CF Card Speed - What for 30D?

[iseeihear]

Hi,

Anyone knows the transfer speed of 30D from the camera buffer to the CF card? I want to buy "optimum speed" cards for my 30D.

Many thanks.

Kevin

[rs666]

Don't know the technical stuff, but if it helps I use the SanDisk Extreme III cards. The card keeps up on all but the longest bursts where the write sequence puts an image later in the sequence than it was shot.

I suspect this is a function of the camera not the card.

[16.7 BigFiles]

the 30d runs the digicII image processor. Using either Extreme 3 or 4 from Sandisk or Lexars 133 speed cards will be pretty quick. I have anywhere from 1 to 4 GB cards . I would suggest to get 1 or 2 GB cards because they cost less and if it fails you have different cards for backup. CF cards are pretty tough though

[nutsnbolts]

Sandisk III (which is essentially x133)
Lexar 133 CF card

They both go around 70-100 bucks for a 4 gig card. I won't go 8 or 16 gigs. That's just nuts and dangerous. 2 gig is too small for me so 4 is a happy medium (no pun intended)

[RichNY]

You can get by with a Sandisk II and it will perform just as well in your 30D as the Extreme III. The only place you will notice a difference between the two cards is that the Extreme III will upload images from your card reader quicker.

[iseeihear]

Oh I see. Thank you all for your advice.

[JohnJ80]

This will tell you all you need to know:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-8478

It is gettting to the point where this is no advantage in a faster card in the camera. The primary advantage is two fold (1) you can download faster into your computer and (2) the slowest cards are not always readily available.

J

J

[Glenn NK]

You can get by with a Sandisk II and it will perform just as well in your 30D as the Extreme III. The only place you will notice a difference between the two cards is that the Extreme III will upload images from your card reader quicker.

Yes, I have tried different speed cards, and using RAW with the 30D, the total number of images it can handle in one 5 fps burst is eleven - no matter which card. As Rich says, it only seems to affect the upload time.

[skypix]

Interesting comments, thanks, backs up my experience with a 20D and my new 40D is that the Ultra II 2GB is faster than anything else I've shot with in clearing the buffer. I don't care so much about download speed.

I shoot all RAW, highest resolution/file size, and have a Topram 8GB for backup, and use a few Sandisk 4GB cards now for pro aviation shoots I do, where I have to shoot a lot of images in a short period of time.

[Jon]

Remember - the buffer may only handle a fixed number of shots at fast burst rate, but if you're shooting at a slower rate, there is time for the camera to write to the card between shots. I can hit the buffer limit while shooting single frame, but I don't hit it as fast, and recover faster, with fast cards.

[WAF]

I have noticed with my 30D that when I shoot in high speed bursts some of the pictures will show up out of order. Anyone have a clue why this would happen?

[acs55812]

I wish I had kept the email, but I didn't. I asked this question of Canon tech support when I purchased my 30D, in a nutshell it said the write time of the camera is such that the slowest card is way faster than the camera is capable of.

[JohnJ80]

That's correct. See:

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

Basically, the cameras write them at about 6MB/s give or take. The advantage to any card over most basic cards is in the download speed to your computer.

J.

[30Duser]

sorry to bump an old thread but i found this knowledge very useful. thank you for the links on the info. hopefully someone else will learn a thing or two.