I have settled on the Camera I am going to get - a 14 megapixel, 21 optical zoom Nikon L100 (i think).

Going to need a SD card, and have been advised by a kid in Comet today that a 4gb one will hold 2,500 pictures

Obviously, I am never going to have that many photos on my camera at anyone time, so do I really need a 4gb? He also said that there is a difference in SD cards, in the length of time it takes for a pic to save to it?

Does anyone know anything on here about that? Any recommendations of where I can find the best value for money one? I have looked on play.com.

I use a DSLR and shoot in raw and image and and 2gb is the max size card you need. You're better off with a couple of cards than one oversized one - it just becomes unweildly. Depending on how much use you're going to make of the camera 1gb might be ok. you don't want thousands of photos stacking up on a card to sort through.

Its the transfer rate that'll affect the price, Class 10 are the fastest. If your camera does continuous shooting and takes multiple frames then its more important, (although the cameras buffer might take care of that if you only use that occasionaly) i can't see if that model does. If you;re just doing one frame at a time shooting then class 6 will be fine if you want to save a few quid.

if the camera supports it - it should, then SDHC. I've got a few, sandisk, transcend, verbatim, they're all pretty much similar. theres that many out there you'll be able to find any size/speed to suit what you want to spend.

Surely if you're shooting RAW you won't get many pics on a 2gb card??

I've got a couple of 16mb class 10 SDHC cards that I got off Amazon on black friday week for £9 each. Get about 800 RAW +Jpeg fine on it.

You won't get 2500 pictures at 14 mega pixels on a 4 mg card

But you will get lots! The points is that theses days there's not a lot of price difference between a 2 and a 4

Are you going to do any video clips? That will use a fair bit of space

Thanks guys, main question was is there really a difference between the quality of speed of saving between different makes of the same memory size?

On reflection, I am thinking that was a typical sales strategy to try and persuade me to part with more money, where as the basic man on the street won't see a difference between them when being used.

Have bought one this morning for £9.99 (on the high street ).....

thats the point. they're much easier to sort than having hundreds on one card. you get enough for any particular bit of shooting, can also delete as you go.

I prefer having a handful of 2gb or 4 gb of different brands. That way when you swap over you can remember what's on which card without having to look. e.g. memorex - christening, Sandisk - mountain walk etc. If you are going to be shooting video maybe a 16gb would be handy in case you want one long continuous sequence (e.g. wedding).

Agree what's been said about the class. Higher the number the quicker the transfer rate is but there is no need to go mad and pay tripple for a very high class.