What is the CF card spec best suitable for high speed bursts

[saleeltambe]

Considering the high speed shooting of 1DmkIV /7D - what is the recommended minimum spec of the CF card ?

Is a card 30mbps (230x speed) too slow for high burst speeds....Any hands on experiences / inputs please ??

Any specific differences observed with UDMA / non-UDMA performance ?

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Rob Galbraith has an exhaustive database evaluating various CF cards with different cameras. Hope that helps. JR

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/mul...e.asp?cid=6007

[Doug Schurman]

Let me first say I don't know a lot about the cards.

I do own a few Ridata Lightning 233X 16GB cards. I chose them because of the price, customer rating and "233X" sounded fast. I just looked at the link that Joerg listed to see what it had to say about these. It appears these are slower than the Ridata 150X cards. I did a little more investigation and found that some cards are "single layer cell" and others like the 233x are "multi layer cell". From my limited review it sounds like being multi layer cell makes it slower to write then single layer cell. The read might not be affected much. Whether or not this would impact rapid shooting I'm not sure. I have noticed a couple times with the 7D that I filled up the buffer and had to pause a few seconds to continue.

I guess being single or multi layer cell might be a factor to consider when purchasing. I may try purchasing a faster card than the ones I have to see what difference it makes.

Thanks for starting this thread.

[Chris Brennan]

I shoot with a 7D, and have had excellent success with Transcend 8GB 600x cards... full burst speeds all the time.

[Charles Glatzer]

Rob Galbraith has an exhaustive database evaluating various CF cards with different cameras. Hope that helps. JR

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/mul...e.asp?cid=6007

Rob's site is not up to date on new cards.

Hoodman RAW 675X cards are the fastest currently available...they are like rocket fuel in my MIV bodies.
http://www.hoodmanusa.com/testimonials.asp, http://www.hoodmanusa.com/products.asp?dept=1007

Sandisk Extreme Pro cards are very fast as well, but not as fast as the Hoodman RAW 675X cards

Chas

[Grant Eldridge]

There is a limit to how fast your body is able to write to the cards as well. But advertised read and write speed of the various cards is typically best case scenarios under lab conditions. I believe it is the read rate that is advertised which is typically much faster than the write spped. I have a couple 16GB Silicon Power 400x cards, I definitely notice slow writing to them dispite the advertised 400x. My 4GB 266x Adata are much faster. I'm sure the bigger names brands perform better but they are very pricey. Given I can spool up 17 images in the camera buffer I don't usually run into problems waiting for things to clear.

One of those things where you get what you pay for I guess. Let me know what you settle on and how it performs. I'm thinking of trying PIXELFLASH cards, will let you know if I do.

Grant

[Doug Brown]

It'd help if you gave me an idea of how many frames you typically shoot in a single continuous burst.

[Roger Clark]

Regarding speed, were is my web page on the subject with tests on my 1D Mark II.

http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/...sh_card_speed/

Obviously, I need to do new tests with my 1DIV and the newer cards that I have. But the results indicate changes in speed with how many files are on the card, as well as the format.

Roger

[ann shiller]

What is an MIV body?

[ann shiller]

Well, after a little research, I can see my card is REALLY slow. But the Hoodman is REALLY pricey. I would not want to buy more than I need for a D90, which I realize is a "cheap" body. And I guess the MIV body is a Mark IV body by Canon?

[saleeltambe]

Many thanks Folks for actively providing the inputs.