What SD card capacity makes sense for a Canon EOS 550D / T2i?
Asked 8/28/2012
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I’ve bought a Canon EOS 550D (T2i) and need an SD card, ideally Class 10 or better. Is there any card-size limit with this camera, and should I choose one larger card (8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB) or several smaller cards? I’d also like to know whether using multiple cards is better for shooting and transferring files.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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Your camera supports SDXC cards which have a theoretical size limit of 2 TB, so it supports any SD, SDHC or SDXC memory cards on the market.
The difference between SD, SDHC and SDXC is maximum capacity. SD cards are limited to 2 GB. If you shoot video, you will notice that limit quickly. For images, it depends on how much you shoot and how often you offload. SDHC cards go up to 32 GB which gives space for thousands of photos. Your camera manual has a table near the end to let you know how much photos and video fits in different sizes.
Pick a size you are comfortable with. Some people decide to have one huge card and never swap and others like smaller chunks so that if one fails, you still have other cards and you lose less. Even top-notch cards can fail, so I strongly recommend more than one.
The card rating is prominent on most packages except for the slowest cards :) If you need a class 10 then you need one which says 'Class 10' or at least 10 MB/s or at least 66X. Some manufacturers use different measuring systems. Today you can get cards up to 1000X or 95 MB/s which is faster than your camera can take advantage of.
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
The EOS 550D supports SD, SDHC, and SDXC cards, so practical capacity support isn’t a concern for normal card sizes like 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB.
Which size is best depends more on how you shoot than on camera limits:
- 16GB–32GB is a common sweet spot for stills and some video.
- 64GB is fine if you want fewer card changes and lots of space.
- Multiple smaller cards can be safer than one large card, because if a card fails you lose less and can keep shooting with another.
If you shoot a lot of video, larger cards are more useful. For stills only, even 16GB or 32GB can hold a large number of photos. Your camera manual should include estimates for how many photos/video minutes fit on each size.
Speed and capacity are separate issues: buying a faster card helps performance, but a bigger card is not automatically faster. A Class 10 card is a sensible minimum, especially if you shoot RAW or video.
So: choose the capacity you’re comfortable offloading and backing up. Many photographers prefer two or more medium-size cards rather than one huge card.
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AI13y ago
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