SD or CF?

http://www.sandisk.com …hcsdxc-uhs-i-memory-cards

http://www.sandisk.com …s/compactflash/​index.html

Not much speed difference, eh

All the reasons given so far have been good ones but I think it's simple; from the shooters I talk to, they prefer the physical size of the CF versus the SD. SD are easy to lose.

elrey2375 wrote in post #13586741
All the reasons given so far have been good ones but I think it's simple; from the shooters I talk to, they prefer the physical size of the CF versus the SD. SD are easy to lose.

As far as this, I keep them in the plastic case they come in and makes them slightly larger. I"m sure that I could come up with something else too if I though I needed it. My BR strap has a zipper pocket that I keep my spares in.

I would like to thank all who chimed in on the thread. I know more about CF cards now than I did. I still don't see the advantage for the average amateur, but I can see the advantage of faster writing for a pro using a 21mp camera and 7 or more fps on burst shooting. I don't think I've ever shot more than a 3 shot burst, and the buffer handles that just fine, so for me it's a non issue.

The more I look, the more I feel that I'll just stick with my T1i until it dies or I can see a real need for something different. If I decide to spend more, I'll get the 100mm f2.8 L macro. That's something I can really see a use for right now.

Rick, I see that you come to the right conclusion, well done! Quality glass is what you often need, upgrading bodies are often just wants.

elrey2375 wrote in post #13586741
All the reasons given so far have been good ones but I think it's simple; from the shooters I talk to, they prefer the physical size of the CF versus the SD. SD are easy to lose.

Believe it or not, CF cards are easier to load in dark conditions. Because of their size they are easier to handle " blindly ".

Preeb wrote in post #13582700
Of course I have. That has nothing to do with the question I asked though.

Comparing modern media, the CF is actually older technology, and is a bit more complex in it's construction, but I don't know why that would be enough of an advantage to keep it going when SDHC is so much cheaper and seems to perform just about as well from all I've been able to find out.

CF cards are faster than SD cards. My bodies take both CF and SD cards and for the same price and size I can get CF cards that are two or three times faster than an SD card. Yes you can get fast SD cards but the price is much higher than for a comparable CF card.

cristphoto wrote in post #13587347
CF cards are faster than SD cards. My bodies take both CF and SD cards and for the same price and size I can get CF cards that are two or three times faster than an SD card. Yes you can get fast SD cards but the price is much higher than for a comparable CF card.

Example of this?

I have not read all the other post; I'm just chiming in on the original post.

I recently upgraded to a 7d and I knew I was going to need compact flash cards. I know they were slightly more expensive but that was something I knew I was going to have to go with on my transition from a Rebel Camera. I know that photography as a hobby was going to be expensive so I expected this.

philwillmedia wrote in post #13582679
CF cards expensive?
You've never used film have you?

If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me. But a class 10 SDHC, the fastest you can get, writes at about 20-30MBps. Compact flash cards are available up to about 90MBps. This is important with cameras with high MP counts and high fps. A slower card will cause your buffer to fill up faster.

Another reason is just continuity. Until recently, the cost per GB was lower on CF cards and SDHC cards were even slower but SDHC is catching up. Still, so many photographers have their workflow and other gear tied up into CF cards, it would be tough to force them to change to another format.

I had the same concerns going into the 7D but now i would rather use a CF card simply because they are larger, sturdier and I feel more confident that I won't damage them and that I'm less likely to lose them. I have had absolutely zero problems with getting a card in wrong and damaging a pin. I read a few stories about it, but for the life of me I can't figure out how someone could do that since they only fit properly one way.

kfreels wrote in post #13588060
...I have had absolutely zero problems with getting a card in wrong and damaging a pin. I read a few stories about it, but for the life of me I can't figure out how someone could do that since they only fit properly one way.

Yeah, that's something that I can't get my head around.
Anyone who can bend a CF pin deserves a medal.

You-by-Lou wrote in post #13584746
Very interesting indeed.
I am only a DSLR guy yet I'm 54.
Always loved taking pictures....with that said I had what apparently to me was a traumatic experience when mr deLuca improperly loaded my second roll of film on a trip around manhattan on the circle line whilst in the third grade.
So in my life time I have never loaded a roll of 35mm film.

One ex wife was a photographer in the navy so she always loaded everything up.
A long term relationship was a photo buff and she also was the film handler.....and as to buff......she looked rather good in it
Yet another ex wife was traumatized by a father who only bought film rather than heat so once again

Anyway......have no idea what I am rambling about.....other than DSLR only

Jeez!!! Half way through your post I lost count how many wives you had. I'm the same age as you and I've managed to keep the same wife for 32 years. Am I doing something wrong?

Compact flash offends me in a technical sense, they being a hacked emulation of a 1980s desk bus interface. I doubt they were originally designed for this type of use: I first encountered one as an embedded volume in a home electronics device. There the compatibility with cheap ribbon connectors and commodity hardware was an advantage. It sure doesn't look designed for robustness to me. If I drop it in the toilet, can I fish it out? How do I clean inside the socket?

The move from synchronous parallel to asynchronous serial interfaces is a long-term trend. The problem of skew from the clock on multiple data lines is just too hard to solve. So SD has the edge there in the long run.

To me the risk is not the money sunk in possibly obsolescent compact flash media, but that sunk in cameras that only accept it. My practical advice would be to only buy as much memory as you need, and make sure you buy some spare if it looks like becoming obsolete.

melcat wrote in post #13589195
Compact flash offends me in a technical sense, they being a hacked emulation of a 1980s desk bus interface. I doubt they were originally designed for this type of use: I first encountered one as an embedded volume in a home electronics device. There the compatibility with cheap ribbon connectors and commodity hardware was an advantage. It sure doesn't look designed for robustness to me. If I drop it in the toilet, can I fish it out? How do I clean inside the socket?

The move from synchronous parallel to asynchronous serial interfaces is a long-term trend. The problem of skew from the clock on multiple data lines is just too hard to solve. So SD has the edge there in the long run.

To me the risk is not the money sunk in possibly obsolescent compact flash media, but that sunk in cameras that only accept it. My practical advice would be to only buy as much memory as you need, and make sure you buy some spare if it looks like becoming obsolete.

I thought it was because the emitter bypass condenser wouldn't fluctuate with the oscillation of the resonant frequency

Pretty damn good hack then...

Ron

I only have two CF cards for my 300D, one is six years old and the other three or four, both still work perfectly. I have also had about half a dozen SD Card's for various other PnS and other devices, including a couple of micro SD. None of those cards has lasted longer than three weeks in regular use. Invariably I will plug it into a card reader and it will ask me to format the unformatted card. I would quite like to upgrade to an xx series Canon but that will now only be as far as the 50D as Canon have IMO ruined the 60 simply by the move to SD. All the other things that generally got folks moaning about the 60 are not that big to me but SD over CF is the big no no. I just could not trust a camera that has IME an unreliable storage medium.

Alan

What was that about the flux capacitor?