SD cards for D7000.

[Kit]

The D7000 is now available again in NZ and I am considering a purchase, mainly so I can take advantage of the better noise and low light performance. I have been reading up on suitable cards for the camera and there is just so much conflicting information out there in webland.

The camera shop are of course keen to sell me a class 10 top end card, like the Sandisk Extreme or Extreme lll ($$$!!!) but I am also reading that a class 6 card will be sufficient. I am not planning to use the video function of the D7000 to any extent so will mainly be shooting stills. I often shoot bracketed shots though, so need something that will cope with 3-7 shots that need to rattle off fairly quickly.

So, those of you who use the D7000 for stills: what card/s do you use, how do they perform and do you wish you had bought cheaper or more expensive cards to begin with?

[chrisc]

I use a variety of SD cards, but primarily the SanDisk SDHC Card 8GB and the Transend SDHC 16GB. I've never seen any degradation of image or difference in image from either card.

[Stevewebb]

Unless you are shooting burst mode frequently like sports photography where you need to be able to shoot 10 or more shots together then it shouldn't be too much of an issue to use class 6.

It all get very technical and there are cheaper class 10 cards available. I use Fujitsu mostly and they perform well. The problem that you have to watch out for is how the cards are rated.

The rating is given according to the maximum write speed but actually this is rarely achieved and you need to look at the average write speed.

Another thing to check is what the write speed of the camera is. It would be pointless buying a card that is faster than your camera. Also check the size of the camera buffer because if that is big enough to hold say 5 shots it might not matter how fast your card is if there will then be a gap before you take the next 5 shots.

Hope this helps a bit.

[chrisc]

With the cards I have listed above, and frankly, I don't know what the write capabilities of them are, but I can shoot multiple-multiple, 6 high speed shutter bursts (6 per second), without glitch one.

[pjerry]

I only use Sandisk Extreme III (2 older 4 GB versions) and sandisk Extreme III (newer HD-video 8 GB). This is one of the cards that is recommended by Nikon.
The buffer of the D7000 is rather small (one of the major disadvantages of the D7000, if you shoot sports aso), so in burst rate (depending on the settings) you can only shot about 10 pictures (NEF) at max.

I have never heart of other people that they are having any problems with other cards, like the much cheaper Transcend.

[Barry]

Well I will only use Sandisk cards, most of mine are the Extreme 111 versions raging from 4gb to 16gb. If you go for Sandisk, do buy from a reputable source as there are so many fake Sandisk cards out there especially on Ebay.