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Photo Forum / Digital Photography / DSLR Cameras / June 2006Canon 30D - what speed CF card?
I've just ordered a Canon 30D with 17-85 lens and await delivery on Tuesday :) Now I'm looking for advice on which CF card to buy. I've looked at the performance figures here.... http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos30d/page11.asp and I'm still unsure whether I need to get a super-fast card or just a regular one. I have never had the opportunity to do burst photography until now but I guess it will only feature occasionally in my efforts so most stuff will be single shot. It looks like the camera's buffer will hold plenty of shots but it is unclear from the article whether there is any issue with repeatedly firing off single shots - say one per second - as opposed to a burst. I can't really see me firing off more than 10-15 shots max as a burst or rapid single-shot at a time. My choice, in terms of budget and desirability is between a 2GB 100-133X card (http://www.picstop.co.uk/Compact-Flash-CF/Kingston-High-Speed-100X-Compact-Flash -Ultimate---2GB/Feed_1859) or a 4GB 20X card (http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.Asp?IMODULE=CT4GBC1) for about £60-£70. I like the idea of the extra capacity as I fancy shooting raw but I'm not sure whether the slow write speed will cause me any problems. I suspect not but I'm hoping for expert advice. > I'm not sure whether the slow write speed will cause me any problems. I > suspect not but I'm hoping for expert advice. http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007 >> I'm not sure whether the slow write speed will cause me any problems. I >> suspect not but I'm hoping for expert advice. > > http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007 Thanks for the link. It tells me that Sandisk and Lexar seem to offer the best performance in general and you can't always read too much into the claimed ???X ratings from the lesser brands in particular. However, it doesn't help me understand whether in my real world shooting situations I would have a problem when using a slower card. I am not a sports/action photographer and certainly not a pro. I guess so long as I never fill the camera's buffer I needn't worry about the write speed of the card. Is that true? > I guess so long as I > never fill the camera's buffer I needn't worry about the write speed of the > card. Is that true? That is true. My dealer told me the Extreme III cards can go much faster than the current cameras, although that link suggests it'll still go faster than the Ultra II with the 30D. I have a 30D with a 2GB Sandisk Ultra II and it goes very fast. I think when you look at tests like that one, you get hooked into numbers. In real life, for hobbyists like you and me, it doesn't matter. You have to think how often you're actually going to fill the buffer (over 30 at full jpg) and still, within 10 seconds, want to do another burst. It's not going to happen for me. If you think you will, maybe you should be looking at video cameras? :-) Mark >>> I'm not sure whether the slow write speed will cause me any problems. I >>> suspect not but I'm hoping for expert advice. [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > never fill the camera's buffer I needn't worry about the write speed of > the card. Is that true? There could be some situations where you might like the option of firing a fast burst...sports, wildlife, your kid's dance recitals, etc. I think it is worthwhile to have at least one fast card. (Just as an experiment, I tried firing off a burst of 33 shots (or whatever the max is) with my D200 set on C-h with a Sandisk Extreme III 4GB CF card and it IS nice knowing that I can do that if/when the need arises...I literally cannot take my finger off the shutter release fast enough to fire only one shot in that mode...how times have changed from my old Olympus C2020Z & C4000 still life cameras. > However, it doesn't help me understand whether in my real world shooting > situations I would have a problem when using a slower card. I am not a > sports/action photographer and certainly not a pro. I guess so long as I > never fill the camera's buffer I needn't worry about the write speed of > the card. Is that true? I am not a pro either. A few weeks ago I attend a nephew's graduation. When he walked up to get his diploma I got 30 shots or so. I imagine everyone else got one or two. Taking a lot of pictures in a short time is one of the features of my camera that I have learned to appreciate. Buy the good cards and you won't be sorry. On 6/24/06 1:54 AM, Tiny Tim posted the following: > I've just ordered a Canon 30D with 17-85 lens and await delivery on Tuesday > :) Now I'm looking for advice on which CF card to buy. I've looked at the > performance figures here.... > > http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos30d/page11.asp There's a thread in rec.photo.digital with good information.  Signaturejohn mcwilliams > I've just ordered a Canon 30D with 17-85 lens and await delivery on Tuesday > :) Now I'm looking for advice on which CF card to buy. I've looked at the [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > I'm not sure whether the slow write speed will cause me any problems. I > suspect not but I'm hoping for expert advice. I bought 2 San Disk Ultra IIs for my D200. I borrowed a Kingston 50X card from a friend when I was on vacation to have 3 2gb cards with me. Really didn't notice a difference between the two cards. Did some rapid sequence bird photos with the Kingston and it didn't skip a beat. Since the Kingston price is about $20 less for a card they are a good deal. A friend dumps on Kinfston as being a low end company, but they have made RAM for computers for years. Tom Extreme performance cards don't appear to give any real advantage - my experiance is that "best bang for your bucks" means simply "get the biggest card you can afford". I shoot a lot of sequence photography using a 20D and the TC-83N timer - shots at 1 sec intervals - 20D will do about 13 RAW before it can't keep up - I understand that the 30D has a bigger buffer. Thanks for the replies everyone. I've found high speed 2GB cards for just £30 each so have ordered two :) http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/product.php?product=MEM0030&session=7a7d1b0046c84422 4d2e0e5937e3db30 > Thanks for the replies everyone. I've found high speed 