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Memory Card for a S3 IS

jurgenk

jurgenk

Paddler
Joined
Jun 14, 2005
Messages
510
Location
New Hazelton, BC
Hey, just purchased Daren's old (new) S3 IS and am wondering about memory cards. I did a little research on the internet and it suggests that the camera can take a 4GB card (I cannot find any information on the maximum limit in the camera manuals). Would this setup be appropriate as I do not currently have a SD card reader. I want to be able to use the camera to shoot movies and to take photos for my personal website (I need something that will make minuscule objects look much larger).

Brad
 
jurgenk said:
Would this setup be appropriate
Click to expand...

It would appear so...bear in mind though, that it will take a lonnnnng time to transfer 4GB of photos/video through a USB port; I have a 1GB XD card in my Olympus 500-UZ and it took somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20mins to move all my pictures from Alaska over to my laptop (the card wasn't even 100% full!)
 
Thanks Jurfie, I have a new laptop with the highest USB speed (I believe that it is called USB FASTEST) so I will likely go with that card and reader. Regarding your trip to Alaska: those pictures brought back memories in that 20-odd years ago I flew from Juneau to Prince Rupert in a military helicopter and that is some amazing scenery up there. Spent one night in St. Petersburg on that trip and have been to Hyder many times, and I would love to get back to Alaska proper some day. Beautiful photos...

Brad
 
Kasey said:
Yup - been to Hyder many times too....hiccup!
Click to expand...
As I've always said, what's a little grain alcohol among friends...

To the uniniated, going to Hyder, Alaska is a bit of a ritual among northwesterners in that the tradition is to go to one of the bars up there and drink a shot of 180 proof Everclear. Then you can proudly say that you have been "Hyderized". There used to be an old, dumpy bar up there where I first had it done many moons ago whose walls were covered with money from people who had been so blessed. That particular place burned down a while ago but the tradition lives on in other bars.

Brad
 
Jurfie said:
...it will take a lonnnnng time to transfer 4GB of photos/video through a USB port; I have a 1GB XD card in my Olympus 500-UZ and it took somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20mins to move all my pictures from Alaska over to my laptop (the card wasn't even 100% full!)
Click to expand...

Sounds like you are using an older USB 1.1 port. USB 2.0 is MUCH faster. I can transfer a 2GB high speed SD card in under 3 minutes. Having ultrafast SD cards help, too, and they are getting pretty cheap.
 
Steve_Fairbairn said:
Sounds like you are using an older USB 1.1 port. USB 2.0 is MUCH faster. I can transfer a 2GB high speed SD card in under 3 minutes. Having ultrafast SD cards help, too, and they are getting pretty cheap.
Click to expand...

Hmm...I thought I did have USB2.0...I'll have to check when I get home tonight.

Do the xD cards come in different speeds? Perhaps I need to get a new one; I just bought the biggest one available when I bought my camera last year sometime (which pathetically is my first digital one).
 
Dave_Barrie said:
Even better to get a laptop with an internal card reader....it's really quick :p
Click to expand...

Ah, but I *do*! Problem is, the slot is for an sD card, not an xD (which is smaller). :-(

I need a new camera... :x
 
Jurfie said:
Steve_Fairbairn said:
Sounds like you are using an older USB 1.1 port. USB 2.0 is MUCH faster. I can transfer a 2GB high speed SD card in under 3 minutes. Having ultrafast SD cards help, too, and they are getting pretty cheap.
Click to expand...

Hmm...I thought I did have USB2.0...I'll have to check when I get home tonight.

Do the xD cards come in different speeds? Perhaps I need to get a new one; I just bought the biggest one available when I bought my camera last year sometime (which pathetically is my first digital one).
Click to expand...

Your hardware may be USB 2.0 compliant but if your drivers are USB 1.1 then you will not get the USB 2.0 speed. I had this problem for a while after a cheap card reader I installled took it upon itself to 'update' my USB drivers. Also, if you plug a USB 1.1 card reader into a USB 2.0 port you will still only get 1.1 speeds which are very slow.

Even with a slow memory card you should be able to read an entire 2GB card in under 5 minutes with USB 2.0.
 
