4x memory card: will it limit the DRebel ?

[sid]

I've read quite a few posts here about how the DRebel cannot take advantage of the newer highs speed CF cards. I've also read the CF card tests on www.robgalbraith.com (http://www.robgalbraith.com)
Now, my question is: Realistically, is a 4x card going to really slown down the rate at which I can take pictures with the DRebel (or rather how slow will it make the whole process of taking pictures) ? I dont plan to take any motorsports pictures (yet). Should I buy this card ? It's a 1GB card and I'd rather not buy a smaller capacity card....

[deezeljuice]

It's going to be a little slower than the high speed cards. How much slower, relatively speaking, not very much. If you're not doing something that requires extremely fast refreshes, you're OK. In practical terms, it's not going to make much of a difference. I am speaking from my own experience. The camera has a buffer, you can still get 2.5 fps and a maximum of I think it's 3 or 6 shots in succession(?). The write speed of the card will never have an effect on that.
I've used 4x cards for sports to get sequences of pitchers pitching, works great...

[sid]

deezeljuice:
Thanks for the advice ! That was exactly what I was looking for. I dont see myself even taking 2.5fps at this time. Appreciate your help :)

[Jon]

Well, the slowest card tested against the DR is about half the speed of the fastest. Where the speed's going to make a difference is in clearing the camera's buffer. The DR holds, what, 4 shots in the buffer, in 2.5 sec. continuous shooting? That slow card (from the database) is going to take at least that long to write one shot to card. So you won't get your full buffer back for almost 15 seconds. A faster card will give it all back in 7-8. If you're in squirrelly conditions and have auto-bracket turned on you're going to be able to shoot one (burst) picture every 6 sec. at best, going to 10 sec. after 3-4 bursts. The faster card will give you about 4 sec after the first, and will also take longer to hit its slowest rate at around 6 sec (which is the best you'll get from the slow card). If you're shooting any kind of sporting event, or wildlife in motion, you'll also want a good burst rate and quick recovery time.

ANother point to consider is that newer cameras are able to make better use of the faster cards. If you're planning to move up (or even expect that you might some day) the faster card will be able to go with you much easier. There's a 4x performance edge between the slowest and fastest cards on the 20D, which means the fastest card in the 20D is about 7x as fast as the slowest card in the DR.

But at least as important as the card speed is the card manufacturer. Are their cards reliable? Personally, I'll get SanDisk (Ultra II) or nothing nowadays. I have others, accumulated over the years for various cameras, PDAs and computers, but I trust SanDisk. The one card I've experienced failure with was a Kingston.

[robertwgross]

What everybody seems to be ignoring here is the file size. If you are shooting RAW files, which are larger, it is just a hell of a lot more bytes to write. If you are shooting small JPEG files, it is a lot less... and as a result, the differences in CF card speed will show more in RAW files, measured in terms of seconds.

You are shooting RAW, aren't you?

---Bob Gross---

[Pyromaniac]

I just bought my digital Rebel and decided to go ahead and spend the extra few bucks on a Sandisk Extreme III 1Gb card so if I upgrade Ican use it in a camera with faster write speeds.

[kb244]

Yer basically talking bout 700K/sec write speed to the card, versus 1.3Mb/sec write speed on the DRebel, upto you if you dont mind chugging along things at 700K/sec.