I just bought a Canon s230 digital camera. http://www.powershot.com/powershot2/s230/index.html

This is my first digital camera. I don't know much about CompactFlash cards. I see so many brands and speeds. Are some better then others? What is a good speed to get (if it matters)? Are there compatibility issues with some and certain camera brands. I looking to get one at 256mb.

Like I said this is a first for me. I'm not sure what I should be considering.

Thanks,

I too have an S230, as well as a Nikon Coolpix 4500.
When I first got into digital photog way back when (1998?) I bought a lexar 256MB CF card. Lexar cards are very, very good. Kind-a pricey though.
If you want to spend the $$ I cant recommend a better card.
http://www.digitalfilm.com

More recently though, with the 2 cameras I needed another card, and more space. Viking had a rebate offer on CF cards a few months ago, so I picked up 2 512MB cards for about $100 each after rebate. Not quite as fast as the Lexar card, but very comparable. I like them, and would buy them again.
Heres a link to the 512 still with the $50 rebate on buy.com.
And heres the 256. Only a $20 rebate though.
I'd go for the bigger size. You'll outgrow the 256 pretty quick. At least I did.
For awhile I had a 1GB IBM microdrive, but it was too slow. Camera start up time and read and write times, I found to be unnacceptable, so I ebayed it, and picked up the 2 vikings.

You can also look here for a pretty good comparison of CF cards and their speeds. Its a lot of info to get through, but its really useful.
Depending on what card you get you'll also want to get a USB card reader. The Lexar cards come with one, but for the Viking youll have to pick one up seperately. I dont know about you but I found that the Canon software really stinks. I just pop the card into the card reader, and it appears as a new removable hard drive on my PC. I can then just drag and drop, no sweat. Heres a bunch.

On a seperate note, if youre a swimmer, diver or snorkeler pick up one of these for your Canon.
I got one for a sailing trip to Hawaii I did this winter. Its great! In fact my avatar was taken with it.
Even if you dont swim its great for just protecting the camera when you go to the beach or out in the rain.
Actually, J and R has it $20 cheaper.

Good Luck!

Thanks. I was looking into the Lexar which from what I have read so far seem to be a little better then the rest. SanDisk and Viking were 2 others I have been looking into. I will have to go through the links you sent. Speed is my question at this point. Some display speeds like 12x while others 4x and others nothing at all.

I have considered getting the Waterproof case. I may wait for the warmer weather before getting one.

Thanks again!

The original Lexar I had was an 8X. The new Vikings that I got are just as, if not equally as fast as the Lexar.
Never tried a Sandisk. Though I'm guessing they also would be comparable.
Dont get anything below a 8X and dont bother springing for the 24X professional. The S230 cant even think that fast.

Simple rule based on existing products: Avoid the most popular name brands. They're overpriced and under-performing. One of the big offenders is Lexar. Vastly overpriced on average and lower than average read/write speeds.

Avoid flashy "High Speed" advertised cards unless you get confirmation first hand or from an independent review. Most do not perfom as advertised.

Check http://www.dpreview.com and look through their forums. They have a very low signal:noise ratio, but a few searches will turn up what you want (check the storage forum specifically).

I'm using a Ridata 512MB card right now. It was available at a great price when I bought it. Much lower than the more popular (advertised) cards. Transcend is also very good in terms of speed/cost. More important than name will always be performance/price. A number of companies produce for OEM, so you may see essentialy he same card under different names.

Bruno

Thank you for the info. According to the ratings both the Ridata and Transcend have very good specs. Now do all cards work in all cameras? I've heard about compatibility issues with some cameras and cards. I would think they would all work in all cameras.

I have a Viking 256 and it performs quite well in my Canon G2. I don't notice speed problems, but I also don't have anything to compare to.

Regardless, CF has gotten pretty cheap. Consider yourself lucky that you got into the game now when you don't have to pay even 50 cents per MB.

The drop in the prices is why I finally decided to go for it. I couldn't justify the costs from a couple of years ago.