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CF memory cards - is there a noticeable difference in speed ? (1 Viewer)

N

nickb

Active member
Hi all,

New to DSLR, just bought the EOS 350D and have an old 1GB CF card which seems to work fine. Took a few shots and it seems to write fast and be ready straight away.

However the newer cards (Ultra II, Ultra III etc seem to read and write quite a bit faster and cost a hell of a lot more).

With DSLR photography say for multi shot modes or flight shots etc am I going to notice a difference by investing in a high speed card, anyone actually tried different types and got an opinion ?

p.s. I guess all the main known brands are reliable ?

p.p.s I'm currently trying RAW settings and am already getting frustrated at the time to download to PC and size of files !

Thanks a lot
Nick
 
kennygee said:
Nick

To aid download speeds of RAW files get a card reader.
Click to expand...

I use Lexar x80 which are pretty good. For fast downloading of the cards to the computer I use a Lexar Firewire Compactflash reader, much faster than a USB2 reader.
 
kennygee said:
Nick

To aid download speeds of RAW files get a card reader.
Click to expand...

I never connect my camera to my computer. Far too slow and is heavy drain on the batteries. So I agree get a card reader. I use a Firewire reader which is very very much faster than the old fashioned USB reader.

As for speeds, yes the newer cards are faster. I use Lexar 80X, which are up to professional standards. They also come with a recovery program. They are expensive, I purchased mine from Amazon which were nearly half the price of Jessops. I have as a spare a Transcend 80x which for 1GB was only about £35 and so far it has worked perfectly.
 
nickb said:
Hi all,

New to DSLR, just bought the EOS 350D and have an old 1GB CF card which seems to work fine. Took a few shots and it seems to write fast and be ready straight away.

However the newer cards (Ultra II, Ultra III etc seem to read and write quite a bit faster and cost a hell of a lot more).

With DSLR photography say for multi shot modes or flight shots etc am I going to notice a difference by investing in a high speed card, anyone actually tried different types and got an opinion ?

p.s. I guess all the main known brands are reliable ?

p.p.s I'm currently trying RAW settings and am already getting frustrated at the time to download to PC and size of files !

Thanks a lot
Nick
Click to expand...

Hi Nick,
a card reader is definitely a must; I used to have a Sandisk CF 512 Mb (decent quality and speed, but no sufficient capacity with a 8Mp camera) but now I use a SanDisk Compact Flash Extreme III 2GB on my 350D ... is deadly fast, useful especially when shooting sequences: the buffer is quickly filled and the camera needs to write down the images to the card (very efficient also when downloading to my PC some 600-700 shots) and it doesn't cost you a fortune .... I bought it for ca. 110 € (shipping included)couple of months ago.
To be true, I've been told that the camera won't exploit all that speed (133x I think) ... but I do think my PC will ... ;)
Regards,
Max
 
I can download a gig from my Nikon D50 and a 50x 2gb SD Card with the default USB cable in about 3-5min. I don't know if that helps or not. The other card was much slower. I say get a faster card, card readers probably won't speed up the proccess too much.
 
I am new to DSLR as well, and just got my EOS 10D, and do have the same problem, What is the difference between fast CF card and not?
Is it realy a must, and do you realy need a fast card? how many pictures do you have to "shoot" before the problem starts?(i thought i heard that pictures are first "saved" in the camara buffer, and then written on the CFcard)..........or am i talking like a peacock without an head.............??
 
This can all be a bit subjective, I do not notice any diffence in card performance when in the camera, I have been led to understand that Canons Digic II processor dictates/overides the speed of the card in the camera.
I have just replaced my card reader from a Sandisk to a Hama 19 in 1 multi slot reader and that is much faster.
 
Thanks Nigel, but i just read something on the site of Bob Atkins about the cf cards:

____________________________________
As an example let's look at 4 cameras and how they typically perform with fast and slow cards.


----------------------- Fast card (~60x) ---> Slow card (~12x)
Canon Digital Rebel------1.4 MB/s--------------->1 MB/s
Canon EOS 10D---------1.4 MB/s--------------->1 MB/s
Canon EOS 20D----------5 MB/s --------------->1 MB/s
Canon EOS 1Ds mark II---7 MB/s----------------> 1 MB/s

As you can see, it really doesn't matter much what speed CF card you use with the Digital Rebel or EOS 10D. The camera really can't write faster than about 1.4MB/s no matter what the CF card speed is. Faster cards do give slightly better performance, but the difference is small. On the other hand, the EOS 20D and EOS 1Ds mark II can write much faster and can take more advantage of high speed cards. With these cameras the use of faster CF cards makes much more difference.

____________________________________

Now the question, is there a newer version software that can be downloaded onto the EOS 10D to make it "faster" ??? If not, then the card does not make any difference at all. Or do i understand it wrong?

Thanks
Sarel
 
Last edited:
Well I have seen these tests too, I use a 1Ds MkII and have not noticed any difference in the card performance between Sandisk III and Kingston Elite Pro cards in the camera, the Elite pros are only very slightly slower when copying the images to the PC.
 
Thanks Nigel.
For me it does not matter if it is a bit slow when copying to pc, as long as the camara is fast enough, but it looks like there is not realy very much difference in speed, maybe a sports photographer will see it, but me, as an hobby-birder, will propably not see the difference.
thanks!
 
nigelblake said:
Well I have seen these tests too, I use a 1Ds MkII and have not noticed any difference in the card performance between Sandisk III and Kingston Elite Pro cards in the camera, the Elite pros are only very slightly slower when copying the images to the PC.
Click to expand...

In copying images to a PC the main difference in copying time appears to be the card reader. I have a CF USB2 reader and a CF Firewire reader, the former takes minutes to download a full 1GB card, the latter seconds.
 
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