.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I figured (and feared) that this would be the answer. Oh well, nothing I can do about it. A card reader is only €15 so it's worth investing in.

Thx for your quick reply!

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.:Nikon D80 - AF-S DX 18-135mm:.
.:Canon Ixus 70:.

Hi

I have just bought the Panasonic FX500 and was purchasing a SDHC card when I realised my Sony Laptop SD slot wouldn't be compatible.

Are there significant benefits of the SDHC cards relative to SD cards? This might be a stupid question, but is image quality better ? Does the camera perform better depending on the card type?

So far I've read that SDHC enables companies to manufacture larger cards, and that it can affect speed of writing to the card.

I'm a casual/hobby photographer, and large cards wouldn't be too important to me- eg I think I'd prefer to have two 2GB cards than one 4GB one. I don't take that many video clips either.

Any advice would be much appreciated so I can figure out what to do next!

Thanks

SDHC is the only way to buy 4GB cards and larger. Standard SD is limited to 2GB max!
Beware: There are card manufacturers that offer Standard SD cards with 4GB. Stay clear of those offers!

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Regular SD-cards actually do go up to 4GB.

From Wikipedia.

Any reasonably modern device bought in the last few years should be able to read 4GB SD cards. I deliberately chose to buy a 4GB SD card for my camera and not a SDHC even though the camera supports it because I can use it with hardware I already have. I have a HP hx4700 Pocket PC with a very nice 4 inch VGA screen but it doesn't support SDHC. I have always used it with a 4GB SD-card (bought 2.5 years ago for ten times the price I bought 4GB cards for this year). With a regular SD card in my camera I can put the SD-card directly from the camera in the Pocket PC if I want to view photos on the 4 inch VGA screen. And I still have to check whether any of my current card-readers support SDHC so I didn't have to bother about that either. Unless you shoot a lot of video a 4GB card will give you more than enough space for your photos. You won't easily fill that up in a single shooting day.

Ben
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When in doubt..... Press the shutter.

My test with a 4GB SD card in my D80 failed miserably: I lost around 1000 shots

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

That's ehh..... 'unfortunate'? Although I imagine you may have used some other words when that happened.

Had you formatted the card in the camera? And did it indicate the number of available shots you would expect from a 4GB card? If the camera could write to the card without generating an error you would expect it to work. Did you try transferring the photos through a USB connection with the camera? I assume that's possible with a D80.

I have experienced some odd behaviour with my first 4GB SD card. A 150x Transcend card. It worked but the Pocket PC indicated a varying amount of used/free space which had no relation to the real amount of used/free space. After a few contacts with Transcend they concluded the card was faulty and asked me to exchange it. I did and the replacement has worked flawlessly since. At the time 4GB SD cards were pretty new I think and I theorised they possibly had had some teething problems fully implementing the SD standards. They did tell me at the time they had produced these cards with two different controller chips in them. Perhaps they had changed this chip because of such problems.

Ben
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When in doubt..... Press the shutter.

2gb is still considered normal sd.

As far as I can see there are no physical differences between the interface card reader/card interface of the SDHC and SD cards so maybe a firmware update will help?

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Graham
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