SD cards - size limit for K100D

I am trying to find the max size of SD card, really SDHC card, that I canuse in my K100D. Clearly, it is firmware dependent; I am about to update to v1.02, which appears to be the latest for this camera.

The Pentax download page says that 1.01 introduces SDHC support, and 1.02 includes improved support, but frustratingly it does not actually give the important detail.

Does anyone know, please?

The info on the net indicates with latest firmware the K100 with take larger than 2GB, ( I read this as up to 2GB before update)..

At least I know that the K100D takes 2GByte SD cards on the original firmware, I've used it myself. And to be honest, I didn't need a bigger card, nor did I need SDHC.

But I have read somewhere that the firmware upgrade should allow 4 GByte SDHC cards. I might be wrong, though.

I think it ridiculous that Pentax does not update its online PDF manuals, especially when they introduce new functionality that was not available in the original firmware release. The manual for your camera makes only a reference to SD cards, not SDHC. The firmware's accompanying documentation is also somewhat less than informative on the matter.

From pentax.jp/support:
- - -
Changes to V1.02 Addition of compatible SDHC Memory card

Changes to V1.01 Support for SDHC Memory cards.
* The focal length which is input on the [Shake Reduction] menu can be displayed with Pentax Photo Browser3.
- - -
Obviously, with the update you may use SDHC cards...

Obviously, with the update you may use SDHC cards...[/quote]Yes, thank you, I had got that far: but how big? That's what I am trying to find out.

Normally when SDHC compatibility is specified this means up to the maximum capacity of the SDHC card specification. Really as large as you can get hold of...

I currently use 4Gb SDHC cards (especially in the K20D which produces huge files). Personally I wouldn't want anything much bigger - because if one card fails for any reason (or is stolen or misplaced) then that limits what is lost.

Additionally, the 4Gb Sandisk Extreme III cards are incredibly fast. Not many of the higher capacity SDHC cards have anywhere near the performance - Picstop (www.picstop.co.uk) list most of the card Read & Write speeds.

Hope that helps!
Matt

MattMatic,
Thank you - that helps a lot. My thoughts on speed and data loss are similar to yours, and the card you mention is one that I am considering.

As a test I just put the 8Gb SDHC card that I use in my K20D into the K100D of my wife which is on the same firmware level as yours. It worked fine with the side remark that the number of photos (JPEG ***) left on the card was displayed as 999 whereas the real number should have been higher than 999. It stayed at 999 even after taking several photos which seems to indicate that 999 is the display maximum but that it can put more photos on the card and that the number will only start to count down when there are less than 999 exposures left. If you shoot in RAW mode you won't have this problem, of course.

Curious does the same apply them to the DL2 ??

Thank,

I use 4Gb SDHC cards without problem in the K100D. The display will show 999 for jpeg because I reckon Pentax didn't foresee the higher capacity cards. And will count down as you add jpegs (Hoshisato is correct in this). I expect a 4Gb card to hold about 1200 or so high quality jpegs of about 3 to 5mb in size. I recently took 170 RAW and 200 Jpeg on a 4Gb card and still had spare for another 350 Jpeg or 160 RAW according to the display on the camera. My biggest problem with these cards is remembering where I last put the spare one.

To all who have kindly responded, many thanks. For my use, I think 4GB will do fine.....

For Coriander, yes, that might be my problem too.............