Memory Cards

[gsniegow]

Hello...

I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on the memory cards. I have the DRebel which uses the CF. I am going to purchase another 1gig card for an upcoming vacation. My question is this... Is there a noticable difference between CF and CFII? I currently have a 512 CFII which performs well (as far as I can tell being new to all this). Any feedback would help.

Oh, btw, for the most part I HAVE been shooting in just JPG as I learnt he camera, but I expect to switch over to RAW once I figure all of this stuff out. Not sure if that impacts any feedback or not.

Thanks in advance!

- Gene

[Jim_T]

Compact flash cards come in two sizes. Type I and Type II

Type II cards are slightly thicker.. Back when CF cards were new, they developed the thicker type II case so they could squeeze in more memory cells. Back then, a 128 MB card was big. a gigabyte was unheard of :)

Nowadays with advances in technology, they can squeeze a lot more memory cells into a type I case.. As a result, you don't normally find type II flash cards in capacities under 2 Gigs.. I doubt you could even find a currently sold 1 Gig card with a type II case...

[gsniegow]

Thank you for the information.

Actually I can find allot of type II under 1 gig.

I currently have a 512 that is type II.

I have been shopping around newegg, best buy, circuit city, and fry's and all of them have the 1gig type II from Scandisk for just under $100.

In any case... My main question is performance. Will I notice it? I would hate to get a type I and find out that it takes X amount of time longer to write the pictures to the card. Not that I frequently take shot after shot, but in the event that I want to I want to be sure I'll be alright.

[Master-9]

With the Canon 300D you could really use type I because the Degital Rebel doesn't really use the speed of a type II card

[the.digital.guy]

For the money I think you cannot beat the SanDisk Ultra II Compact Flash 1GB Card.
I never knew Sandisk made Type II cards!!!!......Type II are usually MicroDrives.

[GeForceFX]

do you mean "ultra II" ?

sandisk ultra II is not type II CF ;)

[the.digital.guy]

do you mean "ultra II" ?

sandisk ultra II is not type II CF ;)

That what I said: "Ulta II" which is a Type I Compact Flash.
I have never seen a Type II card from SanDisk.

[foxbat]

Your camera (and mine) can't take advantage of the extra speeds of any of the cards advertising themselves as "Ultra" "high speed" etc. Instead of a stack of expensive CF cards have you considered an image tank? I have a single 1Gb CF card and a 20Gb image tank on to which I transfer the CF card in the field. My image tank is a Digimate II which cost £30 on e-bay and the 20Gb 2.5" HDD also cost £30 on e-bay. So that's 20Gb for about the same as a 1Gb CF card.

[Skip Souza]

Check out http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007 for lots of CF information.

[DSMITH131]

Your camera (and mine) can't take advantage of the extra speeds of any of the cards advertising themselves as "Ultra" "high speed" etc. Instead of a stack of expensive CF cards have you considered an image tank? I have a single 1Gb CF card and a 20Gb image tank on to which I transfer the CF card in the field. My image tank is a Digimate II which cost £30 on e-bay and the 20Gb 2.5" HDD also cost £30 on e-bay. So that's 20Gb for about the same as a 1Gb CF card.
image tank is fine but with only one CF card not possible to do a event (all the pictures you could miss while waiting on it to download)

[gsniegow]

My sincerest apologies for my ignorance.

I guess I meant Ultra II which the gentleman at Best Buy said WAS a type II card. I've told myself a thousand times that 9 times out of 10 the sales folks at Best Buy aren't exactly knowledgable about thier products. But heck, the sales pitch worked on me and I purchased the Ultra II thinking it was something that was needed by my camera.

Thank you all for your information. One again, I do apologize.

[wolf]

The SanDisk Ultra II was a good choice. I have a Lexar Pro , a SanDisk and a SanDisk Ultra II and the Sandisk Ultra II is by far the fastest read/write card of the bunch.

[MTalley]

I recently purchased a couple of Sandisk 512MB Ultra II's to use as primary storage and retained my two 256MB Sandisk red/blue (basics) as backups. To be honest, the speed difference is only slightly noticeable. Refer to the link that Skip Souza referred to. It does have a lot of interesting information, but be sure to read the very top of that article. The Rebel 300D apparently is not as efficient at writing to the CF, regardless of type, as, say, the newer cameras do (i.e. the Rebel XT or 20D).

Still, any incremental gain in performance is worthwhile if you don't spend a great premium on the cards. I happened upon a sale at Dell on the Ultra II's that put them at the same price as the basic Sandisk cards, so that purchase was a no-brainer.

Still, by the above link, the Ultra II's should be about 40% faster, but I haven't been able to notice that much difference in my very unscientific testing so far.

[lostdoggy]

I just took some pics of a local parade and I fillup both 1GB card. I also have a 512MB card which I rarely use because it only holds 76 Pics.
I just pickup an 1GB Ultra II (from Dell for $80) for my Drebel and it really makes no different in speed. If you have no interest inupgrading to say a 20D you can find 1GB for around $50 or less. I got my 1GB Kingston for $40 from eCost, it might even been less then that after rebate.
The reason why I got the Ultra is because I'm planning to get the 20D or the 1DMKII. Can't Decide.

[gsniegow]

Oh, eventually I will upgrade from the DRebel. However that is some time away and who knows what the market will have ready for me when I do decide to move ahead. Right now I'm so clueless about even the DRebel!

Good luck in acquiring your upgrade!

[Salleke]

Your camera (and mine) can't take advantage of the extra speeds of any of the cards advertising themselves as "Ultra" "high speed" etc. Instead of a stack of expensive CF cards have you considered an image tank? I have a single 1Gb CF card and a 20Gb image tank on to which I transfer the CF card in the field. My image tank is a Digimate II which cost £30 on e-bay and the 20Gb 2.5" HDD also cost £30 on e-bay. So that's 20Gb for about the same as a 1Gb CF card.

I suggest you buy a second CF card of 1 GB so you can continue shooting while the oher card is uploading into your image tank.
Otherwise you have a chance of loosing oppurtunities in not be able to make pictures.

I just took some pics of a local parade and I fillup both 1GB card. I also have a 512MB card which I rarely use because it only holds 76 Pics.
I just pickup an 1GB Ultra II (from Dell for $80) for my Drebel and it really makes no different in speed. If you have no interest inupgrading to say a 20D you can find 1GB for around $50 or less. I got my 1GB Kingston for $40 from eCost, it might even been less then that after rebate.
The reason why I got the Ultra is because I'm planning to get the 20D or the 1DMKII. Can't Decide.

I have 3 x 1 GB Sandisk standard CF cards and a 2 GB Sandisk Extreme III card.
I own a 20 D and the Sandisk Extreme III is not faster in the 20 D then the standard Sandisks CF cards of 1 GB.
If the faster card is supported in the 1D series i don't know.
I aggree with you that buying a 1 GB Sandisk Ultra II card for now is a very good thing to do.
Next year the Extreme III cards will be less expensive aniway.