memory card for Nikon Coolpix 4500..which one? (1 Viewer)

Hello all...just bought a Nikon Coolpix 4500. But i need to know what type of compact flashcard i need. they often have speeds on them...8x, 12x, 24x, 40x...which do i need? also, i only need to have room for about 100 photos, so i'm thinking a 256 mb card would be plenty. any comments on speeds and which brands are best is greatly appreciated.

There is no such thing as "speed' in a Coolpix 4500 flashcard, Swamp Rattler. For all its virtues, the CP4500 is very, very slow when it comes to flash card writing. Buy any speed card you like, but it won't make any difference at all to the way the camera operates.

With that said, I don't see any point in buying old and/or slow cards when bigger and much faster ones cost around the same. You won't have the CP4500 forever, so I'd buy something like a 66x or better card, in 512MB or 1GB size.

Why not go bigger yet? Because the large cards (2GB and up) are still quite expensive and will drop in price by a long way over the next year or two. If you need one at some stage, buy it later. Regard 256MB as an absolute minimum. It's very easy to fill up a 256MB card with a 4500. 512MB is probably your best choice.

Brands: I'll let someone else recommend brands to you. I'll just warn you to stay away from cheap and nasty ones. Mid-range brands are just fine though.

Don't buy your CF cards from a camera shop! Camera shops will charge you a ridicuous price for them. Go to a computer shop. Computer shops are used to working on razor-thin margins and won't stick you with the 50% markup that a camera shop will.

I'd agree that it's not really worth buying a fast card for use in a 4500, they are slow camera. Personally I'd also recommend going for a 512 or a 1gb, you might think that 100 photos is all you'll ever want to take but it's nice to have the option to take more if needed.

I don't know about over there, but in the UK amazon.co.uk are often the cheapest place to buy memory.

I agree 100% with every bit of opinion and information that Tannin offered. Well said!

thanks guys! that was very helpful!