When most of us choose an SD card for our digital camera, we probably don't look far beyond its capacity. Technology blog Tested shows us, though, that the speed of your SD card can make a difference in high quality photo taking.
Photo by Ryosuke Sekido.
If you're just using a regular point-and-shoot camera, you probably don't need to pay attention to the speed of your SD card, but if you're using a high-quality DSLR (especially if you're shooting in RAW), speed can make quite a difference in usability:
If you use a digital SLR and plan to take a lot of burst and continuous mode photos, then memory card speed is an important factor. The New York Times' David Pogue noted in 2006 that, while smaller cameras don't need high-speed memory cards, the amount of information being pushed through while taking a series of high-resolution shots on an SLR requires a faster card. With slower cards, a camera's burst mode might only be able to capture a handful of photos before its buffer fills up and the user has to wait for the files to write to the card.
Most SD cards should have a single digit number on them, such as 2, 4, 6, or 10 to denote their speed. Sandisk's class 4 cards, for example, transfer speeds at 15 MB/sec, and their class 6 cards have a speed of 30 MB/sec. It may not be something you've thought about before, but if you take a lot of hi-res action shots, you might find that higher speed SD cards will increase your camera's performance. Hit the link for more information, and share your own camera usability tips in the comments.