SD vs SDHC

1) i thought SDHC was invented for capacity greater than 2G, is it possible to have non SDHC 4GB? i saw one made by Kingston at speed of 150x

2) would 4G non-SDHC work on an SDHC camera? or would i strictly need an SDHC card when i use card size of greater than 2G?

appreciate your help in advance...

I'm pretty sure there aren't any 4GB non-HC SD cards. Your first instinct is right. By definition 4GB is High Capacity, or HC.

I'll bet that the Kingston card you saw simply didn't mention that it was HC, since it's just a way of indicating that it's got a lot of space on it, which is already apparent since it's 4GB

adding links:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2207208&Sku=A208-1066
and
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2315930&Sku=T555-1000

both says 4GB but no mention SDHC - are they useable on SDHC cameras and even if this works, would there be any problems during use later?

I recommend you try ZipZoomFly as Tiger Direct has shortcomings in it's customer service and reliability. Never had any problems with anything I've ordered from ZipZoomFly and I've ordered a few grand worth of parts from them. To answer this question, SDHC cards are not compatible with non-SDHC compliant devices, however SD cards will work in SDHC compliant devices as SDHC devices were designed that way in order to facilitate adoption of SDHC devices. SDHC compatibility can be achieved via software upgrades to the camera or device which Pentax has done, though none of the major point and shoot camera companies have jumped on this and the primary reason for that is that companies such as Canon view SDHC as a significant upgrade to the current SD standard, making it a good reason in their business-minded eyes to make you buy a new camera if you desire to use SDHC cards. Some photo printer manufacturers such as Sony are putting out firmware updates to upgrade their existing products to SDHC compliance so if you have a photo printer, check in the next few months for a firmware update.

As for the regular SD format 4GB cards, those are simply high-density flash memory based cards allowing for a higher capacity but there are drawbacks to those such as higher risk of data corruption if flash memory cells are damaged. Both of those companies that make 4GB SD cards are members of the SD Association but their cards are not guaranteed to be compatible in your device because of the 820-odd companies involved in making SD cards, only a handful of companies really make the cards, get those cards tested, and fully adhere to the actual SD standard.

Sandisk, Kingston, Lexar, and Corsair being four of the most reputable makers/designers followed by PNY which buys it's cards from third party manufacturers as do many other companies including the two who make 4GB cards advertised on those links. In fact you can buy identical cards from two different companies, take the sticker off, and find the exact same product underneath.

As neither of those companies making the 4GB SD cards are sold in retail or photography stores, and primarily sold on the internet, at computer shows, and overseas, the SD card association isn't concerned with their lack of compatibility or functionality nor does it hold member companies responsible for using the SD logo on a product that technically doesn't meet their standards unless the product is being made by one of the major players, none of which are making SD legacy compatible 4GB cards.

The bottom line is that you should buy an SDHC card if you are buying a camera that supports it and you don't already have existing SD cards that have a capacity which you are satisfied with but don't buy an SDHC card for a camera that is not SDHC compliant or expect your camera to be upgraded to SDHC compatibility though it is possible for camera companies to do so if their particular design permits it.

I think the only difference between SD and SDHC is that SD cards are formatted using FAT16 and SDHC are formatted with FAT32. Thus it should be possible to support SDHC with only a firmware update. I don't think there is any physical difference between the two.

I also cant see why it would not be possible to use some other native file system to support >2GB (Ext3 for example.)

You can format standard SD cards in FAT32. It's just that FAT16 doesn't usually take too kindly of anything over 512mb.

I have Micro SD card 512 MB. it's a new one and working properly at first try, I can listen MP3 in stored in it in my Nokia 3110 classic phone. But when I take the SD out from the phone, put it in my PC, copy some files to my PC and copy my music on PC to the SD card, then when i put SD back to my phone, it said "memory card not formatted".
I have tried to format the card with my PC, either using FAT or FAT32, but still always "windows can not complete the format". I have also tried to scan and defrag it through device management but still nothing happen.
Help me, please......

