if it's spam, then it's got to be the wierdest spam I've seen yet.

My advice, download Opera or Firefox, or maybe even both. I only ever use IE for those ever reducing number of sites which are so badly coded that they don't work in a proper browser.

I use a cheap 1 for all TV remote with my *ist DL2. Works fine but the range isn't very good, a few feet at best.

The same remote doesn't fire my MZ7 though.

Hi Howard,

it was a pretty simple test, not exactly a scientific study

All I did was set the camera to Manual, 1/250th (just wanted something fast to get full frame rate), RAW and continuous drive. Then I used a stopwatch to time from when I first hit the shutter button to fire a 3 frame burst (fill the buffer on a DL2) to when the red light on the back of the camera went out, indicating that the camera had finished writing the files to the card.

For the times to 10 frames I measured the time from first hitting the shutter button to the 10th frame going off.


Like I said, not exactly rocket science, but should be pretty repeatable.

merry christmas to you too, and of course to everyone

simply put, I didn't want to waste too much money on an experiment, I wasn't sure there would be a difference with such a low end camera. My next card will either be a 133x from 7dayshop or I might even get myself a Sandisk Ultra II and see just how "fast" my DL2 is capable of going. Since the Extreme cards came out the Ultras are a lot cheaper.

I often shoot Fencing matches, and while 3 frames is just about enough for the average Sabre phrase, she just takes too long to write those frames to card.

if anyone is interested (as in, if anyone else here is even still shooting a *ist, you all seem to have K10s already!)

I've just taken delivery of my Dane-Elec 80x card (the cheapest "high speed" card on 7DayShop).

the simple answer is YES it does make a fairly large difference to the performance of the lowly *istDL2

I have just done a quick test

Set camera to manual, 250th shutter speed continuous drive, RAW mode.

Time to fire and record a 3 frame burst (that is, time from first pressing the button to orange write light going out)

Old slow card: 16 seconds
New 80x card: 11 seconds

Time to fire 10 frames

Old card: 48 seconds
new card: 28 seconds

The performance of a DL2 in continuous is never going to be world beating, but thats one hell of an improvement in my book, for an extra £3 per card its more than worth it!

true that would be annoying, it's never happened to me in 3800 frames on the cheapest card I could find though. Perhaps I've just been lucky.

I think I'm deffinitly going to try a slightly "better" card for my next addition if only to answer the question of weather or not it makes a difference. Not to mention if I ever do manage to upgrade to K10D I suspect it will make a difference.

thanks Ammonyte, thats what I thought but I just wanted to be clear.

I wont bother with the super expencive ones then (I'm not mean to my cards so durability above what I have from cheap ones isn't worth the extra to me). I have just noticed that 7DayShop now have 80x cards for just under £11 though, I might get one of those instead of the rock bottom cheapest.

thanks for your answer, I don't think I made my question quite clear

I wasn't asking if they will work (though it is reasuring to know that they do!), more if there is a benefit in terms of camera performance with the "faster" cards.

My "keymem" card has given me no trouble whatsoever (touch wood), and neither have 3 other cards my Dad has from the same brand, so reliability of these is not in question. My reason for looking at faster cards such as the Sandisk is that I'd like the buffer to flush a bit quicker. If that's not going to happen with a *istDL2, I'll just have to wait until I can afford a K10D but I might as well get as much performance out of the *ist as possible right?

I'm currently using a generic "keymem" 1GB card from 7DayShop in my *istDL2. Its speed is not quoted but I doubt it's very quick.

Is the DL2 able to make use of the faster cards? or am I limited by the camera's capabilities?

I ask because I'll be buying at least one more 1GB card pretty soon and if the fast cards will make a difference I'll pay the extra, but if not I'll carry on with the cheapy ones.

I think this is the same lens which was sold under Cosina and Vivitar brands. From what I've read it is acceptable optically (though no match for the DFA F2.8 or comparable lenses) but its build quality leaves something to be desired.

If you're looking to get a macro lens on the cheap, I'd look out for the Tamron SP adaptall lenses (I have the F2.5 version and I like it a lot) or the Kiron 105 F2.8 on Ebay.

The Kiron is hard to get hold of because people who have them don't often sell, but is supposed to be among if not actually the best macro lens ever made. I saw one go on Ebay for £123 recently, missed out on it by £0.50 darnit!