what is the write speed on the A300

[firstascent]

Ive been searching around but can't find any info on what the write speed is on the A300. I currently have a lexar udma 300x 4GB card but want to get an 8GB and was wondering if I should still stick with the fast 300x card or if its just overkill if the camera can't even write that fast.

Thanks

[TCav]

First, there's no such thing as 'too fast'. A UDMA card may be more that you need now, but maybe not later, and maybe not for your next camera.

Second, if you shoot RAW continuous, I think you should stick with 300x cards. But if you only shoot JPEG continuousyou could probably get away with a 133x card, and if you never shoot continuous, you could probably go even slower.

Notice that the slower the card you use, the less stuff you can do.

[JimC]

The A300 cannot take advantage of a UDMA card (only the A700 can in the Sony lineup). Tests I've seen show no performance increase between a fast 133x card (i.e., Lexar 133x) versus a 300x UDMA card in the other Sony Alpha models (only the A700 uses UDMA).

Also, unless you're using a UDMA capable Firewire card reader, you will not have any increase in performance for transferring images either.

I'd probably stick to a fast 133x type card (Sandisk Extreme III, Lexar 133x, Transcend 133x, etc.), given the cost difference (UDMA cards tend to cost a lot more), unless you plan on upgrading to a UDMA capable camera body sometime soon (right now, that's only the Sony A700, Olympus E-3, Nikon D3, Nikon D300 and the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III).

[firstascent]

thank you both, thats kind of the line I was thinking about, which is why I bought the card I have now. I'd rather have something that is more than I need than is not enough. Im definitely amateur right now but who knows, maybe I will see a better camera in the near future...