Compact Flash cards query

[rebeccajones]

I picked up a Canon 400D at the weekend, and now I'm wondering about Compact Flash cards.

I have a Dane-elec 4GB CF card I picked up from the recent 7day shop offer, but the guy in store was adiment I needed a "faster" card. I turned him down on the one he was trying to sell me on the basis that it was bound to be cheaper online, and also I was'nt too keen on the "high pressure sales" he was trying.

Looking at play, the have the SanDisk Extreme III CompactFlash 4GB for £40.

Do I really NEED a faster card? what is it going to get me?

[Ragnarak]

If you're shooting in RAW or shooting a lot of quick shots it'll help with the write speed to the card. Personally I'd go for the faster card but you can certainly life without it, though if your card is really slow it might be a little frustrating at times.

[snoopstah]

If you're not sure, I'd stick with the slower card for the time being. You'll soon find out when a faster card would be useful. I used a slow card for over a year on my 350D, and while there were times when I could have done with a faster card, they weren't very common.

However, I recently bought a couple of fast cards and it's nice to know that I can do a large number of burst shots if needed.

[busterboy]

Do I really NEED a faster card? what is it going to get me?



In a word no.

High speed cards are usually used when taking high speed burst shots when shooting at airshows or motorsport events.

If you are just taking landscape and portrait shots your card will serve you very well.. :)

[Sam]

Even shotting at airshows I've never had the buffer full and needed a faster card. I have 2 of the 7DayShop (http://www.thedvdforums.com/jump2.php?url=http://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=530&gid=6083&id=30372) 4Gb cards and for value for money they can't be beaten IMO!. If you machine gun everything then you may need a faster card. However, if you pick your shots and the most you do is a burst of 3 or 4 shots (in RAW) then you don't need a faster card.

[Boink!]

I have used a Sandisk Ultra II 2GB since I bought my D70 and have finally picked up another. I've gone with Sandisk again as I really can't trust other brands, so went with the £40 Ultra III 4GB from Play.com (http://www.thedvdforums.com/jump2.php?url=http://playcom.at/thedvdforums) which I think is a bargain.
Next model up, twice the capacity and less than half the price of my 2GB. Technology, eh?

[DeadMode]

Play.com (http://www.thedvdforums.com/jump2.php?url=http://playcom.at/thedvdforums) are also doing Sandisk Ultra II's 4GB CF for 34.99 delivered. I ordered one a few days ago. I would have gone for the Extreme III (5 quid more is a bargain) but they didn't have any in stock at the time.

It's a far cry from when I got two Sandisk 2GB Ultra II SD cards from Jessops about 18months ago. They wanted about £190 at the time, but I price matched them down to £150 each. But still, it shows how much prices have dropped.

[RobDickinson]

As said, depends how you shoot & if you find the buffer full often.

Faster card = clearer buffer sooner = more FPS/continuos shooting.

I personaly dont shoot rapid fire very often so no need for super fast cards, doesnt stop me wanting one hehe.

[puddleduck]

Just to add to the posts really, saying unless you are a machine gunner you don't need a faster card.

The sales guy was probably on commision - instore prices for CF / SD etc are crazy-high compared to online.

Card speed only comes into play once the buffer is full - so if you choose your shots and don't practice "spray and pray" machine gun tactics, you'll be fine with what you have.

[RobDickinson]

If you want to impress the rellies tho, take the card out, switch on shoot without card, and fire away! :D

[Wendelius]

I was looking at cards last week and just noticed that Sandisk has come up with the ultra IV cards (probably late in noticing this).

Direct Link (http://www.thedvdforums.com/jump2.php?url=http://scripts.affiliatefuture.com/AFClick.asp?affiliateID=17278&merchantID=884&programmeID=2718&mediaID=0&tracking=&url=http://www.mymemory.co.uk/memory/SanDisk/2GB/Extreme/IV/Compact/Flash/Card)

The bit that got me is this though:

Specification
- Up to 40MB/sec* sequential read and write (leveraging the new Extreme FireWire Reader)

That's 5 RAW 20D pictures written per second... Wow...

I think, IIRC, that the Ultra 2 cards were about 9MB/s. Memory cards have come quite a way in the past 18 months.

Wendelius

[Pheonix]

I'm thinking about getting a faster card now - Its shooting RAW that gets me cos it locks the camera up for quite a while if your shooting a burst of three shots or more.
Whats the difference between the Ultra Series and Extreme series of Sandisk cards though?

[Highlander]

Double the speed, I think.
Ultra is 66x and Extreme III is 133x. Is Extreme IV 200x?

Does the camera not have a limiting factor too? If it can only write at 30x, what use is a 133x card IN THE CAMERA?

[Tastydirt]

No camera will write at 40MB/s! You'll need the dedicated Extreme III/IV card reader attached to your PC to get those sort of speeds. I get around 35MB/s with a SD Extreme III and the Extreme Reader on USB, but my D80 only writes to the card at about 9MB/s so I do still get times when the buffer is full.

[mbuckhurst]

Double the speed, I think.
Ultra is 66x and Extreme III is 133x. Is Extreme IV 200x?

Does the camera not have a limiting factor too? If it can only write at 30x, what use is a 133x card IN THE CAMERA?

I personally pay no attention to the 133x figures quoted, from my experience the 7dayshop chip should be my second fastest card if going on the speed rating, but in practice, it's the slowest by some margin, including some very old cards.

I've found the 7dayshop is incredibly slow, taking around 3-5 secs per photo on my 400D jpg only, fortunately the buffer holds 20+ and I rarely have any issues.

The only times speed has proved to be an issue

1) Changing lens whilst buffer is being flushed, the camera has always refused saying it's busy, turning the camera off displays a screen indicating how many are left to write, and it's rarely near the limit, so must be the camera refusing.

2) Changing ISO, I guess for a similar reason as 1).

3) Changing picture mode, e.g. manual->programme, etc. Again the camera refuses to photograph anything until the buffer is cleared.

4) When the battery indicator starts flashing, that's a pretty nerve-racking time when you know your batteries are nearly flat and it's still flushing the buffer to the card.

It's rare that any of these have become big issues, but I wouldn't trust it for a day where I could potentially be taking 100s of shots in quick succession or if I knew I would be taken many raw images - which is a shame as the capacity would be ideal for raw.

mike

[snoopstah]

No camera will write at 40MB/s! You'll need the dedicated Extreme III/IV card reader attached to your PC to get those sort of speeds. I get around 35MB/s with a SD Extreme III and the Extreme Reader on USB, but my D80 only writes to the card at about 9MB/s so I do still get times when the buffer is full.
Very true - I used this page (http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-7699) when deciding which cards to buy for my 350D. While the Extreme III does perform fastest, it is only 3.4% faster than the Ultra II, presumably due to limitations imposed by the camera hardware. As such I decided the most cost-effective cards for me were the Ultra IIs.

Of course, newer cameras might be able to take more advantage of the Extreme III and IV. (Edit: In fact, looking at the stats for the D80 (http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-8531) shows that the Extreme IIIs perform 93% faster than the Ultra II on that camera - a clear reason to strongly consider the Extreme III on a D80)

[Tastydirt]

Very true - I used this page (http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-7699) when deciding which cards to buy for my 350D. While the Extreme III does perform fastest, it is only 3.4% faster than the Ultra II, presumably due to limitations imposed by the camera hardware. As such I decided the most cost-effective cards for me were the Ultra IIs.

Of course, newer cameras might be able to take more advantage of the Extreme III and IV.

I think I read in some Sandisk blurb its because theres a special way to access the card very quickly that the dedicated card readers can utilise but no cameras currently support.