D5100 and 16GB SDHC card options

Mediaman09

Senior Member
Couple of newbie questions on memory cards:

1) I've seen many generic numbers quoted, but all without any qualifiers. On a 5100, at full resoltiuion, how many pics will a 16GB card hold in RAW format? In JPG format?

2) Even If I stick with Class 10, there is a very wide range of speeds available to me. Conventional wisdom to me has always been get the highest quality card (pics can be priceless) and get fastest the device can handle. So for my first SD card purchase, went with a 95GB/s Sandisk (still sealed) .. was this overkill or the right move? My options are something like this:
3)
Compounding the matter more was that I really wanted an eye-fi memory card... but I dont think these exist in a fast Class 10 format.
 
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Mediaman09

Senior Member
I checked the manual but could not find any reference as to the max transfer rate the 5100 could handle .

I realize ther is no point to spend extra money a super fast card if the camera can't utilize the speed (both to write to the card and/or to transfer from card to pc)....I did ask my dealer if the faster cards were wasted on the 5100, and he felt they were not wasted in this camera ; I've been dealing with him for over a dozen years so I do trust his judgment ...but of course anyone can be mistaken :).

Would like to see some specs to know for sure before I buy more SD cards ( for backup, spares, etc)
 

Tobrew

Senior Member
I have the D5100 shooting RAW on to the SanDisk 16GB Extreme Class 10(30MB/s) and I get 906 shots. It also has no problem shooting HD video.
 

eurotrash

Senior Member
I've been using super cheap 16gb and 8gb Micro Center branded cards. They work fine for me, transfer speeds on my end are limited by my $5 card reader. I've never had issues, but when I get a new body I may buy 2 faster 8gb cards seeing as they're very cheap nowadays. I get about 800 shots in raw on my 16gb, about 450 on the 8gb, which is fine for me. My batter seems to die after around 700 shots anyways
 

westmill

Banned
Ive a feeling a lot of people just throw there money away. I use sandisk, because they are hardy and work
in extreme conditions etc. I find 30mb more than enough on the D300. Although I do have a 16gb 45mb.
To be honnest I cant see the differance, so I wouldnt pay the extra for the extra speed again.
Intrestingly, I had a cheap 8gb card that came as a freebee with one of my cameras and to be honnest Its fine lol.

The only advantage I can see in the faster cards is faster downloading to the PC.
Its not like there is time do your shopping if you use a slow card lol
 

§am

Senior Member
I believe the D5100 will use the higher speed offered by UHS-1 cards (which are backwards compatiable to class 10). Speeds are 50mb (I think for UHS-1), so any card bearing that logo should be good.
The other quoted speeds for such cards are for the (backwards) class 10, so will range as noted above in various speeds (10, 20, 30. 45, 95 etc) depending on brand.

Also, don't quote me on this, but the faster UHS-1 speeds means you can be more trigger happy with your camera and shoot more images without worrying about the built in buffer having to wait to write to the card
 
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