Compact Flash speed a factor?

[4nR]

i've been shopping around for a cf card, and i noticed that they sell them at different speeds. does the speed of the compact flash card make a big difference in taking pics? i mean, is the 40x noticeably slower than a 60x? is there a speed at which it doesnt make a difference?

[sdommin]

For a G-Series camera, you won't notice any difference in card speeds, because in this case the camera is slower than any card. Where you'll notice a difference is in downloading your pictures if you use a card reader. Even then, the difference between an 8x and a 32x, for example, is barely noticeable. If you plan on getting a DSLR sometime in the future, you might want to consider faster cards.

[Kusie]

Hi,
depends on the cam you´d like to use it in. Most prosumer cams do not have the internal interface to use the full speed of the card, so the speed is useless here, but if you put a fast card into a USB 2.0 card reader, you can flush the images quicker to the PC. My advice would be to get a card like the Sandisk Ultra II (8 Mb per second), that should be enough even if you are getting a faster digicam in the future. But it would be overkill to get the fastest card on the market.

[kb244]

Depends on the camera, on a point and shoot camera you might not notice much difference at all, refer to this guide for Card Speeds inside of Cameras.

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

use pull down on top left, to select a camera, then it'll list a whole bunch of cards tested with.

For example the Sandisk Ultra II is rated for about 60X , this basically means its capable of 9-10 MB/sec transfer speed, however it also depends on the camera's card interface, for example in my digital rebel the Ultra II saves at about 1.3MB/sec , however on a 20D its about 5.5MB/sec, but on a 1DMk2 its about 8.5MB/sec.

[Kusie]

@Scott
Damn, you were quicker :-))

[4nR]

thanks. im considering a g6, and thought that a 80x card might make a difference. i guess it really doesnt, so i'll go with a slower (ie cheaper) card.

[tealblue]

The only place i can tell the faster speed from the (fast cards)is in my usb card reader.TealBlue