Steve_Fairbairn said:
Your hardware may be USB 2.0 compliant but if your drivers are USB 1.1 then you will not get the USB 2.0 speed. I had this problem for a while after a cheap card reader I installled took it upon itself to 'update' my USB drivers. Also, if you plug a USB 1.1 card reader into a USB 2.0 port you will still only get 1.1 speeds which are very slow.

Even with a slow memory card you should be able to read an entire 2GB card in under 5 minutes with USB 2.0.
Click to expand...

BAH! I bet that's it...thanks for the tip, I'm gonna check my drivers when I get home.
 
Hi Brad, I have a Canon S3 IS and have a 4 GB SDHC card in it. SDHC is the successor to SD cards. They come in various speeds and capacities. Mine is an OCZ brand, 4 GB, Class 4 card (the class 4 specifies the speed). It works great and will hold something like 1,400 highest-res photos or 30 minutes of highest-res video. I purchased it when it was on sale at NCIX (www.ncix.com). I also have a 1 GB card from the same manufacturer and it also works fine. The only caution I would add is that I have a niggling suspicion that possibly the first S3s made do not support the SDHC standard, only the earlier SD cards, which have a maximum capacity of 2 GB. Hope that helps.
 
Hey Jonathan, thanks for the info.... I believe it is brand new (Daren?) and I will take a look at the site you suggested. FShop has a bunch of cards but there is some confusion as to speeds.

You made a mistake in identifying yourself as being a fellow owner as now I will be turning to you with the most inane of questions. I already asked Daren if there was a default settings button on it as I have pushed too many things already, but he pretends that it was too complicated for him and refuses to answer my questions.

Brad
 
umm, most likely you'll get an RTFM reply from me to inane questions! :wink: But questions not answered by the manual are fair game.

I dunno about a big reset button. I bet if you dropped it from 6 feet onto some concrete that would do the trick. If you want to avoid that, I would just go trolling through the various menu options. I think all the settings are in non-volatile memory, so removing the batteries is not likely to reset them.

I found the manual pretty comprehensive, so if there's nothing in it about resetting, and nothing in the menus, then it probably doesn't exist.

Can always email Canon and ask them too.

Happy shooting! It's a great camera.
 
Hey Jonathan, searched the Canon Canada website and found the specifications for the camera which state that it utilizes SD cards. Further Googled "Canon S3 IS + maximum SD card size" and found this which seem to state that the limit of a SD card is 2GB but that you may find a 4GB SDHC card that will work in the S3 IS, but that there is the potential for data corruption after 2GB of storage (at least that what I believe it says). It sounds like there is the possiblity that through a firmware upgrade the camera could be upgraded to SDHC, but that it is not a certainty. Anything that is SDHC compliant should prominently display it on the packaging so I will check out the box when I get home and order either a SD or SDHC card depending on what I find. Thanks for your help and I will start reading (and attempting to understand the manual).

Brad
 
I'm pretty sure that only Olympus uses xD cards.
You shouldn't need to install any drivers for USB 2.0. WinXP and Vista have native support for this standard. If you use Win98 (ouch) or Win2000 then you will need to install drivers. Some older computers had a mix of USB1 and USB2. If your PC is running a P4 or equivalent it is quite possible that you have USB1 ports on your computer. I think any PC put together in the last 3 years will only have USB2.
 
Doug said:
I'm pretty sure that only Olympus uses xD cards.
You shouldn't need to install any drivers for USB 2.0. WinXP and Vista have native support for this standard. If you use Win98 (ouch) or Win2000 then you will need to install drivers. Some older computers had a mix of USB1 and USB2. If your PC is running a P4 or equivalent it is quite possible that you have USB1 ports on your computer. I think any PC put together in the last 3 years will only have USB2.
Click to expand...

Laptop is a Dell with a Centrino - maybe three years old (sheesh, time flies!), and it uses 2.0...I checked the camera; it uses 2.0. Maybe I'm just impatient and it seemed longer than it was... :?
 
If it was running at usb1.0, you would get a pop-up box saying something like, "your device is running slower than it is capable of, ensure that you are using usb2..."
 
Doug said:
If it was running at usb1.0, you would get a pop-up box saying something like, "your device is running slower than it is capable of, ensure that you are using usb2..."
Click to expand...

Really? Well, I didn't get that notification, so clearly I just need to upgrade to Patience v2.0...

Thanks for your input! :)
 
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