CF Cards for the 1D MKIII and the 40D

[Jay Gould]

Well, after not realizing that the link to Rob Galbraith' website in the "CF cards for 50D" was limited to the 50D, it is now necessary to address the proper cards for my cameras - the 1D3 and the 40D.

What cards are 40D and 1D3 owners using?

Rob's data for these two cameras is dated 16 April 2008; the data for the 50D was dated 5 December 2008.

These two cameras use DIGIC III processing; the 50D uses DIGIC IV processing.

For an apples to apples comparison using the same card with all three cameras:

SanDisk Extreme III 8GB:
50D: 15.4/s
1D3: 13.2MB/s
40D: 9.7MB/s

The fastest cards in Rob's data:

16GB:
50D: SanDisk Extreme IV 45MB/s Edition 16GB - 31.6MB/s
40D: SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition 16GB - 9.6MB/s
1D3: SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition 16GB - 9.5MB/s

8GB:
50D: SanDisk Extreme Ducati 8GB - 33.7
40D: SanDisk Extreme Ducati 8GB - 11MB/s
1D3: SanDisk Extreme III 8GB - 13.2/s (can go faster with smaller cards)

Would somebody remind me why I am buying a 1D3 slow locomotive :confused: ? Just kidding! (I think ;))

This is an interesting article from Canon on writing speeds for the 1D3.

Are any of the 1D3 users using the newer Extreme IV 45MB ED; if so, what size?

The SanDisk website which is terribly out of date - their recommendation site only goes to the 1DII, recommends the Extreme IV 45MB ED 8GB and raises the question about whether the 1DII would support a card larger than 8GB. Does the 1D3 support a 16GB card?

Thanks for all of the anticipated assistance! :D

Cheers, Jay

[Cliff Beittel]

Can't tell you about the 1D3, but the 1Ds3 not only can use a 16 GB Extreme IV, but seems to benefit greatly from it.