What's the reason for the price difference in SD cards?

[Organizedkhaos]

Why is one SD card really super expensive and another with the same gig capacity is more affordable?

[shoturtle]

Brand, Sandisk and Panasonic are the high end brands. Then there it the class rating. Class 10 are generally more expensive then class 6 and there is allot of cheaper class 4 out there. And size of the card also affect the price.

[Organizedkhaos]

How do the class ratings effect the overall performance?

I found http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Standa...7440271&sr=8-6

But its only a class 2.

[JimC]

The Class ratings for SDHC cards are designed to show the minimum write speed the card can support (Class 2 = 2MB/Second, Class 4 = 4MB/Second, Class 6 = 6MB/Second, Class 10 = 10MB/Second).

Write speed can be important for some applications. For example, some video formats may need a Class 4 or Class 6 card so that the card is fast enough for recording video without the camera's internal buffer (onboard fast memory in the camera that it writes to first) filling up resulting in stalled video recording.

When shooting still images, card speed also comes into the equation (how many photos in a row you can get using faster continuous drive modes before the internal memory fills up and the camera slows down to the speed it can write to the memory card it's using). How fast a camera can write to a card will vary by camera model (with some cameras, you may not see as much benefit with a faster card, since the camera's processing of the images can be a bottleneck, too)

I'd probably get a Class 10 Transcend Card, as those have pretty good "bang for the buck". Here are some at newegg.com (in fact, I just ordered a Transcend Class 10 SDHC card from there myself last week).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ass+10&x=0&y=0

It looks like you're looking at a 32GB card. I don't see a Class 10 Transcend at newegg.com right now in that size (although they've got the Class 6 Transcend 32GB cards in stock). But, it looks like amazon.com has them if you wanted a 32GB Class 10 card:

http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Ulti.../dp/B003P3MCXW

[Organizedkhaos]

Thank you SO much JimC. I was wondering how well the Transcend holds up in comparison to the other ones listed above.
Your message was so informative. You answered my questions completely!

[JimC]

That's the brand I use (Transcend), since they have much better "bang for the buck" compared to the Sandisk brand cards, and they have a lifetime warranty, too.

The Transcend Class 10 cards test about the same for write speed as the more expensive Sandisk Class 10 cards in non Sandisk card readers and devices (although a Class 10 Sandisk card in a Sandisk reader tests slightly faster, as Sandisk probably optimizes their own card reader design to work better with Sandisk brand cards).

For example, both the Transcend and Sandisk Class 10 cards test at about 20MB/Second write speeds in readers using a JMicron chipset. See some tests here showing how speeds compare in a few different card readers:

http://www.hjreggel.net/cardspeed/sp...cards-sdc.html

[Photo 5]

I am using a class 10 16GB SDHC card in my Fuji HS10 now (2,000 or so pictures taken with it). I used 2 transcend CF cards in my old now broken Sony D-SLR Bodies and never had an issue. One was a 16GB 133x and the other was an 8GB 133x speed card.

dave

[shoturtle]

I have over 60k photos on a delkin 16gb class 6 card, and over 30k on a transcend 16gb class 10 card, no issues. So as long as you get a good sd card form a good maker you are find.