2GB cards for just > £30 each so have ordered two :) > > http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/product.php?product=MEM0030&session=7a7d1b0046c84422 4d2e0e5937e3db30 That's very cheap, and if the speeds are correct, they're very fast too! I'd be interested to know how you get on with them. Mark >> Thanks for the replies everyone. I've found high speed 2GB cards for just >> £30 each so have ordered two :) [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > too! I'd be interested to know how you get on with them. > Mark The camera, and hopefully the cards, should be with me on Tuesday with luck. I'll try to remember to post some results once it's all charged up and ready to rock and roll. >>> Thanks for the replies everyone. I've found high speed 2GB cards for >>> just [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > luck. I'll try to remember to post some results once it's all charged up > and ready to rock and roll. OK, the camera and the cards have arrived and I've fully charged the battery. Unfortunately one of the cards seems to be a dud. The camera reports "Err CF" and there is no access light activity when the card is inserted. I've swapped the cards several times and one works and one simply doesn't so that's an RMA job :-( I don't have any easy way to do any scientific tests of the performance of the working card so I figured I'd just completely fill the buffer with Large Fine Jpegs and see how long it took the CF access light to go out after I'd stopped firing off shots. I tried this test a couple of times and it took about 23-24 seconds to fully clear the buffer of ~30 photos. I don't have a card reader so can't perform any other tests on speed but hopefully the above is some use to somebody. >>>> Thanks for the replies everyone. I've found high speed 2GB cards for >>>> just [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > I don't have a card reader so can't perform any other tests on speed but > hopefully the above is some use to somebody. Credit to Bigpockets for sending a courier today with my replacement card and to pick up the duff card. All is now well :) I also tried a different approach to measuring write performance of the card, snapping 20 shots, rather than filling the buffer, and measuring the time for which the access light was illuminated. 20 shots is ~58MB and it took 13 seconds to stop writing. That makes the write speed around 4.5MB/s which I think is perfectly fine for the money. If you're in the UK and want to snap up a bargain then I think you should be happy buying this card from Bigpockets. >>>>> Thanks for the replies everyone. I've found high speed 2GB cards for >>>>> just [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >>>> too! I'd be interested to know how you get on with them. >>>> Mark <snip> > If you're in the UK and want to snap up a bargain then I think you should > be happy buying this card from Bigpockets. While the cards and packaging are completely devoid of any claims about speed there is a PDF on the Datawrite website which gives data for their other flash media but not the compact flash cards?!? There is a lifetime warranty included.... http://www.datawrite.co.uk/pdf/datawrite_memory_cards.pdf $Extreme performance cards don't appear to give any real advantage - my $experiance is that "best bang for your bucks" means simply "get the biggest $card you can afford". There are pros and cons to getting one big card vs. a number of smaller ones. One big card is certainly more convenient, and if it's impossible or impractical to change cards (you mounted your camera behind the net at a basketball game; you put your camera into a waterproof housing and went diving with it; etc.), well, there's no option but to use one card that's big enough to handle the entire shoot. But if that card gets lost or damaged, you've lost 100% of your pictures. If you split your pictures among multiple smaller cards and one of them gets lost or damaged, you still may have some of your pictures. SignatureStephen M. Dunn <stephen@stevedunn.ca> >>>----------------> http://www.stevedunn.ca/ <----------------<<< ------------------------------------------------------------------ Say hi to my cat -- http://www.stevedunn.ca/photos/toby/ > $Extreme performance cards don't appear to give any real advantage - my > $experiance is that "best bang for your bucks" means simply "get the [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > Say hi to my cat -- http://www.stevedunn.ca/photos/toby/ Which method do you think is more likely to loose your photos? losing your one giant memory card, and the camera it is contained in, or losing a bunch of very small and loose memory cards? $I've just ordered a Canon 30D with 17-85 lens and await delivery on Tuesday $:) Now I'm looking for advice on which CF card to buy. I've looked at the $performance figures here.... As long as there's room in the buffer, you can always take your next shot. Or shots, if there's room. What a fast card will do in this situation is allow the buffer to empty more quickly. But if you never shoot enough pictures in a short enough time to fill the buffer, the world's slowest CF card will work just as well as the world's fastest. There are a couple of other areas in which a faster CF card may help. It speeds up image viewing, both for chimping and when trying to scroll through a bunch of images. And, when you're downloading images to your computer, a faster card will let you download the images more rapidly. I shot with "4x" cards (actually 10-12x; it would be illegal to advertise 10-12x and deliver 4x but it's legal to deliver more than you promise) for the first year I had my 20D. I almost never shoot bursts so the slow cards never got in the way. I don't mind if it takes a few minutes longer to suck a gig of images off the card. It was sometimes mildly annoying when chimping took a bit longer than it would have with faster cards, but not annoying enough to make me wish I'd spent more money on faster cards. I recently added a 50x card. Sure, it's nice, but if it hadn't been at a price comparable to slower cards, I'd have gone with the slower cards. SignatureStephen M. Dunn <stephen@stevedunn.ca> >>>----------------> http://www.stevedunn.ca/ <----------------<<< ------------------------------------------------------------------ Say hi to my cat -- http://www.stevedunn.ca/photos/toby/ |
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