SD and SDHC memory cards

CWSkopecCWSkopec Registered Users Posts: 1,325 Major grins
edited November 25, 2008 in Cameras
So I just got an nice new Canon XSi in the mail last night! Sadly my dad ordered it and I just get to test it for a few days before I pack it up and send it overseas to him. But here's the problem... I've only got CF cards for my XTi and the XSi uses the new SDHC cards. Can I take the older version SD card out of my p&s and use it in the XSi? Seems like I should be able to, but I can't find any solid info.

I know, I know... silly question.... :rolleyes but I just want to make sure I don't do anything awful to someone else's camera!
Chris
SmugMug QA
My Photos

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  • divamumdivamum Registered Users Posts: 9,021 Major grins
    edited November 25, 2008
    CWSkopec wrote:
    So I just got an nice new Canon XSi in the mail last night! Sadly my dad ordered it and I just get to test it for a few days before I pack it up and send it overseas to him. But here's the problem... I've only got CF cards for my XTi and the XSi uses the new SDHC cards. Can I take the older version SD card out of my p&s and use it in the XSi? Seems like I should be able to, but I can't find any solid info.

    I know, I know... silly question.... rolleyes1.gif but I just want to make sure I don't do anything awful to someone else's camera!

    The xsi uses both SD and SDHC - I'm using two Kingston SD cards in mine with no problem (they're great. And cheap! newegg has them)

    In general a device which can take SDHC can also take SD, but NOT the other way around (SDHC is more recent and not all devices released before the updated card-type can read the higher capacities).

    HTH!
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  • CWSkopecCWSkopec Registered Users Posts: 1,325 Major grins
    edited November 25, 2008
    Thanks Diva!! thumb.gif
    Chris
    SmugMug QA
    My Photos
  • pyrypyry Registered Users Posts: 1,733 Major grins
    edited November 25, 2008
    CWSkopec wrote:
    So I just got an nice new Canon XSi in the mail last night! Sadly my dad ordered it and I just get to test it for a few days before I pack it up and send it overseas to him. But here's the problem... I've only got CF cards for my XTi and the XSi uses the new SDHC cards. Can I take the older version SD card out of my p&s and use it in the XSi? Seems like I should be able to, but I can't find any solid info.

    I know, I know... silly question.... rolleyes1.gif but I just want to make sure I don't do anything awful to someone else's camera!

    SDHC readers and cameras are compatible with SD cards.
    SD cameras and readers can't use SDHC cards. You are highly unlikely to break anything with this combo, but it won't get the job done either :D
    Creativity's hard.

    http://pyryekholm.kuvat.fi/
  • Art ScottArt Scott Registered Users Posts: 8,959 Major grins
    edited November 25, 2008
    pyry wrote:
    SDHC readers and cameras are compatible with SD cards.
    SD cameras and readers can't use SDHC cards. You are highly unlikely to break anything with this combo, but it won't get the job done either :D

    Standard SD cards have a max capacity of 4gb ( i believe..it maybe 2 or 3) and the SDHC (high capacity) go up to 8gb (last that I knew).....an SD card will work fine in a cam or mp3 player that takes SDHC.....however if put an SDHC card in a camera not designated for this type of card that camera will say you have a full card at somewhere between 2 and 4 gbs......same with mp3 players if it is designated for SD and you insert 8gb of music on an SDHC card it will not reconize but he first half of what is one the card...........
    "Genuine Fractals was, is and will always be the best solution for enlarging digital photos." ....Vincent Versace ... ... COPYRIGHT YOUR WORK ONLINE ... ... My Website

  • pyrypyry Registered Users Posts: 1,733 Major grins
    edited November 25, 2008
    Art Scott wrote:
    Standard SD cards have a max capacity of 4gb ( i believe..it maybe 2 or 3) and the SDHC (high capacity) go up to 8gb (last that I knew).....an SD card will work fine in a cam or mp3 player that takes SDHC.....however if put an SDHC card in a camera not designated for this type of card that camera will say you have a full card at somewhere between 2 and 4 gbs......same with mp3 players if it is designated for SD and you insert 8gb of music on an SDHC card it will not reconize but he first half of what is one the card...........

    SD's max size 4 GB, SDHC is limited by the flash chips themselves, the standard, according to wikipedia, has a cozy theoretical max size of 2 TB.

    Using SDHC cards in devices that don't support them might give you 4GB or they don't work at all. This is what happened to a friend of mine - he's got an SDHC card in his phone and when he tried to read it using an old card reader, he couldn't get anything out of it. Note that he obviously already had a formatted card with the filesystem too big for the reader's max.
    Creativity's hard.

    http://pyryekholm.kuvat.fi/
  • CWSkopecCWSkopec Registered Users Posts: 1,325 Major grins
    edited November 25, 2008
    Thanks for the responses everyone! thumb.gif

    I figured I was safe to pop it in there without wrecking anything, but didn't really want to take the chance without confirmation!

    Looks like I've got my night planned!!! :D
    Chris
    SmugMug QA
    My Photos
  • Art ScottArt Scott Registered Users Posts: 8,959 Major grins
    edited November 25, 2008
    pyry wrote:
    SD's max size 4 GB, SDHC is limited by the flash chips themselves, the standard, according to wikipedia, has a cozy theoretical max size of 2 TB.

    Using SDHC cards in devices that don't support them might give you 4GB or they don't work at all. This is what happened to a friend of mine - he's got an SDHC card in his phone and when he tried to read it using an old card reader, he couldn't get anything out of it. Note that he obviously already had a formatted card with the filesystem too big for the reader's max.

    never thought about a reader having a max read size....hmmmmmmm ..... but it only seems to affect the SD family of cards then...as I have an external reader taht I bought when the 2gb cf's were the largest and it reads my 8gb cf's fine.....Hmmmmmmm
    "Genuine Fractals was, is and will always be the best solution for enlarging digital photos." ....Vincent Versace ... ... COPYRIGHT YOUR WORK ONLINE ... ... My Website

  • pyrypyry Registered Users Posts: 1,733 Major grins
    edited November 25, 2008
    Art Scott wrote:
    never thought about a reader having a max read size....hmmmmmmm ..... but it only seems to affect the SD family of cards then...as I have an external reader taht I bought when the 2gb cf's were the largest and it reads my 8gb cf's fine.....Hmmmmmmm

    SDs have much less integrated electronics than CF - you can stick a CF card right into an IDE or PC-Card slot and it'll talk the talk happily all day.

    I'm guessing that, for SD, the chip handling memory addressing is in the reader side - and if it hasn't been designed to go past 4 GB, because that was the standard then it won't read SDHC even if it was compatible otherwise. CF cards get by the size limits by integrating the controller into the card.
    Creativity's hard.

    http://pyryekholm.kuvat.fi/
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