In my first post I reported on the RAW file writing speeds using a 2gb Sandisk Extreme III SD card. I have done some more testing with the following results.
Since I tried the Extreme III I have used a couple of other 2gb SD cards in the G1. They are a Transcend 150x and a X4store card – the latter has no rating and since it came free with a camera I suspect that it is a pretty cheap low speed card.
The table below shows the results.
| 7 or 5 shot time | Buffer full time between shots | Clearing full buffer time | |
| Sandisk Extreme III 2gb SD | 2.5 secs / 7 shots | 1.25 secs | 7 secs |
| Transcend 150x 2gb SD | 3 secs / 7 shots | 1.5 secs | 10 secs |
| X4store 2gb SD | 2.5 secs / 5 shots | 3 secs | 16 secs |
The key point is that the X4store card only allowed 5 shots to be taken before the buffer filled up, rather than the 7 shots that the G1 is supposed to take. The other two were fine, so the G1 specs seem to assume a certain write speed for the SD cards in use.
The Sandisk Extreme III allows faster continuous shooting than the Transcend 150x. The X4store card is really noticeably slower in all aspects of use, slower continuous shooting, much slower shooting when the buffer is full and it takes an age to clear the buffer.
Conclusion
Card speed matters, but so long as you are above a certain write speed not hugely. Cheap no-name or own brand cards are likely to be slow and disappoint on the RAW writing speed front.
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