Which CF Card for the 5D Mk III??

which depends on ISO, higher ISO = less shots

I've just formatted my card,
ISO100 = 536
ISO200 = 531
ISO400 = 522
ISO800 = 513
ISO1600 = 497
ISO3200 = 477
ISO6400 = 442
ISO12800 = 416
ISO25600 = 386
ISO51200 = 357
ISO102400 = 326

Appreciate the response! Thank you.

Rob Galbraith did the tests on the 5D3. Check out his website for findings on the best cards. Looks like the Lexar 1000x UDMA7 card is the best. If I were to buy an SD card for this camera, despite the slow speed...I'd still get a UHS one because at least my images will upload to the computer quickly.

I desperately need to update my cards. I haven't bought one in probably 2 years. Kingston 133 8 gig was my last LOL.

Got a 5d2 coming in a few days. I don't think I can even try out the video with what I have. I think my best card is a sandisk extreme 4 gig but only 30mb. The rest are Costco Ultras (which are probably like 15mb) and I have some 1 and 2 gig Sandisk extremes, but no mb listed on the label. Probably 30mb if I had to guess.

Going to give it a few more days, hoping for a price drop. Otherwise I think I'm going to get one of the 2 pack deals (400x or 60mb) for Sandisk or Lexar on Adorama or BH.

btw, is this true that CF cards are more reliable than SD ?

because as both slots are now available with the 5DM3, i was wondering if i should get rid of my 2 expensive Sandisk Extreme CF cards and get bigger and as fast SD cards instead...

i've heard that it's easier to have defective SD cards and corrupted files on SD than CF...

feedbacks would be welcomed

thanks

...any of them that are reliable and have the speed you need to do your shooting. Memory cards are not film for pete's sake.

popeshawnpaul wrote in post #14202983
Rob Galbraith did the tests on the 5D3. Check out his website for findings on the best cards. Looks like the Lexar 1000x UDMA7 card is the best. If I were to buy an SD card for this camera, despite the slow speed...I'd still get a UHS one because at least my images will upload to the computer quickly.

It was an interesting read, but I don't totally understand what he was testing.

Burst column represents how many CR2 + JPEG pictures the camera was able to take in 30 seconds. Higher numbers are better, and a relatively small difference in the number of frames captured translates to a noticeable difference in how much faster one card feels than another, when shooting frequent extended bursts.

But this is writing both a RAW file + Jpeg at the same time. Now if you only wanted to write just the RAW, would the top cards perform any differently. The number given is how many shots were taken out of a possible 180. (6 shots / second * 30 seconds) And burst mode that I am interested in, is how many continuous shots you can get before the buffer fills and the shot rate slows down. And how does the rate change as the card get fuller? Like it's one thing to have a fast card when blank formatted, but if it slows at 40% capacity, then you'd need more cards or larger than you'd think for performance sake.

If it works out that the 1000x 32gb is only 1 shot faster in the burst mode I described, than say the 1000x 16gb, then it might make more sense to have two 16's than a single 32.

Not worth starting a new thread over. Do we need to make sure the CF card and SDHC card matches in terms of speed? I'm wondering if for example the CF card is 60Mbps and the SDHC is 15Mbps, will it cause slow write speeds. I would assume so.

popeshawnpaul wrote in post #14138472
I saw a guy on another forum was getting quite a bit faster speeds with a 90mb/s Sandisk card. It appears faster cards do see a speed increase. I'd like to see a udma 6 vs 7 comparison or full rundown like Galbraith use to do...

Here ya go the 5dm3 mem card tests
http://robgalbraith.co​m …i_page.asp?cid=​6007-12452

Gregg.Siam wrote in post #14205336
Not worth starting a new thread over. Do we need to make sure the CF card and SDHC card matches in terms of speed? I'm wondering if for example the CF card is 60Mbps and the SDHC is 15Mbps, will it cause slow write speeds. I would assume so.

Not if you are putting jpeg on the sd, i tested it and even the large fine jpegs never got bogged down in the buffer of a class 6 8gig card. I wondered if i needed new fast sd's to help it along but i dont think it will matter. I did test these without a cf card in the body but that shouldnt matter if i am blasting the shutter continuous for like 50 frames and it is handling it it should be fine. Now if you are putting raws on the second that is where it bogs down immediately, at least on my sd it did.

KCY wrote in post #14198007
which depends on ISO, higher ISO = less shots

I've just formatted my card,
ISO100 = 536
ISO200 = 531
ISO400 = 522
ISO800 = 513
ISO1600 = 497
ISO3200 = 477
ISO6400 = 442
ISO12800 = 416
ISO25600 = 386
ISO51200 = 357
ISO102400 = 326

Wow thats one i hadn't thought of!

The SD card is the weakest link to the 5DIII buffer clearing ability.

CF card only the buffer goes back to 13 quickly.
SD card only the buffer goes back to 13 very slow (relative to CF).
Both cards... the buffer goes back as slowly as just SD only.

13 shot buffer for RAW
8 shot buffer for mRAW and sRAW

Not sure why it drops.

But Rob Galbraith's test definitely backs up what I've observed.

Higgs Boson wrote in post #14141629
It can fit a few hundred full raws. It's enough for me, I keep several 8mb'ers close by and swap. just trying not to lose a ton of pics should something fail!

Hopefully you've figured out that you've been typing mb instead of gb, and people were making fun of that.

A little bit of data from my own 5D3....

Length of high-speed burst before the frame rate slows down:

Sandisk 45 mb/s - 13 shots RAW
Sandisk 60 mb/s - 16 shots RAW

This was with the CF card in the camera only. When using both SD and CF, and putting the JPG on SD, it slowed way down and the burst was cut to about 7 frames before dropping.

RileyLewis wrote in post #14206743
Hopefully you've figured out that you've been typing mb instead of gb, and people were making fun of that.

yes, yes, i got it.