I bought a SD card (clearly noted: NON SDHC) with 4Gb and FAT32, so I am pretty sure that not the memory capacity or the filesystem determines which is SD and which is SDHC.
For me the SD 2.0 standard with backward compatibility (I mean SDHC camera/reader <-> SD card OK but SD camrera / reader <-> SDHC card not necesserily OK) seems like a solution, but to be sure, I will make a research.

SDHC (Secure Digital High-Capacity) is a new Flash memory card based on the SDA (Secure Digital Association) 2.00 specification. SDHC provides removable memory storage for compatible digital devices, including cameras, camcorders, PDAs, MP3 players and more.
The increasing use of high-definition video and high-resolution digital photography demands higher storage capacity and more demanding data transfer rates. Because of this, the new SDHC cards guarantee a minimum sustained data transfer speed, not a maximum speed. There are three available speeds — Class 2, Class 4 and Class 6.
SDHC vs. SD Card Compatibility
The previous versions of SDA specifications did not provide such common standards for sustained data transfer speeds to be shared by all manufacturers. The new speed classification approach allows users to select card performance based on the needs of particular applications, such as HD video, and other MPEG applications, rather than just a maximum speed rating.
SDHC cards use the same physical format as SD cards but cannot be used with SD host devices that do not comply with SDA Specifications Version 2.00.
Host devices complying with SDA Version 2.00 can use both SD Memory Cards and the new SDHC Memory Cards.
Current SD cards complying with Version 1.01 and Version 1.10 use either the FAT12 or FAT16 file system, whereas Version 2.00 uses FAT32. This latest specification was established to support SDHC card applications with higher capacity needs. If the approved SDHC logo appears on the card
or package, the product is compliant with SDA
2.00 specifications.

Source Link: http://www.kingston.com/flash/pdf_files/MKF_1127_SDHC_Topic_Paper.pdf

I have a 1 Gb SD card that i got 2 years ago for my Nokia 6230i. I plugged the card into my Cannon IXUS 80 IS and it worked fine. So i guess SD cards works fine with SDHC devices.

As i know, SDHC was an improvement over SD in the way memory addressing works. SD cards can't allocate more than 4 GB of memory because that's pretty much the limit. SDHC was made to allow higher memory addressing which means we can have storage of more than 4GB.

What if I wanted to use an SDHC card in a non SDHC device? Work or no?

Also my laptop has an SD card reader built into it. What are the odds that it will be SDHC compliant?

I just bought a USB card reader and unfortunately I did not read clearly on the packaging before opening it. I guess I also did not realize that there was a different between SD and SDHC. The card reader will work on my SD memory card, as it suggests on the label, but it is unable to recognize my SDHC card.
Thus, the answer to your question, based on my experience, is that odds are your laptop will be unable to read your SDHC card.

Hello all.

I am looking for a memory option for my daughters Creative Zen, and have seen 16gb SDHC cards going fairly cheaply on the internet. The Zen manual says i should but SD. Will the SDHC be compatible with this device? Or should i be looking for one that only has SD on it?

My Creative Zen player works fine with a 8G SDHC card.

There ARE 4GB SD Cards out there. I bought SEVERAL and they work in my devices. SDHC READERS Start at 4GB But SD ends at 4GB. This is one freakin peave I have with the industry. They made it SOOO confusing and I think it was a ploy to sell of Flash cards. SD READERS CAN NOT read SDHC. SDHC Readers CAN read SD cards.

Some manufacturers have produced 4 GB SD cards that conform to neither the SD2.0/SDHC spec nor existing SD devices
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card
http://techgage.com/article/sd_card_roundup

1.SD is upto 2Gb(with the exception stated above) SDHC[HC statns for High Capacity] exceeds 2GB
2.SDHC device will work with SD too....but SDHC willnot work with SD device
3.FAT16 for SD; FAT32 for SDHC

SD-Non HC can support 4mb to 4gb MAX
SDHC can support 4mb to 32gb MAX
SDXC can support 32gb to 2tb MAX

Follow the link below for more information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card