How fast a memory card?

With the K5's 7 fps capability, what class (or range) of memory card is required to exploit this? 4,10...Ultra, Extreme, Extreme Pro?

class six or better, especially if you also shoot video...

Ultra is probably already fast enough, it's the processor that's the slowest factor most of the time.
The Extreme cards aren't that much more expensive so i would get one of those to be on the safe side, there are two versions of those the class 6 and Class 10 but the class 6 should do the trick, the class 10 will surely max out the SD reader in the camera.
The Pro is rated as UHS-I (Ultra High Speed 1) and not even the K5 can reach those speeds but they will work in your camera though so for now they are too fast but who knows what the future might bring.

Class 10, more speed.

I've only ever used Extreme III SD 20MB/s Extreme III SDHC 30MB/s and Extreme Pro SDHC 45MB/s. Never seen one fail, getting files off the cards is fast and there is no bottleneck to the camera. In fact the camera is slower than any of the Extreme range cards. I have had several cheaper cards fail, they were standard Sandisk cards.

I wouldn't go with anything slower than class 10 as they become cumbersome especially for PC transfers. I hate writing or reading to slower cards as it takes forever. The worst is my 32GB class 2 card that I got for my phone. Syncing music to that takes many hours.

Get a card rated at bursts of 20MB/s to be safe. Good class 10 cards fall under this category.

Might be a daft question - but how do you find out the class of a card.

Mine are all Sandisk Ultra II and work fine with the K10D. I tend to use 2GB as this is generally more than enough for my days shooting and if worst happens I've only lost a cards worth. This is what was supplied with the camera and I've bought several others the same.

regards
Bernard

it only matters for certian types of shooting, sports, or video.... also if you shoot a lot of images and need to speed up workflow by having faster transfer speeds when unloading the card to your computer..

check the card makers websites for specs on your specific cards...

On the label on the card, a small number enclosed in a circle usually indicates the class of card.

I don't remember seeing this on older cards.

Regards

I used class 10 cards on my K-5s now. 16Gb calss 10s are only aroudn £17 each. or maybe even less now

+1
never hurts to buy the best you can afford. (best is not always most expensive, but in this case, a brand name class ten card is very affordable).

It's there since the begining I believe.
But for example class 10 is a late edition so some cards that are very fast and can be rated Class 10 might be rated Class 6, the older Extreme III is such an example.

Would you tell us which brand and seller at that price please, Smeggy?

Sure ...

Integral Ultima Pro

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=integral+ultima+pro+16gb+class+10+sdhc


Got my last pair from Amazon ...

... I normally buy from Ebay.

I've got 4 class 10s and 4 class 6s now. I might get a couple of 32Gb jobs when the price drops a bit as I ran out of card right n the middle of a good shot on Sunday. Although having said that it could have been after filling up TWO 16gb cards so a 32gb wouldn't have got the shot then

Just a question from me regarding Class 10 cards...apart from Sandisk and Lexar are there any other brands that are similar speed wise that folks on here use in a K-5? Those two brands are a bit pricey for me at the moment. Got a few airshows coming up in the next few weeks so the K-5 is going to be used a fair bit.

I'll be looking at 16gb as 8gb cards don't seem to last me during an airshow

I picked up a Transcend 16gb class10 just after I got the K5 as I read 10 was reccomended for video, it cost me about £16, I've had a few Transcend cards in the past and not had any problems with them.