The right type of microSD card (Class 2 vs. Class 6 or 10)

[Buz]

I suppose it's time to display my ignorance regarding my Inc. To me, my questions sound a bit silly, but I just haven't taken the time to look into it.
I've only used the video capability once, since I've got a dandy Cannon HD Camcorder with a built-in hard drive and a big lens. I've always appreciated the capability of my Inc. to take (now HD) video and the fact that I've always got it with me; I just haven't had the occasion to use it yet except one time shooting some video at a wedding reception when my camera battery went dead and my spares were across the room in my camera bag; I just grabbed the Inc... ...got great sound but the video came out "black" due to the low light (which the Cannon had been capturing fine but with a fair amount of grain due also to the poor lighting conditions.

When I unboxed my Inc., I just grabbed a spare Kingston 8gb class 4 (that turned out to have a bunch of files on it already) and slipped it in before I even put in the battery; it's been in there ever since.

I can remember back when the class 4 was a huge "breakthrough" in speed capabilities, and most of my devices wouldn't even work with the new protocol, but I figured my new "state of the art" phone surely had the capabilities. It's been in there ever since.

Probably a dumb question, but does all video automatically go the the card? ...or if the card is full, would it still record to the internal phone memory?

My earlier point was that to my understanding, the speed of whatever medium you transfer info to or from is limited most often by the device, not the media. I've also found through experience that video, even HD video is not that "speed sensitive" and that just about any "slow old thing" will suffice.

Does anybody know the "communicating" speed maximum ability of the Inc.? That's almost essential to know before making a judgment as to whether it's worth the money to go to a higher-speed card.

(My Cannon video camera takes 3 megapixel pics, which store on the card; I've got an old, slow, 1gb micro in it which will store 100's of stills that size. I can pull the card, stick it in my card reader (it just seems faster than getting out the usb cable and accessing through the camera interface), and transfer 100 pics to the hard drive through a usb2 connection nearly instantly (almost as fast as I can click "copy/paste". What more could you want?

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[Lindy]

Probably a dumb question, but does all video automatically go the the card? ...or if the card is full, would it still record to the internal phone memory?

You have to go into the settings menu of the camcorder to specify that video be written to your SD card. If the card is full you will no longer be able to shoot video unless you manually change the output to the internal memory.

[Buz]

You have to go into the settings menu of the camcorder to specify that video be written to your SD card. If the card is full you will no longer be able to shoot video unless you manually change the output to the internal memory.

Thanks, Lindy. I suspect that "to SD card" must have been the default setting on that one video that I shot; I'll have to check that now that I've updated.

[pcconrad]

i'm about to upgrade from my 4gb...so, no special procedure for installing it? will likely get a kingston or sandisk from best buy

[Buz]

i'm about to upgrade from my 4gb...so, no special procedure for installing it? will likely get a kingston or sandisk from best buy

...nothing "special"... ...just unplug the old one and plug in the new one.
It's recommended to remove the battery first, and I usually do when I think about it, but I've unplugged it "hot" at least a dozen times (like others above) with no ill-effects. One of these days, for sure, I'm going to lose everything on a card, hard drive, or jump drive be doing that, but I've been lucky so far.)

Another thing I'd think you'd want to do first is to copy your files from your old card to your new one? My assumption is that you must be running out of space and want to save what you have, or why bother going to a larger card? If you've already "filled up" the old one and don't necessarily want to keep all of it, the simple thing would be to make more room by simply deleting anything that has no value to you.

If you're typical (most of us have moved most of our apps to the sd card and have created at least a few back-ups), you can move/save that to your larger card simply if you have a couple of card readers...

Simply open both cards side-side; highlight all of the content; and simply drag it all over to the new card. (or you can copy/paste).

Another thing I'd suggest, unless price is no object, it not to waste your money on anything over a class 4. In the Incredible, you'll never be able to tell the difference.

One last thing: I'd never consider spending more than $25, including shipping and tax, for a 16GB micro. The price of flash memory has plummeted, especially "older" technology. I recently bought a 16gb class 4 on newegg.com for $23, shipping included, and got it the next day (they have the same card today at that price); I've seen them as low as $18.99.

Best Buy is convenient, but I suspect you'd pay a lot more for the same thing, plus you'd have to buy the gas.

...hope all this has been helpful.