WOOHOO!!! My new K-r Just Arrived!

[Big Bad John]

Just unboxed my new K-r with 18-55mm and 55-300mm kit lenses. The build quality is better than I expected. I've been through the setup menu, played with the lenses, and now have the battery on the charger. I can hardly wait to get started!

Question - What type/capacity of SD card to you fellow Pentaxians recommend for the K-r? I'm picking one up at lunch if I can get some time...maybe on the way home. BBJ

[blackcloudbrew]

There are a lot of opinions about the class of SDHC cards to get and brands as well. Personally I prefer Sandisk brand and generally their 15/mb sec (I think that's class 4) or higher. True to form, I just bough a 16gb card PNY brand (why them? well I wanted it now and that's what my local store had in that size) which is a class 10 card (20mb/sec). This is for my K-5 which has a 16mpx sensor. I also bought an Sandisk Ultra II 8gb as a back up for the K-5.

Bottom line, don't go cheap on SD cards. They do occasionally fail. The fastest ones do not necessarily mean that the camera can store the data in the card faster. I'd suggest you get an 8gb card and a back up 4gb card. That should give you plenty of room and space.

[Big Bad John]

Thanks for the input. I generally lean towards SanDisk, but have used Transcend with good results. I think I'll just spring for the SanDisk in a Class 10. That should be enough overkill. BBJ

[blackcloudbrew]

One other thing and sorry if you already know this. It has been beaten into me that periodic reformatting of SD cards is a good thing. It eliminates problems with corrupted data storage etc. Don't delete files using your computer on your SD card, don't just make room on it by deleting files with your camera, download your data, make several copies, and reformat the card from time to time (how often? that does depend on how much you shoot but, at least every few months or before big shoots). YMMV

[Big Bad John]

Good point. I had trouble early on with some of the high-speed Transcend cards. After reformatting them, the data error problems went away. I've been using two of these cards for about 4 years now and with reformatting quarterly, I've had no further problems. I know that I've put at least 10,000 photos through those 2GB cards with no problems since then. Thanks for reinforcing the tip though, it's always good to be reminded. BBJ

[Ron Kruger]

Like Tim said: don't skimp on cards. I shoot only RAW and use 4GB most of the time and 8GB sometimes. I've used larger, but having so many shots on a single card makes me nervous.
However, I don't do jobs that require 1,000 exposures at a session and try to make every shot count.

[Big Bad John]

Just picked up two of the SanDisk Extreme III 8GB cards (Class 10). Should work fine. BBJ

[Mike Pearson]

Code:

Just picked up two of the SanDisk Extreme III 8GB cards (Class 10). Should work fine

I use four of these with my K20D, so far they have been perfect 

Mike

[terrytootall]

Hi all

On my *ist-DL, I use SANDISK 1G SD cards. For my K20D: if I am on vacation I prefer to use  SANDISK 2G or 4G cards, though I have some HP & Panasonic backup cards; if at home or close to home, I may use the LEXAR 8G 15/mb sec. In the past several years, I've only had one SD card get corrupted (on my ist-DL) . As soon as I can, I copy all files onto my computer and also onto an external 1T hard drive (the 1T drive stays off until needed). I also format all cards in-camera twice, prior to use. So far, no more corruptions.

My 2-bits .... 

TTT