Usino sdhc Memory in a pentaxuser k5

Just about to' go out and purchase the k5 and was wondering will I be able to use my sdhc cards with this camera or am I going to have to throw them out and purchase sd xc cards?....

Your cards will be fine in the K5

Your old ones will be fine the sd xc cards are faster and have much higher capacity

Thanks guys!!!!!!!

SDXC doesn't meant they are faster only that they are bigger or are you saying that a class 4 SDHC is slower than a class 4 SDXC

btw about SDXC, has anyone tried one of those cards in older camera's that support SDHC. When reading the papers about SDXC and SDHC it doesn't seem they are different when it comes to hardware or hardware standards so they might work in SDHC devices without a problem if the firmware isn't locked to a size limit.....

Nice to see u back Stefan I would have thought it was a simple case of Address bits !? If my K-7 had to have a Firmware update to use them, then it was obviously capable but clobbered (restricted) !

Who knows whether the K10 or K20 have the available address space !?

If I had one I'd try it

That might be the case but at some time there were also unofficial 4GB SD cards they didn't work in all devices because Address bits what you say but some device didn't had those limit so they had no problem with the 4GB size.

I don't have a SDXC so i can't try with my K10D

btw why say that the k7 update make it capable to use the SDXC, i doubt anyone has tested it before the update

Like some PCs, they had a 20 bit address limit, same with cams ! They don't always tell u what they are capable of !

Just back from repair and now R1.11 - which allows use of SDXC cards or so they say

Sorry that didn't came out right.
I meant who says that SDXC didn't work before the update?

Who knows !? It must have been hardware capable, but without the updated Firmware that's like having a 'knife & fork' but 'no hands'

Anyone got a K-7 on version 1.01 AND a SDXC card ?? lol

Nice to see you back Stefan.

I have an SDXC card and it was NOT working in my K-5 BEFORE I updated the Firmware.
After updating the Firmware it is working fine BUT the speed is not as advertised on the card. According to Pentax Customer Services it is that the Hardware is only capable of making use of a Class 10 Card but the new SDXC Cards are capable of much faster speed.
Due to the Hardware used in the K-5 the cards are restricted in their speed to the maximum of the Camera Hardware.
I tried the card on a Samsung GX10 and GX20 and the SDXC Card was NOT working in them either.
However, having 128GB available when taking Interval Pictures over a longer period of time is just a 'godsend' for me as I shoot in RAW+ and was running out of card space in not even an hour when taking pictures in highest settings with an 32GB Card.

Thanks for the test Smutje.

About the speed, there is no reason why SD or SDHC can go just as fast and it's also not one of the reasons why we have SDXC, we have SDXC because of the bigger memories. Btw there is no speed limit specified only how fast it must go for each class rating but you can make a 60MB/s SD card and let it be rated as class 10 (10MB/s) if you want, not smart but nothing in the rules that doesn't say you can't.

With the new SD standards, SDHC is offcially has the same speed ratings as SDXC.
So the picture is like this now.
Class 2 = SD, SDHC, SDXC
Class 4 = SD, SDHC, SDXC
Class 6 = SD, SDHC, SDXC
Class 10 = SD, SDHC, SDXC
USH-I = SDHC, SDXC
USH-II = SDHC, SDXC

So sizes and speed are two seperate things so an SDXC card doesn't have to be faster then a SDHC card but they are bigger.

http://www.sdcard.org/home/SD_Association_Announces_UHS-II_eBOOK_Jan_5_2011_ENGL...

On the speed issue, all I am saying is that the K-5 can not make use of the full possible speed that a SDXC Card may have.

It is a bit like to buy a card reader from a £1 shop of fork out for a Lexar reader. The Lexar reader will be faster then the one from the 3! shop.

It also states on the Pentax site :

It is the hardware inside the camera that puts up the restriction, not the card itself. I am not saying that a fast card will not work with a slower device.
That was what I was trying to say. Guess it came over wrong. Sorry

Oh no i got that!

But there are also SDXC cards that have class 4 ratings for example and there will also be SDHC cards with the UHS rating as well so an SDHC card can also be too fast.
The UHS Rating/speed isn't limited to SDXC cards, that's what i was trying to say.

So all in all SDXC doesn't mean the cards are faster only that they are bigger then SDHC (the hardware and protocols are even the same between the two so only the name and size different).

ps. UHS speed cards are backwards compatible so it will work in the K5 and K7 but not at full speed.


This a SDHC card with an UHS-I rating for example.

Thanks you everyone for your feedback....Just about to go out this week and buy the pentax K5. Found it in a shop in Rome for 1100 euros (body only). Not bad i think. I cant wait. My only doubt now before my purchase goes back to the discussion of memory cards. Looked all over the net but didnt come back with a concrete conclusion. I am sure that my fellow pentaxians will have an answer for me. Well, I have the older versions for my k10 of sandisk extreme iii 20mbps but have seen that these old models have been notched up to 30mbps of class 6 rating. In your opinion will this newish version be fast enough for the K5 and its HD video recording requirements. And are there any suggestions out there for a better model. Having said that, i'd like to stick with sandisk extreme if possible for their reliablity and past experience i have had.