CompactFlash Card Comparison

[unicorn]

On the web there is a comparison review of CF cards for use in photo journalism (www.robgalbraith.com).

I would like to see something similar for CF cards being used by the Canon G1. Of course I realise that few of us are in a position to do a side-by-side comparison, so perhaps an alternative might be a review by users who own more than one brand of flashcard.

In particular I would be interested in the speed of the card, its cost and the quality although, as regards the last point, they have probably not been around long enough to give an accurate indication of their expected life span.

Any takers?

[polak187]

The main brands of CF cards that I deal with are SanDisk and Lexar. I never had any problems with them, as far as the speed goes. To my knowledge SanDisk has a constant speed thru their entire line. Meaning that their 64 MB is not faster than 96 MB or 128MB. As far as the Lexar goes. They have a different speed ratings. When shooting in RAW mode with my G1 my Lexar cards are slightly faster than SanDisk. When shooting a full video Lexar cards are faster as well. But when working with low resolution images I didn't notice any difference. Compact flash in general is fast. Lexar charges you premium for faster cards and it's really up to you to decide to spend extra money on transfer speed than on space. The time difference is not that big but noticable BUT only with large files. Lately I got my self 1 GIG microdrive and I'm happy with transfer speed on that monster. I've been told by reps in the stores (SanDisk reps :) ) that by increasing the speed of the card you increase the fragility of the card.