We need a sticky on CF cards.

[Curtis N]

Though I have made several wise equipment buying decisions, thanks to the great advice posted on this forum, a recent attempt at upgrading my CF card inventory left my head swimming. I am left with the following questions, and it would be great if some wise person could summarize the answers, and even greater if the mods could "sticky" it. It's probable that all of these questions have been answered in some thread at some point, but it would take quite a bit of searching and reading to find them all.

1) Read/write speeds vary greatly between brands & models. But is there a point where the camera's ability to process and store images is the limiting factor? At what point does a faster card not produce improved performance? I would guess that the answer varies by camera model.

2) What about download speeds? At what point is the USB connection to the card reader limiting the speed, rather than the card?

3) I have an old laptop with a USB 1 port. Download speeds are painfully slow. Will a CF adapter for the card slot in the laptop improve the speed? I've seen such adapters for $10 or so. Sandisk has at least two different ones and I don't know what's different between them.

4) I have read about several known issues with various brands/models/sizes. It would be great if they could be somehow summarized. It seems like Sandisk is the only brand that hasn't had a major issue at some point.

5) I have a PNY 1 gig card that seems to work fine in my 20D but is painfully slow in my wife's 300D compared to a Sandisk card. Does anyone know why?

6) Any good websites for objective CF card reviews and comparisons?

7) Recommendations for good online retailers?

Thanks in advance. :)

[cdifoto]

1) Yes. Write speed varies by camera make & model. If your camera can only write at, say, 40x, then a 120x card would be overkill. It would only help when uploading to your computer.

2) See above. USB 2.0 operates at a much faster rate than any current CF card.

3) A PCMCIA adapter is the best bet, since it connects directly to your bus.

4) Can't say anything here. I use SanDisk and Kingston exclusively, at least so far.

5) Because the 300D is a slow camera and any shortcomings of the card would be amplified. It's not just one or the other creating a bottleneck. They have to work well together. Rob Galbraith's site (http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007) has a database of cards and cameras...and it shows that some cards work better with some cameras and vice versa.

6) Rob Galbraith. http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007

7) B&H for SanDisk, ZipZoomFly for Kingston (free FedEx shipping is a plus).

[Curtis N]

Thanks for the help!1) Yes. Write speed varies by camera make & model. If your camera can only write at, say, 40x, then a 120x card would be overkill. It would only help when uploading to your computer.But I don't know how fast cameras can write. I'll check out the Rob Galbraith link, maybe that will help clear some of the fog.

[cdifoto]

Thanks for the help!But I don't know how fast cameras can write. I'll check out the Rob Galbraith link, maybe that will help clear some of the fog.

His site does provide write times for each card and camera model. I don't know if there's any hard data on the actual max speed of the cameras themselves though. In other words, I don't know if the current top speed cameras outwrite the fastest cards available, or vice versa.

[Chris Johnson 00 T/A]

In most cases, the fast cards are much faster than the cameras.

Personally, I would buy the top, or second from the top fastest card for my specific camera model. I regularly have to wait on the buffer in my 20D, even with a Lexar 80x card. You can balance that speed with total card size.

If your not waiting on the buffer... who cares how fast the card is?

Figure out what that card is from Rob's site.

Where the 150x speeds come in, is transfer from your card reader to your PC or image tank. But again, if your not in a real rush, or have multiple cards.. why waste the extra money?

[Curtis N]

If your not waiting on the buffer... who cares how fast the card is?The PNY 1 gig that I mentioned was so painfully slow in my wife's 300D that she often filled the buffer during theatre shoots and missed shots. I wanted to make sure the next cards I purchased would perform better.

The stats on the Rob Galbraith site have put my mind at ease, and I'm much more confident that the two cards I just purchased will perform well.

[krusnof]

I have tried a lot of different cards, but most say the SanDisk Extreme are the only ones I have been satisfied with. They are so fast and you get a high quality recovery tool with them.

Answering to the first part question 3: I have a SanDisk Ultra CF adapter, but I have experience that USB 2.0 or FireWire is MUCH faster. I only use it so I don't have to carry addtional equipment.

[CyberDyneSystems]

RE: Sticky

Go to work guys!

Somone write up the definitive first post with the info and sticky it will be.

[DavidW]

Answering to the first part question 3: I have a SanDisk Ultra CF adapter, but I have experience that USB 2.0 or FireWire is MUCH faster. I only use it so I don't have to carry addtional equipment.
That adapter is a 16 bit card, which is slow. Delkin and Lexar both make 32 bit Cardbus CompactFlash adapters, which should be a very similar speed to a USB 2.0 reader.

Though I was really after the Delkin, I found a good price on the Lexar reader at amazon.co.uk earlier today, so I ordered one. I'm fed up of messing with a USB reader on the laptop, and the 16 bit adapter I had met an untimely end (it looks like someone has put something on it - it's slightly bent and won't fit into the laptop's slot). I didn't buy the 16 bit adapter as a CompactFlash card reader - I bought it to use CompactFlash peripherals in a PC Card slot on an old Pocket PC.

The 16 bit adapters are dumb devices - they merely wire the CompactFlash pins to the PC Card slot (CompactFlash is a subset of PC Card). A 32 bit Cardbus adapter is an intelligent device (Cardbus is a subset of PCI).


If you have a very new laptop with an ExpressCard slot, there are such things as ExpressCard/54 CompactFlash readers (CompactFlash is too large for an ExpressCard/34 reader to be possible, so users of the latest Apple laptops are out of luck here). I presume these use the USB 2 capability of ExpressCard, not the PCI-Express capability.



David

[Chris Johnson 00 T/A]

The PNY 1 gig that I mentioned was so painfully slow in my wife's 300D that she often filled the buffer during theatre shoots and missed shots. I wanted to make sure the next cards I purchased would perform better.

Yep.. thats exactly where I run into issues.. either in the theater, football, or motorsport events - even with my Lexar 80x card. It's a limit of my camera body, and the size of the images.

Some people only do things like landscape shots and some portraits.. most of the time, its a one off shot, maybe two... they never get even close to filling the buffer - they have the time to wait for the cards to write. Sell your PNY card to someone like that ;)

Your best bet is to look at Rob's site to see what the cards are expected to do.