MUG ! They saw him coming.

My brother-in-law wanted a couple of additional SDHCs for his Panasonic Lumix. I suggested using 7 day shop or Misco (I get additional discount there - with free delivery too) and quoted him about £6 inclusive for a 4GB Ultra II and £14 for an 8GB.

However, he decided to buy in his local photographic shop ...

£24 for a Panasonic branded 6GB card - the staff told him that only Panasonic ones were guaranteed to work and that the extra 2GB was a "free bonus" from Panasonic!.

They must have been waiting for him ...

I was also wondering why Panasonic have started producing (or produced for them) 6GB and 12GB cards? Why not stick with the normal 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 ... Would they work in a K20D? Probably but I'll have to find out.

Yeah, that is odd. The reason for the standard doubling in memory, is that adding an extra "bit" to the address space (addressable depth) means you can effectively double the amount of addressable memory.
In binary terms each bit represents a decimal value of;
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, ..... , ad-finitum.
From this you can see that 4 bits have access to a total of 1+2+4+8 permutations, or 16 possible locations if you include 0. Adding a 5th bit to those 4 bits means you're now capable of accessing 1+2+4+8+16 permutations, or 32 possible locations. From this you can see that wanting to access 12 permutations is a bit pointless - you're depriving yourself of the other 4 for no particular reason.
That all makes the assumption that the memory is made up of fixed width data, in multiples of 8 bits. Perhaps the Lumix has a way of storing strange width data - perhaps their cards allow 9 or 10 bit storage? On a Lumix the card equates to 6GB, but on any other equipment the extra bits can't be used, and only 4GB of it would be accessible. (Essentially the total memory is depth x width)

Apologies if all of that was a bit too much information....

geclinke - I understand it fully (too long in electronics and comms design). I think it is just a marketing ploy ... standard cards work just fine in the camera - which we have since proven. And looking at the cards on a reader shows 6GB available.

And possibly a rip off by the shop at the prices they were charging - 2GB "free" so he paid £24 for 4GB which would normally be £10 (ish)

Even WH Smiths had got Sandisk 4GB SDHC cards for under a tenner when I was in there yesterday

Seems strange thinking back to when memory was so expensive or still is in some places by the sound of it

Check out Sandisk 8GB class 2.

Amazon - just over £10, delievered.
Tesco - just under £20 plus postage.

(Mind you, does anyone else remember paying far more for 64Mb cards!)

First card I bought was a 32meg one at £26.

Latest card a 8gig one at £14.

How times have changed!

Remember those CF card sized things that had an actual disc inside (I think) and held a whole gigabyte? That wasn't that long ago really!

I remember a while ago chatting with a friend about a 2gb sandisk extreme III that jessops were selling for £79.99 seriously

At the risk of reminiscing, I still remember the first time I saw a computer hard drive with 1GB and thought it would be more space than I would ever use!

I remember paying £99 for a 128MB compact flash card, and also remember paying £180 for an 80MB (notice, not 80GB!)hard drive for an Amiga! Yeah, times have changed a bit!

I popped into a chemist the other day for my sanity pills, and had a blast from the past, they were selling a CF 512mb for £14

I couldn't believe it, some mug will no doubt buy it though.

My dad bought himself a panasonic bridge camera from Je..sso..ps (I struggled to say that) and they recommended that he buy a 2gb card. When I asked my dad how much he paid, I almost fainted, £24!!! He almost fainted when I said that I could get him one for £3.99

Oh yes, I remember paying £50 for a 512mb CF card for my *ist D



Paul

Oh and a slight change of subject, I'm after a job lot of USB memory flash drives. They must be 512mb or 128mb. I can't find them in the shops anywhere and the ones I have seen on ebay are at a very silly price, eg, 99p for the item and £4 for postage and that's in the UK.

Thanks

Paul

These shops clearly have big windows

Chris

Do you mean the Microdrive? They fitted in the CF type II slot
Apparently you can still get them

Paul

Panasonic cards are usually very good and have always come at a premium. I only use up to 4GB, but wouldn't mind an odd 6GB. 8GB is too much. A used 4GB almost fell out of my bag the other day, bad enough but imagine losing 8GB of photos Something more secure than those little plastic boxes is needed for transporting cards. It's a pity the grip won't hold two.

shim