I purchased a Olympus 770SW digital camera because of the beautiful pictures that qlaval took on his trip to Aruba. The camera uses the Olympus xD digital memory card, and I am thinking of purchasing a high speed 1 or 2 GB memory card.

Does anyone have experience with both the normal (M) and the high speed (H) version of the xD card? The package says it offers read/write access speeds of 2-3x the normal card, but truth and advertising do not always go together.

Aruba History:
Lou: Visited on a cruise in 2005
Lou&Nay: Will visit on our honeymoon 9/2008

In my experience taking literally thousands of photos with my Olympus E-500, the main advantage is the faster cycling speed (the speed the more pics you can take.) Not so much have I found there to be an advantage to download speeds. I patch for that see the end of my post.

These cards are proprietary to Olympus & Fuji only (see more below), and if having a choice in the issue, and for the little more I would go w/ the H since it does take a faster photo, meaning times you can click between them. In addition, the storing of the photo is faster on the camera, and this is what enables one to cycle shots faster......

http://sergykalstudios.blogspot.com/2006/07/memory-cards-explained.html
"Olympus and Fuji have worked together to produce the xD card. These cards are smaller than SD cards (25mm x 20mm). All current Olympus and Fuji consumer level digital cameras use the xD card to store photos on. There are three types of xD card. These are the H card, M card and a standard card that comes without a letter. The standard card was the original xD card. The two newer types were introduced because they could hold larger numbers of photos. The H card is a higher speed card. This means photos can be stored more quickly on the card. This can increase the speed at which the camera is ready to take the next shot. The M card and the standard card are both normal speed cards."

I shoot all of my photos at SHQ: 3264 x 2448 1/2.7 Approx. 6.4 MB each. You are talking 1 1/2 hours to download 600+ photos on a laptop. For faster downloading to my computer, desk top at home and laptop while traveling, for $25, a fabulous investment was a Lexar USB 2.0 Multi-Card Reader

I am no expert, but this has been my experience. Hopefully others can join in with their knowledge.

Aruba Bound! ~ Hoosier Kitties ~ Our-Cruises ~ Blogging to Aruba
Back to paradise Trip #18
Christmas & New Years Aboard the Queen Mary 2

Thank you for the advice. I understand that the 3264 x 2448 resolution is approx. 8 megapixel, but what does 1/2.7 mean? I am pretty technical, but the 1/2.7 perplexes me. Is that the f-stop?

Aruba History:
Lou: Visited on a cruise in 2005
Lou&Nay: Will visit on our honeymoon 9/2008

Had to look that one up myself.
Camera Format "The size of the camera's imaging device (CCD) also affects the angle of view, with the smaller devices creating narrower angles of view when used on the same lens. The format of the lens, however, is irrelevant to the angle of view, it merely needs to project an image which will cover the device, i.e.: the same format of the camera or larger. This also means that 1/3" cameras can utilize the entire range of lenses from 1/3" to 1", with a 1/3" 8mm lens giving the same angle as a 2/3" 8mm lens. The latter combination also provides increased resolution and picture quality as only the centre of the lens is being utilized, where the optics can be ground more accurately."

BTW, was thinking and for underwater photos, the faster you can take the picuture, the better chance you have of getting the shot before the critter dashes off!

Aruba Bound! ~ Hoosier Kitties ~ Our-Cruises ~ Blogging to Aruba
Back to paradise Trip #18
Christmas & New Years Aboard the Queen Mary 2