SD vs CF?

I always thought that CF cards performed better than SD cards but has that gap been minimized or has it disappeared completely?

The 5D Mark III has slots for CF and SD... which is better? Why?

Since the 5D3 doesn't support UHS1 the SD slot is, depending on your purposes, adequate to insufficient. According to Rob Galbraith the SD slot gets to a maximum of 20MB/s no matter the max speed of the card. It does let you use eye-fi cards though. If you don't shoot action then it won't affect you but if you do, you may well be on the waiting end of a buffer flush.

Pros of CF- Faster, bigger, harder to break (more sturdy) more reliable.

SD...smaller, slower, has better connection system (vs pins on CF).

I will have an SD card to have a small jpg backup, raws will go on the CF cards.

Is there a way (5DM3) to set a custom control that says "When shooting RAW, send to CF", "When shooting JPEG, send to SD"

I've enabled the switch between RAW & JPG using the MFN button, but the images all go to my CF Card, and then will "auto-switch" to the SD card when that one is full ... I'd like to keep them separate if possible , I think. (unless that itself presents new problems.)

tlzimmerman wrote in post #14327634
Pros of CF- Faster, bigger, harder to break (more sturdy) more reliable.

SD...smaller, slower, has better connection system (vs pins on CF).

.

seems like almost every other electronic thing except DSLRs use SD cards and they are significantly cheaper

I think you can specify that RAW gets saved to one card while jpg is saved to another card. But that's when you shoot in RAW + jpg mode. I don't think it gives you a "If RAW, save CF, elseif JPG, save SD." But I could be wrong.

Yea, so far that's the way it seems to work ... I tried that setting ... thanks

CF cards are available with UDMA 7 for much faster read/write than an SD card. If you only shoot an occasional file or a few shots a day...maybe you don't care. But if you are shooting action wildlife or sports sequences, you want the write to the card to be ASAP. Also after a long do of shooting, I want the read from my 32GB or 64GB card to be ASAP over USB 3 (not FW800 or USB 2). My Lexar card reader is UDMA 7 compliant.

I'd actually like to know the reasoning behind offering two different card slots in one camera. I really don't care to have to keep track of two different kinds of cards, just complicates things more than necessary. Add that I'm not a fan of the "smaller is better" philosophy here, that SD slot would never get used in my (imaginary) 5DIII. If there were a 2nd CF slot though, I'd have two cards in it at all times, use one as instant backup.

I've seen this in other cameras, it's just weird to me. Are they trying to broaden their market appeal, so people that have only SD cards consider the camera? At $3.5k I somewhat have my doubts cost of cards plays much of a role to target customers.

phantelope wrote in post #14329108
I'd actually like to know the reasoning behind offering two different card slots in one camera. I really don't care to have to keep track of two different kinds of cards, just complicates things more than necessary. Add that I'm not a fan of the "smaller is better" philosophy here, that SD slot would never get used in my (imaginary) 5DIII. If there were a 2nd CF slot though, I'd have two cards in it at all times, use one as instant backup.

I've seen this in other cameras, it's just weird to me. Are they trying to broaden their market appeal, so people that have only SD cards consider the camera? At $3.5k I somewhat have my doubts cost of cards plays much of a role to target customers.

This was my thought exactly.

phantelope wrote in post #14329108
If there were a 2nd CF slot though, I'd have two cards in it at all times, use one as instant backup.

That's a small reason I am waiting on the 1DX - it will have dual CF slots.

phantelope wrote in post #14329108
I'd actually like to know the reasoning behind offering two different card slots in one camera. I really don't care to have to keep track of two different kinds of cards, just complicates things more than necessary. Add that I'm not a fan of the "smaller is better" philosophy here, that SD slot would never get used in my (imaginary) 5DIII. If there were a 2nd CF slot though, I'd have two cards in it at all times, use one as instant backup.

I've seen this in other cameras, it's just weird to me. Are they trying to broaden their market appeal, so people that have only SD cards consider the camera? At $3.5k I somewhat have my doubts cost of cards plays much of a role to target customers.

My 1D cameras have dual format cards and I like it that way. When I'm at a location I can shoot RAW on the CF card and then internally in the camera copy them over to the SD card to load directly into my laptops built-in SD slot without any external readers. If its a critical shoot (i.e. wedding) I simply shoot in redundant mode. I keep the CF card in my pocket and give the SD card to an assistant to input to the laptop - total file security. If I had to go to only one format it would be CF as they are faster, thus quicker to download to computer.

aegid wrote in post #14327547
Since the 5D3 doesn't support UHS1 the SD slot is, depending on your purposes, adequate to insufficient. According to Rob Galbraith the SD slot gets to a maximum of 20MB/s no matter the max speed of the card. It does let you use eye-fi cards though. If you don't shoot action then it won't affect you but if you do, you may well be on the waiting end of a buffer flush.

I guess I didn't realize that. I actually just ordered another sd card that was a 600x so it will only write at the slower rate if I am reading that correctly? If that is the case I may just send it back and keep the one I have since it is 50.00 cheaper. I did however, just spring for a new 32 gig 600x transcend cf card so hopefully I should see a difference from my Kingston 266x.