Does card speed matter in point-n-shoots?

[NTB]

I know it would make a difference in transfering pictures from the card to the PC, but what about in *shooting* pictures and movies? is there any major difference between, say, a standard Sandisk or Lexar card and some of their higher-end, higher-speed ones?

Nathan

 

[Brainonska511]

Only when transferring the files to a computer. The P&S cameras are usually limited in FPS by the camera itself ( <3 FPS) and not the speed of the memory card.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Brainonska511
Only when transferring the files to a computer. The P&S cameras are usually limited in FPS by the camera itself ( <3 FPS) and not the speed of the memory card.

surely the buffer must fill up at some point. once that happens the mem card should come into play

 

[JulesMaximus]

No, your P&S camera will not shoot fast enough to overcome the ability to write images to the card.

 

[Basso]

Actually the card performance does matter.
Suppose the burst mode speed is 2 fps and the average file size is 4MB. To get this speed you need a card which has a write speed of 8MB/s.
However, the camera also needs some time to process the image which is done before the file is written to the card so the actual write speed of the card has to be even higher.

The write speed of a SanDisk standard is only 4MB/s so I would say you need at least a SanDisk Ultra II (9 MB/s).
But I think SanDisk cards are a bit overpriced. If you do a bit of research you can find faster cards for lower prices.
some performance charts: http://dcareview.com/tables.html