The speed factor of a card is noce, but if your camera won't write at the
high speed, it doesn't matter. It's kinda like having a car that can go
250mph, but show me the city freeway where that is useful 9-5..... It may
be hard to determine your camera's write speed to the CF also, but that is
important to know if you are really going to shop around. Also, note that
no standard exists for "12x" speed labelling. Unlike CDR where 1x is 150k/s
(I think) and 12x is simple math, no such standard exists for CF, so note
the actual speed, not just "12x".

640*480 movies; have you tried a sample yet to see how impressive this
resolution is?(NOT!) That is what my Oly 5050 uses and it is very poor!
Stamp size video is claer, but zoom in a bit so you can see the action and
it is so pixelated as to be unviewable.

I have a 256mb card and it holds something like 300 seconds of movie; don't
think I have ever used more than 20-30 seconds.... It is why I still carry
around my DV camcorder; it kicks butt over the OLY 5050 movie mode (and
probably every other digicam although some are rumoured to be out that do
still & movie well).

Good Luck,

Rick

"Rick S." wrote in message
...
I'm shopping for a high capacity (512MB or 1 gig) for my new canon S1
IS, (I want to use its 640x480 movie capability, necessitating high
capacity). I see a few types on the market, I'm asking for info from
those that have experience or knowledge. I'm leaving brand name
considerations out, so as not to muddy the issue. So far, it looks
like the only significant difference between type I and type II is
the physical size; so if I get a type II it won't fit in my old canon
SD110. No biggy, really, I've resigned myself to get a type II. The S1
IS takes either one. So my concern is that I believe that taking
movies may REQUIRE a 'high speed' CF card, and the best I can deduce
is that the regular type will write maybe 6MB/sec, 'ultra' will write
at 9MB/sec, the 'extreme' claims 16MB/sec, but also has inernal
recovery s/w if the card fails.
A 512Mb CF card, roughly, goes for: regular type II, 100-125$. Ultra
type II, 175$. Extreme type II, 250$ !!!
Obviously, I'd rather not spend more money for speed I don't need, I
would think there's a memory buffer in the camera that acts as a
reservoir while it's filming, writing to the flash card as the flash
card can take it. But if there's any risk at all that the card is the
week point, I'm willing to spend the extra money for the 'ultra'. The
'extreme' sounds nice, but as we all know from the great 'steve's
review' (and others) site, there is third party recovery s/w available
to recover images from a failed card, so I'm dubious about the feature
of internal recovery s/w.
Please, talk to me!
thanks so much,
Rick