SD card for Digilux 2.

[j_w_davies]

My Digilux 2 should be returning from Solms next week, and I think it's time to get a new SD card.
I only shoot RAW. Am I right in thinking that the performance of the Sandisk ultra 2 can't be improved on? i.e. if I were to get an Ultra 3, or equivalent faster card, that it will not make a difference to the RAW writing speed.

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Phiary

[dugby]

Originally Posted by j_w_davies

My Digilux 2 should be returning from Solms next week, and I think it's time to get a new SD card.
I only shoot RAW. Am I right in thinking that the performance of the Sandisk ultra 2 can't be improved on? i.e. if I were to get an Ultra 3, or equivalent faster card, that it will not make a difference to the RAW writing speed.

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Phiary

Your thinking is correct. Much about SD write performance of the D2 was written in the old Leica forum.

I seem to recall the limitation was the actual D2's write speed was quite low and any SD card above about 20 to 33x Write speed was not going to deliver any improvement.

I have both a 1GB and 2GB Sandisk Extreme III (ie 133x Write speed) for my D2. The reason I went with these was for the higher read speeds, when I transfer the images to my Vosonic portable storage device.

Interesting point is that my 1GB card always has a reported transfer rate higher than the 2GB card (sometimes I wonder if my 2GB card is one of the EBAY fakes...).

Gauging by the continuous warning on EBAY of Sandisk fakes...... I recently have been buying Panasonic and Toshiba SD cards.

[wparsonsgisnet]

Originally Posted by dugby

... Interesting point is that my 1GB card always has a reported transfer rate higher than the 2GB card ...

Not to hijack the thread (tho it's probably complete), I notice in my M8 (I do also have a D2 and agree with Dugby's comment about speed) that it takes twice as long to write to a 4gb card as to a 2gb card.

There is a recent thread, here:

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-...-4gb-150x.html

that discusses a solution for my 4gb card. The suggestion is to format in the camera, using FAT and not FAT-32. You might see if this changes the relative speed of your 2gb vs 1gb card.

[Ruhayat]

Actually, the Sandisk Extreme III writes 2x faster than the Sandisk Ultra II in the Digilux 2. In fact, in real world terms, with the Extreme III the Digilux 2 writes highest quality JPEG almost instantaneously!

Just today I bought an Extreme III card to improve write performance on my D-Lux 3 for RAW. It did indeed cut the write time down to about 3 seconds.

Out of curiosity, I then stuck the new card into my Digilux 2. I was pleasantly surprised -- it's like my Digilux 2 has gotten a new breath of life. The result, timed using an online stopwatch, are as follows:

Digilux 2 - RAW format
1. Sandisk Ultra II -- 10 seconds
2. Sandisk Extreme III -- 6 seconds

Digilux 2 - JPEG format (highest quality)
1. Sandisk Ultra II -- 3.5 seconds
2. Sandisk Extreme III -- 2 seconds

Needless to say, I now need a second Extreme III card.

[Ruhayat]

On the other hand, I note from the web that 6-second RAW write is pretty much the Digilux 2 standard. So I may have been using a dud Sandisk Ultra II card all this while. Bummer.

[ASpes]

Originally Posted by j_w_davies

My Digilux 2 should be returning from Solms next week, and I think it's time to get a new SD card.
I only shoot RAW. Am I right in thinking that the performance of the Sandisk ultra 2 can't be improved on? i.e. if I were to get an Ultra 3, or equivalent faster card, that it will not make a difference to the RAW writing speed.

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I cannot say about Sandisk, as I use a few Kingston Ultimate 2Gb in my D/2, and getting about 6sec for raw, but anyway it's always better to have a faster card because, even if you do not get faster write times *in* the camera, you will see an improvement in the trasfer time when downloading the images to your pc, if you use an external card reader of course.

ASpes

[krabat]

Hi, I use an "usual" blue high-speed Panasonic 2 GB SD-card, and it takes my DL 2 6 (six) seconds to store a RAW image.
Could it be that the time needed for RAW storage has something to do with the firmware? I had my camera at the customer service for sensor replacement, and they said that there has been an overall improvement of the camera too.

Best regards, Peter.

[elgenper]

Originally Posted by krabat

Hi, I use an "usual" blue high-speed Panasonic 2 GB SD-card, and it takes my DL 2 6 (six) seconds to store a RAW image.
Could it be that the time needed for RAW storage has something to do with the firmware? I had my camera at the customer service for sensor replacement, and they said that there has been an overall improvement of the camera too.

Best regards, Peter.

Same results for me using the same cards. Recently I bought some new cards, and since I had just bought a Dlux 3, I bought Extreme III´s. No difference in write time when using in the Digilux 2, but far faster when put in a card reader for download afterwards.

When comparing times, make sure you do it in good light, however. In low light, there´s some kind of noise subtracion done (even in raw) that takes some extra seconds, and which is of course independent of the card type.