Best Compact Flash?

[wonton]

I have two 512 mb Lexar Professional (80x) cards and have had some problems with them. I read other messages that other people are having problems with their Lexar 80x cards with the Rebel as well. What is your suggestion on CF cards? I was thinking about the Sandisk Extreme III cards. I will probably get a 1GB card.

[Longwatcher]

If you have the rebel (300D), then there is no good reason to get any card that goes faster then Lexar 12x (about 3-4Mbs), so the extreme III would be a waste of speed. If you have the Rebel XT (350D), then the Sandisk Ultra IIs should be a good alternative to the Lexar's. The extreme IIIs will work, but you are spending more then you need to.

Just my opinion,

[Maxima]

With the Rebel/300D, the regular sandisk CF does wonders, no need to get anything faster as the camera will not be able to Utilize it. If you plan on upgrading to the XT or 20D in the future, then I would recommend the ultra II or extreme III. Good luck!

[wonton]

Thanks for the advise. I will go with the Extreme III. It is only $10 more online and has a lifetime warranty (vs limited lifetime). I have the rebel xt.

[kevin_c]

I don't have a 300D (I have the 20D and use a mixture of Lexar 80x and Sandisk 66x cards) but I would have thought that a faster card would help speed up the tranfer of images from the Card to the PC. This in itself is worth the extra few pounds (or $$).

[Longwatcher]

kevin-c,
you are correct that a faster card will load faster to the computer (if you have a fast card reader), but I can walk away while the card is transfering images to the computer, I can't afford to wait on the camera to write to the card, but if it is not going to go any faster, then why spend more then you have to. The standard 1GB sandisk is plenty fast for the 10D/300D cameras and is about half the price of an ultra II/extreme III. That means I can get two for the price of one.

But if you don't like waiting (it still takes about 5 minutes to dumb a 2GB Sandisk Ultra II with a fast USB 2 card reader, which is my standard card now) then faster is better and it is worth it to you.

Just my opinion,

[Skip Souza]

You may find most of your questions answered at this site (http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007).
My own personal choice for cost effective basis is the SanDisk Ultra II.

[kevin_c]

Longwatcher,

The prices in the UK between the 'normal' Sandisk and the Ultra II are not that far apart from each other (about 5-10% cheaper where I've been looking), I must admit I nearly bought a slightly cheaper 1Gb Sandisk, but for a few pounds more I got the Ultra II (1Gb) purely because of the download times and the fact that it is 'newer technology'. I don't shoot many rapid shots and the write time to the card is not really an issue for me.
The Lexar 80x are a waste of money in my opinon (even though I bought 2 x 512Mb ones thinking they were faster :(), as a previous poster said, the 'Write Acceleration' is not used by Canon DSLR's.

[deedas]

No problems here. Also using two 80x 512mb Lexars. I'm on a 20D though.