Real world \"subjective\" test of Flash card speed

[CyberDyneSystems]

O-kay,. tonight was the first real "Iron test" for my 10D in the rigors of hard and fast shooting.

We ahd a fashion show in my Theatre,. Supermodels runway and all. Now mind you as the Tech Director/Stagemanager I do not have the best seat in the house for photographing the action,. but that does not stop me. :D

In approximately 90 minutes of time I shot nearly 700 jpegs on the 10D (no X-drive yet so raw was out of the question)

A lot of fast repetitive single shots,. and a prodigious use of the 3 FPS burst mode,... lots of it,. lots and lots,. a WHOLE LOT.

Never,. NEVER at any point was I unable to take a picture because the card was too slow or the buffer was full. And beleive me if there is ever going to be a time in the entire life of this camera that I would tax its shooting speed it was tonight.

I have a "fast" 512MB card and a standard Sandisk "slow" card.

After tonight I know I will allways save my money and by the plain vanilla grocery getter "Slow" card.

There was absolutely no discernable difference on the 10D.

Anyway,. can't wait to get these cards home and see if any pics came out! :) lol

[Sketcher]

Thanks for the 'Real World' experience CyberDyneSystems. Seems to bear true to the articles referring to the 10D performance not being tied up in CF write speeds.

I think most of us here would like to see the results of your 'subjective' test so we can judge for ourselves! ;).

[CyberDyneSystems]

Hmmm yes ,. we will not a juried decision,. lots of testing,.. :D We must view the results.

UPDATE Real world test,..

The Sandisk is DEFINATELY slower transferring from Card reader to the PC lol!!!

[Cal Maier]

Yes, I have to agree, Cyberdyne.. I have noticed that the transfer rate to the computer, of the normal card I have compared to the faster 24X and 32X cards is much slower.

I s'pose that would be one reason for buying the faster cards, for some at least.

Cal

[GenDEM]

I'm not sure about this conclusion. When I got my 10D I tested a Sandisk 160MB card, and a 30x Transcend 512MB card. I burst 9 RAW files with small/low jpegs, and timed the camera from the press of the shutter to the red write light going off. The Transcend card finished in 41 seconds, and the Sandisk card finished in 4 minutes 24 seconds. For me it's a no brainer, always go for the faster card.

[Sketcher]

gendem wrote:
I'm not sure about this conclusion. When I got my 10D I tested a Sandisk 160MB card, and a 30x Transcend 512MB card. I burst 9 RAW files with small/low jpegs, and timed the camera from the press of the shutter to the red write light going off. The Transcend card finished in 41 seconds, and the Sandisk card finished in 4 minutes 24 seconds. For me it's a no brainer, always go for the faster card.
Hmmm, I just now performed a 9 burst raw/low on a 4x 512 Lexar, non-rated 256 Sandisk and non-rated 128 Sandisk CF (I'm assuming the non-rating means they're low-end/not worth rating).

My Test is timed from release of shutter on the 9nth burst to Red-Light out/Raw/small/low jpegs. Each test performed three times and average taken.

1. 4x 512MB Lexar = 38 seconds.
2. Nr 256MB Sandisk = 33 seconds.
3. Nr 128MB Sandisk = 31 seconds.

Now, I'm not using the "High-speed" cards which many of you are and my "Testing" is done holding a wristwatch next to the camera (nothing too scientific so allow for a 1-2 second variance), but if my low end cards are giving me better write performance than yours... to me - that's a no brainer.

I'm not saying that "Faster" cards aren't worth the $$$. I am just not certain as to where that difference in cost levels out - though I think it is more relative to card reader throughput than in-camera writing. Even then, the relative issue is how much is it worth for you to wait less.

Note that you only have to wait a few seconds to click off another 9 burst run because the buffer is constantly clearing.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos10d/page11.asp

The above link is a exceptional reference in how the 10D Buffer caching/clearing works. There's a whole lot more to "in camera" read/write performance than how long it takes for the "Red light" to go out.

[Patrick 10D]

That is nice to hear - I was just about to order another CF card (512 MB) and I was considering which to buy.

The shop that sold me my 10D strongly suggested a fast card (for obvious €€€ reasons).

I import my pictures through iPhoto (Mac user), so it is slow no matter what!

http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/sleep2.gif

Patrick