Is the type of card a digital camera takes something I should worry about? I'd always assumed CF to be slower than SD but is this the case?

I'm thinking of getting the Canon Ixus 500 which takes CF cards. I really hate having to wait ages between photos while the card gets written to. Also will the type of card affect the lag between me pressing the 'take a photo button' and the photo being taken?

The fastest SD cards are faster than the fastest CF cards. In both cases not all cards are created equal...

It isn't always the biggest factor in the time you wait for photos to be written. Some cameras have large memory buffers which mean it doesn't matter if you card is slow, because unless you are firing off shot after shot you don't get held up by card writing delays.

Today's digital cameras are much better in this regard to what they were three years ago or so.

For an excellent comparison of speeds of different CF cards take a look here:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007

I don't know if anyone has done anything similar with SD cards.

The length of the shutter lag is not normally effected by the card speed.

To answer your initial question, the choice between CF and SD shouldn't really come into you buying decision because of card speeds.

Yeah, what Andy said. The speed different is fairly inconseqential and will depend on the camera more than the card.

Compact flash is the old standard, and SD will be the new one, so you're not going to get burned with either of them. I was tempted to go the CF TO SD adapter route and just buy SD cards, but I got a good deal on a couple CF cards. If you end up with a CF camera, consider buying the adapter and the SD cards. Howerver, if you're going to keep the camera for over a year, your memory card investment is probably going to be inconsequential when it comes to your next camera.

In Rob Galbraith's CF database, check out the Canon 1D(s) Mk II, as they take both SD and CF, so you can see the speed difference. Unless you're shooting sports with an expensive camera, you're probably not going to notice anyways.

Matthew