CF / SD Cards for 1Ds Mark II

[tdsmith]

Expecting my 1Ds Mark II next week. Is anyone interested in posting advice (or links) as to which CF/SD cards to use in the camera? I also shoot the 20D. Thanks,

[tim]

Hi Tim, welcome to the site :)

Have a read of this site (http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007), it's the bible as far as CF card performance goes. Personally I use Sandisk Ultra II 66X, but might move to Lexar 80X or the new Ultra III next time. I wouldn't risk using cheaper cards, it's not worth it.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Tim,.. (the first tim)
There should be 2GB SD cards arriving on the market at more affordable prices soon as well,. with the large files of the 1Ds you may want to go straight to those. Sandisk, Ridata and others make pretty fast SD cards worth considering.

For my 1D MkII I use Sandisk UltraII and RiData 2GB CF cards and 1GB SD cards. (will get at least one 2GB SD when I find them )

At the time these were some of the fastest cards available for the MkII (this time last year)

[MDJAK]

I currently use the Sandisk Extreme III 1gb card and have a Lexar 80x 1gb card.

I would definitely recommend getting a minimum 2gb card.

I have the 1Ds MKII and you'll only get about 50 Raw shots on a 1gb card.

Having come from the 10D and the 20D, I was used to getting a couple of hundred shots per card.

Cyber, I too am waiting for the 2gb SD cards to hit market.

Can you have the camera store raw on the CF card and jpeg on the sd card at the same time?

[pcasciola]

Having come from the 10D and the 20D, I was used to getting a couple of hundred shots per card. Couple of hundred? 120 is about the most I've ever got on a 1Gb card on my 20D, under 100 if I'm shooting RAW+L.

With a 2Gb card on a 1Ds Mk II you should get a little more than that, because the RAW files are about 80% larger than the 20D, so I'd say 2Gb is probably about the lowest you want to go.

SDs are faster too, so you might want to take CDS's advise and wait for the 2Gb Sandisk Extreme III SDs to hit the shelves, if they haven't already. If you can't wait, the Sandisk Extreme III 2Gb CF is no slouch either.

[MDJAK]

Sorry, I didn't explain well. I used to shoot jpegs, not raw, with the 20D. Thus, my couple of hundred shot capacity statement.

I did not know that SD cards were faster than CF cards. Is it a noticeable difference?

[mbze430]

SD is usually about 5-11% faster than CF cards of the same MB-GB. Do you actually feel a difference? Nope.

[MDJAK]

I was intending on waiting for the 1gb Extreme III DS Sandisk card to hit the market. However, after reviewing the manual for the Epson p-2000, it can't handle an SD card over 512 mb in size. That's quite disappointing. I was planning on saving the raws to the CF and small jpegs to the SD. I'll have to rethink that.

[tdsmith]

Thank you all for your prompt and complete repelys! How is it that the SD cards are "safter"?

[tdsmith]

Thanks Tim... I have sent my Father to take pictures in New Zealand on two occasions. I have not been their myself; however Dad says it is Heaven on earth!

[Longwatcher]

Couple of hundred? 120 is about the most I've ever got on a 1Gb card on my 20D, under 100 if I'm shooting RAW+L.

With a 2Gb card on a 1Ds Mk II you should get a little more than that, because the RAW files are about 80% larger than the 20D, so I'd say 2Gb is probably about the lowest you want to go.

SDs are faster too, so you might want to take CDS's advise and wait for the 2Gb Sandisk Extreme III SDs to hit the shelves, if they haven't already. If you can't wait, the Sandisk Extreme III 2Gb CF is no slouch either.

With a Sandisk Ultra II 2GB CF card it starts by saying 93 shots available and then proceeds to let me get an average of about 105 shots. This is RAW+M2 jpeg compression 8.

Also there have been some reports of trouble with 4GB cards on the 1DsMkII that may or may not have been fixed yet.

1GB is not bad, but 2GB is what I feel is the optimum size for quantity versus worry over losing too many images with a 4GB card in a 1DsMkII.

Just my opinion and experience,

[tim]

Thanks Tim... I have sent my Father to take pictures in New Zealand on two occasions. I have not been their myself; however Dad says it is Heaven on earth!

It's quite a nice place, sure, but probably not heaven on earth. To start with the camera stores don't carry a big enough range of gear, and it's all too expensive!

[tdsmith]

One quick question, unrelated to this thread: what do I set/select to find the thread I started or posted to? Thanks.

[PacAce]

One quick question, unrelated to this thread: what do I set/select to find the thread I started or posted to? Thanks.
Click on your name or handle on the left side of the screen. Then select "Find more posts by tdsmith".