New CF on it's way + extreme III + ultra ii question?

[JaGWiRE]

Prices on Ultra II's have dropped dramatically and I am considering purchasing a significant amount of storage (an extra 8-16gb). I'm wondering if that's a bad idea, I remember the Mark III videos featuring some Lexar 300x cards. I think those cards probably only will work on new cameras, but I figured I'd ask anyway. I'm thinking of getting an Rebel XT as a second body, so I want a little more CF.
BTW, is the Ultra II significantly slower then the Extreme III I have now? If so, it should still be fine for regular day shooting and some burst, just not very good on my 30D for any high speed sports or anything where I'm constantly using burst?

[Savagebasher]

the buffer on your 30d is slower than an Ultra II, so you will not notice any performance difference until you use a card reader

[JaGWiRE]

the buffer on your 30d is slower than an Ultra II, so you will not notice any performance difference until you use a card reader
Understood -- interesting. Well, my sandisk extreme card reader is fast enough anyway, that card can't be too much slower that I'll be annoyed when offloading the pics to my hard drive.

[coreypolis]

extreme IV is 40/20 mb/s read write
extreme III is 20/10
Ultra II is 10/9

How much of that a camera can take advantage of is hard to say.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/accessories/cards.shtml

[JaGWiRE]

extreme IV is 40/20 mb/s read write
extreme III is 20/10
Ultra II is 10/9

How much of that a camera can take advantage of is hard to say.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/accessories/cards.shtml
My extreme III gets max on my comp and sandisk extreme reader 12 mbps on read, so I don't know, I'm sure that 1 mbps is pretty hard to feel too. The Extreme IV on a MK III or something I can understand (or maybe even a MK II N.)

[Savagebasher]

All 3 of my Ultra II's get 12-13megs/sec on my card reader. I would think an Extreme III would read faster

[Bob_A]

extreme IV is 40/20 mb/s read write
extreme III is 20/10
Ultra II is 10/9

How much of that a camera can take advantage of is hard to say.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/accessories/cards.shtml

It's not hard to say at all. Rob Galbraith has tests of all cards with most Canon DSLR's. For the XT, 20D and 30D there is no huge performance advantage from using anything faster than an Ultra II. I'm certain the XTi will have about the same result, their site just doesn't have it in the database yet.

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-7303

Canon 20D with a 2 GB card:

Extreme IV write speed (fine jpeg) = 5.290 MB/s
Extreme IV write speed (RAW) = 6.080 MB/s

Extreme III write speed (fine jpeg) = 4.978 MB/s
Extreme III write speed (RAW) = 5.896 MB/s

Extreme write speed (fine jpeg) = 4.881 MB/s
Extreme write speed (RAW) = 5.508 MB/s

Ultra II write speed (fine jpeg) = 4.920 MB/s
Ultra II write speed (RAW) = 5.810 MB/s

From their tests it looks like there is even less of a difference for the XT.

[Bob_A]

All 3 of my Ultra II's get 12-13megs/sec on my card reader. I would think an Extreme III would read faster

Yes, they the Extreme III's and IV's will definitely be faster with a card reader, but won't have any big advantage for the Canon prosumer or consumer DSLR's.

[coreypolis]

It's not hard to say at all. Rob Galbraith has tests of all cards with most Canon DSLR's. For the XT, 20D and 30D there is no huge performance advantage from using anything faster than an Ultra II. I'm certain the XTi will have about the same result, their site just doesn't have it in the database yet.

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-7303




theres more to the decision than just that. download speed is a hgue concern for many, like me. They have to download in the fastest possible time.

Theres also future bodies, an ultra II may be fine on a rebel, but if you move to a 1d3 you may be missing out on a lot. You also get a copy of c1 LE and recovery software with an extreme card purchase.

[Bob_A]

theres more to the decision than just that. download speed is a hgue concern for many, like me. They have to download in the fastest possible time.

Theres also future bodies, an ultra II may be fine on a rebel, but if you move to a 1d3 you may be missing out on a lot. You also get a copy of c1 LE and recovery software with an extreme card purchase.

That's true, however the OP didn't seem that concerned about the performance using a card reader, but only about the in-camera performance. For someone like me who only shoots at most 4 GB of images in a session, the time it takes for my card reader to download images is insignificant. For a pro that shoots thousands of images per session, I can see that this could be a problem and why the faster cards can be justified.

The OP was also looking for cards for an XT or 30D, not for a 1D series body, so for him the Ultra II's are a better choice, unless of course you can get the Extreme IV's for a lower price than the Ultra II's, then it's a no brainer. :) Personally I wouldn't buy cards now for a body I may get several years down the line since the prices will continue to drop and the performance will continue to increase.

[pcasciola]

I have Ultra IIs, an Extreme III and an Extreme IV. I see no difference in the 20D, and only a slight difference in the reader between the IIs and IIIs. The only very noticeable difference is the IV in the reader which really rips compared to the IIs and IIIs, and I don't even have the UDMA FireWire reader which has been tested at a true 40Mbytes/sec which is only 25 seconds per GB. If you don't care about reader speed, the Ultra IIs are a great buy right now.

[JaGWiRE]

I have Ultra IIs, an Extreme III and an Extreme IV. I see no difference in the 20D, and only a slight difference in the reader between the IIs and IIIs. The only very noticeable difference is the IV in the reader which really rips compared to the IIs and IIIs, and I don't even have the UDMA FireWire reader which has been tested at a true 40Mbytes/sec which is only 25 seconds per GB. If you don't care about reader speed, the Ultra IIs are a great buy right now.
Good to know. My 8gb should be here in a few days. I got an tempting offer for 2x4gb Extreme III, but 20gb seems like overkill for CF storage, LOL.