Dork Question

[russellsnr]

Ok, so I'm a dork but a dork with a 1Ds mark II on it's way and I see that it takes SD cards but there are SD, SDHC,SD micro and as I have never used one before what one do I need for the 1Ds?
Thanks
Russ.

[ktuli]

Russ,

You don't want the SD Micro (or the SD Mini for that matter) - at least without an adapter. I technically use an SD Micro card in one of my P&S cameras, but it came with an adapter to make it work in a regular SD slot. I don't know if there is a performance hit from that though.

As far as SD vs SDHC vs SDXC, they should all work, and are basically distinctions based on the size of the cards. There is a possibility that the camera might not take SDXC, but should definitely be able to support SD or SDHC. A good article on SD is available at wikipedia.

I also believe the 1Ds mark II works with CF as well.

- Bill

[Jim B.]

I have a 1DIII and use a SDHC card.The 1Ds have both CF and SD card slots.Great for giving you more memory.You can also save specific camera setups on the SD card and load them into the camera when you want to use the settings saved.

From LuminousLandscape:

Saving Custom Settings
Most digital cameras can save one or two, or more custom settings in groups that can be recalled. While adding the ability to save custom settings (virtually every mode and setting that the camera has, including all Custom and Personal Functions), the Mark II takes a different road by writing these to the memory card instead of the camera's nonvolatile memory.

This is a great feature for photographers working at studios, newspapers and magazines, where cameras are a shared resource. Simply save your custom settings to a memory card and then the next time you pick up any camera body of the same model just load them from the card. It just takes a couple of seconds. The camera is then right back to either the way you prefer to use it, or to a special configuration that you may have set.

My friend Andy Biggs, who conducts photographic safari workshop in Africa, and who shoots with a 1D Mark II, told me that on his last workshop there were several members shooting with the similarly featured 1D Mark II as well. Some were commenting that they weren't sure how to set up all the camera's multiple configurations. Andy simply wrote those from his camera to a card, and a few seconds later everyone in the group had their custom functions and basic settings configured in the same way. Cool.

My only complaint is that only one recording can be made to any one card. What a silly limitation. One way around this is to use low capacity and therefore inexpensive SD cards to store multiple custom setting profiles, and just load them in as needed. Of course the question needs to be asked – why Canon doesn't also allow for saving one or more sets of profiles to nonvolatile memory in the camera, as other makers do on their consumer-grade cameras. This is an example of when a company places a great feature on its consumer models but neglects to provide it on the pro models.

[russellsnr]

Thank you for the replies. I again assume that a 512mb card would suffice for custom settings but also understand that you can only place one setting per card?
Thanks
Russ