Digital camera noob needs help ...

[epaludo]

I'm a noob when the subject is photography, so sorry if the questions are too dumb. Currently aiming for a new digital camera once mine has been stolen a while ago and i'm tired of the crappy cellphone camera.

After some research, i'm going towards the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8. Looks one of the best performance for the buck ratio.

I'm trying to decide which SD memory card to buy (8GB). There are the reliable brands (eg: SanDisk) and generic ones. The price difference is huge, so i was wondering if it's really worthy to get the big brands ones instead of a generic? What could be the differences in use? I'd appreciate if you can suggest me a good SD 8GB memory card.

Also researching for a spare of battery. Found out this which has 1400 mAh capacity (costs $16). Should i get this with no problem or should i get the original Panasonic battery (720 mAh) which is way more expensive (costs around $50).

Feel free to add any suggestion. Even if i should look for another camera. Any help is gonna be really appreciated ...

[al217739]

imo ny old sd is as good as another, theyre probably all made in the same place

batteries is a different matter! i wouldnt use anything else than a dell battery on my dell laptop

[epaludo]

Anyone else to help me here ... ?

[meat01]

I would go with 2 smaller San Disk cards, rather than a generic 8 gig. If one of your memory cards has issues, all of your photos are not lost. Are you really going to take 3000 or however many pictures without downloading them to a PC? 8 gigs is overkill IMO, especially on 1 card.

Sorry, I can't help you on the battery.

[HighLife]

i dont like using generic batteries for anything. Just my opinion...I pretty much always live by "If you buy a 5$ diamond, you get a 5$ diamond). Dont skimp with your camera..i know its ok to be try and save a bit, but dont sacrifice something as important as a battery. Generic batteries can sometimes hurt your device since its prob some cheap Korean (no Offense to any Koreans) knock off, which is why its priced cheaper.

For the SD card, if you plan on shooting RAW (if your camera can) or planning on shooting a bracket of shots (like 3 shots in a row quickly all with different exposure settings) then you want a high speed card. This will let you camera fire off the photos as fast as it can, which lets you not miss out on the shot you trying to make. If you get a slow cheap card, then you might pay the price and miss that 1 shot.

[jilgiljongiljing]

Get a Sandisk Ultra II. I believe Ultra III isnt really any better than the II. You can get a 2gb Ultra II for fairly cheap prices. Get two of those, keep one in the camera case for backup. Since they are so compact, I really dont see the point of getting a very high capacity card since they are so easy to swap.

[jmmtn4aj]

I'm fairly trigger happy and have two cameras, D2H and D50, and I've found I never needed more than 2x2gig cards for either camera. Even overseas with the D50 a single 2gig card was more than enough for a day or two worth of shooting at L (full 6mp res) fine setting.

[dj_mocok]

8GB is wayyy too much for camera like FZ8.

I'd probably get a 2GB SD the most. Realistically I think you just need to shoot at Finest JPG, so with 2GB, you'll be getting more than 500 pictures with 2GB.

I'm not quite sure about the buffer of your card, but since this thing can record movie, so you might want a card that's a bit faster like Ultra II, not the standard blue Sandisk.

Other alternative is maybe Transcend 2GB 150X, that's faster than Ultra II and I think it's either the same price is almost the same like Ultra II.

For battery, back when I was still using my Panasonic FZ20, I got myself a spare generic battery too, mainly because the original one is so much more expensive. The generic one fully charged, can take maybe around 70% as many shots as original ones.

You get what you paid for, but for me even 70% is still a good value since original one is so expensive.

But according to the link you provided, the generic is even higher rated than original one. Hard to believe, but who knows, maybe it is. For 16 bucks just give it a shot.

[Happymonkey]

I've gotta agree with the majority sentiment on the memory card. 8gb is a tad overkill and you'd save much more money on 2x 4gb or just 2x 2gb memory cards. You're more than likely going to run out of battery before you fill up the 8gb and unless you shoot in RAW and bracket the shots you're not going to fill up the card to the point where you can't reach a computer in time.

As far as brands go, I don't think it matters too much unless again you're doing some high end top quality style pictures. Most memory cards will accept the transfer from the camera within a reasonable amount of time with high quality jpgs, so I wouldn't personally go for any high end high speed memory cards unless you find yourself in that area.

[jilgiljongiljing]

As far as brands go, I don't think it matters too much unless again you're doing some high end top quality style pictures. Most memory cards will accept the transfer from the camera within a reasonable amount of time with high quality jpgs, so I wouldn't personally go for any high end high speed memory cards unless you find yourself in that area.

While most of that is true, its not completely true. For any prosumer camera, a high speed card is a must, unless you are simply going to use Auto mode and snap regular pics like you would with any lower end camera.

If you plan to do continuous shooting at all, a high speed card is a must. If you wanna take bracketting shots, you need a high speed card. If the camera you are getting has 640x480 video at 30fps like the Canon S3, a high speed card is a must. Slower cheaper SD cards cannot handle a 6-7mp continuous shooting from a decent camera that can snap pics pretty fast.