lastboltnut said:
You can format the SD card in two format, FAT and FAT32. S3 IS only format to one type (I duno which, haven't check), anyway just look at the results for both cases......Ultimax doesn't look good. I also dun understand why the results is such when 150X should be faster......could be due to another reason, SLC and MLC card type, which is another thingy.
Please allow me to give a mini tutorial and do feel free to correct me if I am totally wrong.
FAT was actually written by a kid called Bill Gates in a hotel room. He used it for DOS and the rest is history. In the past, cameras format cards using FAT. No problem. Then cards started to breach the 2GB mark and a problem arose coz FAT could only partition up to 2GB.
MS overcome this problem by inventing FAT32 which could create partitions exceeding 2GB. But older cameras could not recognise FAT32 formatted cards. Hence, you find a lot of the older digital cameras being unable to accept cards larger than 2GB. Actually, the correct reason is that they cannot read cards formatted using FAT32. And if you format using FAT, you can only get max 2GB even if your card is 4GB.
Reports indicate that from S1 to S3, all these cameras can accept FAT32 formatted cards and therefore can use cards larger than 2GB. Reports also indicate that the newer Canon cameras including the S3 can do a in-camera format of cards larger than 2GB. For the "older" cameras, although you may be able to use FAT32 cards, it may be that you have to format them using your PC coz the camera may only format in FAT.
The first CD-ROM drive had access speeds of 150KB per second. Then, they managed to double the speed to 300KB/s (2x), 600KB/s (4x) and so on. Now, almost anything is measured according to this reference point of 150KB/s.
A Kingston Ultimate rated at 133x should mean a speed of 133x150 = about 20,000 KB/s or 20 MB/s. I am not aware of any Ultimax card rated at 150x. These ratings are not always accurate for a number of reasons. The write speeds may be much slower than the read speed, but the maker conveniently uses the read speed. Some cards perform better transferring certain types or sizes of files. Makers may use different factories and different suppliers to make the same range of cards, and their speeds may vary, depending on the batch and origin of the individual cards. And I think some makers are more conservative while others more willing to stretch their claims.
Memory cards use NAND flash technology and historically, they use Single Layer Cell (SLC) pioneered by Samsung, I believe. Every cell has either "1" or "0". This technology is already very established and the speed keeps getting faster and faster. The technology is very reliable and the failure rate is now about 1 in 100,000. Most of the higher speed and professional cards such as Kingston Elite Pro and Ultimate use SLC. Warranty for cards is typically lifetime.
But Toshiba invented Multi Layer Cell (MLC) technology. Using a glass of water as an example, the SLC method requires the glass to be completely empty or full. But in MLC, the glass can be empty, 1/3 full, 2/3 full or full. In other words, using the same amount of cells, the capacity is immediately doubled, resulting in cost savings. But the technology is more prone to inaccuracies and software is required to do error checking and correction. A higher voltage is also required for this purpose. The end result is a slower speed and higher failure rate of about 1 in 10,000. All the cheaper standard range cards such as the Kingston standard or Sandisk blue cards use MLC. You will also find that the warranty tends to be limited.
One or two years back, you must have encountered cases of devices, such as Smartphones, being unable to read certain types of cards. The reason is that these devices could not read those cards made using MLC technology.
Of course, MLC technology is evolving very fast. I read that Sandisk is also planning or maybe has already started to use MLC for its Ultra II range of cards. It may be that one day, all cards will be made using MLC or some even more complicated technology.
