Sandisk 2Gb or 4 GB Extreme III Compactflash

[Rodack]

I am looking at buying the Sandisk 2 or 4 GB Extreem III CF Card but was wondering if anyone has anything to say about them before I go and purchase them.

I just brought my 20D on Saturday and it came with a 256 ultra2 but I want a bigger card to hold lots of Raw images.

All Advise and comments would be great

Thanks in advance

Mick

[alan sh]

1. Go with 2 x 2gb rather than 1 x 4gb. That way, if something goes wrong, you only lose 1/2 the photos.
2. You don't need the Extreme range - the 20D can't write fast enough. I have the Ultra II range and they work great. With the occasional stutter, I can write 50+ large jpegs in very quick time (hold the shutter down and see how it goes).

[blackviolet]

my only comment.... buy the cards outside of sydney - they're way too much here

[Rodack]

So you have any idea of where to get them from

[dng]

My suggestion would be to break up your memory for example 2x1gb + 4x512 and so on....

[Fills]

1. Go with 2 x 2gb rather than 1 x 4gb. That way, if something goes wrong, you only lose 1/2 the photos.
2. You don't need the Extreme range - the 20D can't write fast enough. I have the Ultra II range and they work great. With the occasional stutter, I can write 50+ large jpegs in very quick time (hold the shutter down and see how it goes).

The Extreme III is faster, but not by much on the 20D (check here: http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-7303 ) but I believe it is also good performance for weather extremes such as cold and heat. Depending on the price difference between this and the Ultra II and what your needs are...

I agree with Alan, and I went with Ultra II for now... 1GB. Also, note usually the 1GB are faster than 2 or 4.

[Rayzorx]

Here is a one gig for just over $100.
http://www.ritzcamera.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&productId=13157353&bct=t1003%3Bc1020%3Bc5739563%3Bc5739566
Maybe you could git 4 1Gigs cheaper.

Ritz has no sales tax and free shipping. That should saave a couple bucks.

[eosster]

Cheaper here, http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=20-171-046&DEPA=0

[ScottE]

A lot will depend on what you are shooting. With the 20D you will get over 200 RAW pictures on the 2gb and 400 on the 4gb. If you are shooting sports in wet weather you might want to take more than 200 shots without opening your camera to change the CF card.

I do a lot of winter shooting in Canada so I prefer the Extreme for its cold weather abilities. In Syndey you might be more interested in hot weather reliability.

I don't worry about CF card failure. I have had two cheap CF cards fail and none of the better quality cards. For the cards that did fail I was able to recover the pictures up to the time of failure so I did not lose any images. I even recovered the top 1/2 of an image where one card failed. I do recommend carrying several cards, regardless of size in case one does fail.

For that reason, I would prefer two 2gb cards to one 4gb card, but two 4gb cards would be even better. If you are going to worry about card failure, don't shoot each card until it is full, but keep rotating cards throughout the day so you have a good selection of images on both. Even better, get the 1DMk2 and shoot on both CF and SD cards at the same time.

Even if you had sixteen 256mb cards and one failed there is a chance that the image your really wanted was on the card that failed. Either that or you would be busy changing cards when the time came to take that perfect image.

Scott

[Rodack]

Thanks for all your Info guys

I will be going down the track of the 2 x 2gb cards Ultra ii

Thanks again

Mick