Price Drop on 1GB Lexar 40X WA

[scottbergerphoto]

http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/detail.asp?dpno=284262
This is the cheapest I've ever seen it!
Scott

[Vic_izoita]

WOW... Great price, im gonna pick one up. Scott, thanks for the link
Victor

[PhotosGuy]

That's about $104 per 512MB & I've seen them for $89. Canon isn't supported for the fast write tech, so what's the advantage over 2 512s?

[CyberDyneSystems]

Depends on your Camera.. if you have a "1" it will certainly benifit from the high speed...

as far as capacity Vs. price.. the "norm" is that doubke the capacity costs MORE than double the cost in most cases with memory cards...

This IS the lowest I've seen on these excellent cards.. noice find Scott.

[defordphoto]

CDS: PhotosGuy was referring to the WA technology. Canon does not support that. N*k*n does.

[theoldmoose]

Canon may not suport WA tech, but it seems that their more recent DSLR's benefit from fast CF cards.

The latest CF speed tests at http://www.robgalbraith.com/ shows that Sandisk Extreme and Ultra II's show a speed improvement on several Canon models, including the 300D.

This surprised me some, as I expected that especially for the 300D, anything over a 12x was purely academic.

I have a couple of 12x Simpletech 512 MB's I use with my 300D. I may need to re-think my CF strategy. I missed a couple of important shots this weekend, because the stupid camera was busy writing to the CF card.

[robertwgross]

I have a couple of 12x Simpletech 512 MB's I use with my 300D. I may need to re-think my CF strategy. I missed a couple of important shots this weekend, because the stupid camera was busy writing to the CF card.

Had you fired off a long sequence, and it was still writing them to the CF card? Do you notice any difference in the problem if you shoot JPEG instead of RAW, since JPEGs are smaller files?

---Bob Gross---

[CyberDyneSystems]

The "1" bodies do not support WA... but they do support the speed advantage of a "40X" card... Although Sandisks current "Ultra2' and "Extreme" cards seem to take the speed crown in Canon bodies.. the Lexars are pretty spiffy too.

Actually.. WA is a load of crap anyway.

If WA meant anything at all beyond the "X" ratings.. then the D2H would run fastest with a Lexar card. In reality WA is nothing mmore than a marketing gimmick between Lexar and Nikon.. whch falls flat on it's face when there are 10 other cards that perform quicker in the D2H than the fastest Lexar does. Even the super cheap "Transcend" cards are faster than Lexar in the D2H.

In short. as Canon owners we have allways needed to ignore the "WA" Moniker.. as it turns out.. so should Nikon Owners.. it is the "X" factor that seems a much better indicator of actual card performnace in ANY given camera.

[defordphoto]

The "1" bodies do not support WA... but they do support the speed advantage of a "40X" card... Although Sandisks current "Ultra2' and "Extreme" cards seem to take the speed crown in Canon bodies.. the Lexars are pretty spiffy too.

Yes, agreed. That's why I snagged a couple of Extreme and UltraII CFs and SDs. Now I just need a freaking camera to put them in...

[CyberDyneSystems]

Canon may not suport WA tech, but it seems that their more recent DSLR's benefit from fast CF cards.

The latest CF speed tests at http://www.robgalbraith.com/ shows that Sandisk Extreme and Ultra II's show a speed improvement on several Canon models, including the 300D.

This surprised me some, as I expected that especially for the 300D, anything over a 12x was purely academic.

I have a couple of 12x Simpletech 512 MB's I use with my 300D. I may need to re-think my CF strategy. I missed a couple of important shots this weekend, because the stupid camera was busy writing to the CF card.

Do yourself a favor and look also at how fast that same card (the ultra2) runs in other cameras.. it has nothing to do with WA as ONLY Lexar has "WA"...

Look at the Ultra2 in the D2H and 1DMkII...

See how little of the speed the 300D can take advatage of?

Will the relatively small increase in write speed that the 300D can wring out of this card help your situation? As Bob was inferring.. the 10D and 300D are LOCKED at the burst rates.. they do not shoot faster.. period!

The only time a faster card will help is if you are spending time waiting for a buffer to clear.

[CyberDyneSystems]

The "1" bodies do not support WA... but they do support the speed advantage of a "40X" card... Although Sandisks current "Ultra2' and "Extreme" cards seem to take the speed crown in Canon bodies.. the Lexars are pretty spiffy too.

Yes, agreed. That's why I snagged a couple of Extreme and UltraII CFs and SDs. Now I just need a freaking camera to put them in...

Damn .. that really sucks Jim that you don't have one yet.. :(

[Vegas Poboy]

Not to stop anyone from making a purchase but Lexar is trying to keep up with Sandisk Ultra II and they have a x80 coming out soon check B&H's website. I own all lexars but after reading about the Ultra's I was getting ready to buy two 1gb cards.

[theoldmoose]

I have a couple of 12x Simpletech 512 MB's I use with my 300D. I may need to re-think my CF strategy. I missed a couple of important shots this weekend, because the stupid camera was busy writing to the CF card.

Had you fired off a long sequence, and it was still writing them to the CF card? Do you notice any difference in the problem if you shoot JPEG instead of RAW, since JPEGs are smaller files?

---Bob Gross---

Yep. So far, though, I've always preferred to shoot raw, so that I could fudge mistakes in exposure and white balance later in C1.

I also understand that the fastest cards will run even faster in the '1' series, but what surprised me was the 2x to 3x speed increase in the 300D tests using the fastest cards. So the 300D is actually capable of writing to the CF faster than the cards Canon are selling for it on their web site. And no, I didn't buy them direct from Canon (they were 2x to 3x the cost!), but I got the same brand and speed from Amazon.

I asked Canon support what brand and/or speed cards they had tested or recommended for the 300D. I got a boiler-plate response saying that they recommended nothing specific (essentially denying they were selling Simpletech cards in their 300D online accessory store). Since I purchased the 300D essentially the first week it hit the shelves, no one had published speed tests with it, yet. So, I had to go with what I figured Canon had at least tested their camera with. I looked all through the 300D manual, expecting to find a CF brand/speed recommendation table similar to the ones that Nikon publishes in their manuals, but no luck.

The Simpletech 12x's have been OK so far, but as I mentioned above, this weekend I was at a motorsports event, and missed a couple of shots, because I was in continous mode, and the buffer backed up on me.

For the time being, I'll have to remember to shoot JPEG in such situations, but that I'm sure will annoy me :lol:

Since I'm not shooting motorsports for a living, I can't justify a 1D Mark II to deal head on with the situation. :wink: