Faster CF card, faster camera?

SoloCamo · May 19th, 2008, 11:10 PM

Hey all!

I've got an ancient Nikon Coolpix 2000 2mp camera that has simply been a work horse for me and the family over the years. It is clunky, it eats batteries, and it doesn't always take the greatest pictures but in the end it always gets the job done.
However, there has always been one drawback; it has extremely slow load times between pictures. It's running ancient as well, 128mb simpletech Compact Flash card and I'm assuming the majority of the issue lies with the card?

I'm no Digital camera expert, but I'm assuming switching to a more modern, CF card, perhaps a 2gb 133 speed one would increase the load times between shots at least 50%, or does it not work that way?

Thanks for any input!

bhess · May 19th, 2008, 11:27 PM

I'm not to sure it'll make a difference.

Getting a new camera will though.....

Having gone through a few cameras over the years i do notice that they take quicker pics and last longer on batteries.

The tech in cameras has been changing very fast.

The Lumix I just got has face recognition, steady shot, and takes HD movies.

SoloCamo · May 19th, 2008, 11:32 PM

Of course a new camera will be faster and better all around, but I figure if I'm fairly happy with the current camera and I can solve my biggest woe with it by dramatically increasing the speed and data capacity (which would be by replacing the slow load times of the 10x 128mb CF card with a 133x 2gb card) for 20 bucks, it would be a much better option than dropping $150 for a newer camera and decent sized SD card.

But again, it boils down to the simple question of if the bottleneck is the 10x 128mb card.

bhess · May 19th, 2008, 11:43 PM

Well the only way to truly know is to try it.

Buy local and you can always return it if it doesn't help. Or better yet see if a friend has a card to borrow.

Foggy · May 20th, 2008, 04:04 PM

I'm not pushing this site but you should look here to get a better idea of what you can get for not very much money.

Cheap Digital Cameras, Discount Digital Cameras, Kodak Digital Cameras at Geeks.com

nemowolf · May 20th, 2008, 04:44 PM

You wont see much of an increase at all. When you stop to think about it. What is faster, a 10k rpm drive with 160gigs or a 7200rpm drive with 40 gigs? The rotational speed may be faster but it has FAR more media to cover when reading and writing.

The only way to REALLY test it out is going to be to buy one and try it. I suspect that your going to find that the speed of the memory card is going to hit a bottleneck in the cameras ability to write at a decent pace as well. Since you have a 2MP camera, I think your going to be much happier with getting a newer, faster, and higher MP camera. If anything you will notice the clarity, brightness, and color improve in addition to battery life, movie capabilities and faster read/write times.

If you want faster write times but dont want to try spending money, turn off your preview window and use the view finder so it cuts down processing time. This may not make a huge difference but i have read it helps. Other then that SLR's are faster then regular digi cams.

SoloCamo · May 20th, 2008, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nemowolf

You wont see much of an increase at all. When you stop to think about it. What is faster, a 10k rpm drive with 160gigs or a 7200rpm drive with 40 gigs? The rotational speed may be faster but it has FAR more media to cover when reading and writing.

On that subject, actually you are wrong.

The 10k rpm will still be faster at moving data, but it simply has more data to move. Nonetheless it is still moving data faster.

In my case, I am looking for write speeds more than anything else. With the new CF card I would be increasing both write and read speeds tremendously, meanwhile increasing the storage.

Either way, I've got a transcend 2gb 133x CF card on the way, so when it arrives I will update everyone with the results.

Thanks for the help, though!

excuzzzeme · May 21st, 2008, 12:30 AM

Just having a faster card doesn't mean the camera has the bus speed to support it.

tony_j15 · May 21st, 2008, 01:10 AM

and as ancient as that camera is, I'm not sure it will support a 2gb card. Lots of the older cameras max out at 1gb.

RamonGTP · May 21st, 2008, 01:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nemowolf

You wont see much of an increase at all. When you stop to think about it. What is faster, a 10k rpm drive with 160gigs or a 7200rpm drive with 40 gigs? The rotational speed may be faster but it has FAR more media to cover when reading and writing.

Not quite. Physical platter size is the same the difference is that larger (capacity) platter has the data more condensed, which actually helps with performance. Meaning even if they had the exact same spindle speed, the larger drive is usually faster, unless the larger drive is using the exact same platter, except more of them, in which case the performance would be about the same.

Solo, like others said, you just need to try it and find out. Just like computers, the camera will only be as fast as the slowest part. Who knows if that's the flash media or the camera itself.