Jun
02
What if I use the wrong type and size memory card for the Nikon D3000 camera?
ByIt says to use a SDHC memory card, what if I use a regular SD card. Also it says to use a certain level of gb with certain brands, again what if I use the wrong one? DOes it hurt the camera or the quality?
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5 Comments
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:12 am
No! those are just recommendations. They prefer you use a high speed card (you will see a small number in a circle next to the letters SD and SDHC indicating card speed class. the higher the better like 4, 6 or 10).
SDHC just means High Capacity and that just means it has more space. The reason they suggest such cards is because the D3000 has high megapixels (on that camera, 8 MP is almost too much) and you can also set it to RAW mode which pretty much doubles the image size.
If you are just taking random photos and aren’t concerned about speed, go ahead and use a 2GB class 2 card.
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:12 am
SD cards will work fine; they’ll just operate slower (clearing out the buffer in the camera, transferring to your computer, etc). You can use any brand/capacity you like; it won’t hurt the camera at all.
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:12 am
I’m not sure there would be any problems with using a plain SD card but there would surely be a bottleneck on reading and writing to the card. If the manual says SDHC, that means your camera can handle read/write faster speeds.
As for capacity, it may be wise to stick with the recommended too. Newer cameras have higher MP and some can even do HD video and these all produce huge files. Brands are just that. From where I am, I don’t have any access to any of those recommended and popular brands. Still, whatever I buy seems to be sufficient.
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:12 am
No harm will come to the camera, but as an SD has less space than a SDHC (the HC means High Capacity, 4GB or more) you will not be able to take as many photos.
Also a faster card will enable faster continuous shooting and will empty faster on to your PC/Mac
(the speed’s relate to the original CD speed of 4M bit/sec, so 100x = 400M bits/sec, bits not bytes!, 8 bits = byte)
In summary, don’t skimp on the cards you intend to stick in it
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:12 am
Wow. Some really off the mark answers.
You can’t use the wrong type or size of card… the camera would not work if you tried.
Any device that can use SDHC can use SD., but not the other way around. They look exactly alike, because the case is the same. The innards are not the same, they are different electronically.
Now, unless you plan to shoot RAW+JPG at 3fps all day long, it really doesn’t make a bit of difference which one you use. If you use a small capacity card, like a 512MB, it will fill up faster and have to be changed. Big whoop. If you shoot at max continuous for 7 shots, the only effect you *may* notice is that it takes a little while to get all that written to the card. The camera has a buffer for a reason.
If you take a shot here, and a shot there… 1x speed is plenty. Don’t be fooled into thinking that you have to buy a 16Gb Class 10 card just because they are available… it won’t make your camera go any faster, nor will it make your pictures look better.