Pros: Fast read and write speeds, Very high capacity
Cons: Slightly more expensive than standard speed cards
The Bottom Line: This memory card holds more than enough for any user and the high speed has many benefits. This should be the only card you ever need to buy.
noangels's Full Review: SanDisk Ultra® II 60x (2 GB) SD Card (SDSDH-2...
I purchased this card for my Canon Powershot Elph SD 600 and have also used it in my mother's Kodak Easyshare Z730. I wanted a memory card that would ensure that I would always have enough memory for any situation. I enjoy photography and love to make scrapbooks so I hate to ever miss a moment. This card has now become my main memory card with my 1 gigabyte card now doing backup duty.
Memory Card Type
Secure Digital (SD) is the most widely used type of memory card and the cheapest. Current Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Nikon, Panasonic, Gateway, Konica-Minolta, Vivitar, Dell, and Casio cameras use this card. It is also used widely in PDAs, mobile phones, camcorders, Mp3 players, and GPS units. These memory cards are easy to find in both high and standard speeds.
Brand
San Disk is well known as a memory card manufacturer. Often times people mistakenly refer to the memory cards by the brand name (often mispronouncing it as Scan Disk) or think SD stands for San Disk. This brand provides high quality memory cards at a reasonable price, even backing them up with a lifetime warranty.
Price
Since SD cards are the most popular memory cards sold in most stores, they are the most frequently discounted in weekly sales. Electronic stores typically sell this 2 gigabyte memory card for $20 above the price of the standard speed cards. For example, the regular price at Best Buy for this card is $119.99 as opposed to $99.99 for the standard speed 2 gigabyte memory card. I have seen it on sale ranging in price from $97.99 to $105.99.
Why Ultra II?
The sustained minimum write speed of Ultra II cards is 9MB/second and the minimum read speed is 10MB/second. These cards write three times faster than standard cards. This reduces the time the camera takes to write the picture to the card, decreasing the time between pictures tremendously. This is especially helpful when photographing children, pets, or sports. I've also found it to be very helpful when using any kind of burst mode (continuous shooting). Often people complain about lag between pictures on their camera. This lag can be caused by standard speed memory cards.
The higher write speed of this card is very important when buying a 2 gigabyte card. Because of the high capacity, it takes your camera a great deal of time to search for the end of the memory card and record the picture on a standard speed card. Think of it like a relay race where every time you complete one lap, someone moves the finish line away 3 or 4 feet. After a few hundred laps it may be taking you ten or twenty times longer per lap. When purchasing any memory card over 1 gigabyte, high speed is a necessity. Otherwise, buy two 1 gigabyte cards. With the high speed cards, I have noticed no downside to having a card with such a high capacity since it doesn't come at the expense of lag. I was even able to capture lightning using my camera's burst mode. 539 shots after I started shooting, I had the picture I wanted. Often times we have to take hundreds of pictures to get the shot we want but with a card like this there is always plenty of room.
Another benefit to the Ultra II cards is an increase in battery life. Your camera spends a lot less time searching the memory card when you are both shooting and reviewing pictures as well as spending very little time writing to the memory card. I have noticed an average of 170 pictures difference in battery life between the Ultra II and standard cards.
The faster read time is helpful when reviewing pictures on your camera, transferring them to or viewing them on your computer, or putting the card in a printer. I use an Epson Picturemate to print my photos and the photos are displayed on the screen much faster when I use an Ultra II card. I was really impressed to see what a difference there really was between the two types of cards. I now buy only high speed cards.
I use these cards mostly with cameras but there are benefits for other uses as well. On MP3 players it should decrease the time between songs and decrease the time it takes to put your music on the card. On a GPS, maps should be stored and read quicker. On a mobile phone, information such as ring tones, song files, and pictures, is accessed more quickly. The same goes for PDAs. Camcorders will have the same benefits seen on digital cameras.
Storage
This card stores 2 gigabytes (2048 megabytes) of pictures. How many pictures this actually stores depends on the camera itself. On average, 2 gigabytes hold 1,024 images on a 4 megapixel camera. The compression, megapixels, and settings all affect the size of the picture and therefore how many can be stored. If you have a 5 megapixel camera and you have the compression set very high and reduce the megapixels to 2 megapixels you will get almost double the pictures you would have gotten at highest quality and lowest compression. Kodak cameras have very high compression so you will see these cameras will hold more images than other cameras. My Mom's 5 megapixel Kodak Z730 holds 1,397 pictures on this card at the highest quality and lowest compression. My 6 megapixel Canon SD 600 holds 752 images at the highest quality and lowest compression. Pictures on a PDA, camcorder or cell phone will also vary in maximum number as it depends on the quality and size of each image.
Songs average about 4 megabytes each, but vary depending on length and quality of audio. A 2 gigabyte card will store about 512 songs. Video from a digital camera will average an hour and 45 minutes on a 2 gigabyte card.
2 gigabytes of storage is really the highest I recommend for most people (unless you have a digital SLR camera). When you buy a memory card for a camera, you want something that will hold enough pictures to last your most camera-hungry vacation. You never want to buy a memory card in an airport where they are often $30-$40 overpriced (we actually have dealers come into our store when cards are on sale to buy them for this purpose). Many people believe that you take fewer pictures on a digital camera when often it is the opposite. Yes, you can delete pictures but seeing the picture the instant it is taken, often encourages the amateur photographer in everyone. If you like your digital camera, it is a safe bet to assume that you will be taking more pictures than you did on your old film camera. Don't underestimate the kid in you that will be excited to see his or her artwork. I recommend that every person have at least a 1 gigabyte high-speed memory card, but if you can afford the upgrade and want to ensure that you never run out of pictures, this card is great.
Durability
As always, I don't recommend beating up any product but this memory card is rated to be able to withstand a 10 foot drop. Mine gets tossed around and beat up often and it is still going. I recommend keeping it in the clear plastic case that comes in the package. It will protect the card and make it a tiny bit harder to lose.
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