new 5d3

so...after months and months of debate - i decided to go with the new 5d3.
i haven't had time to play with it because of family and work issues...
but I had a quick question
(an issue I hadn't noticed so much during my thought process)
I understand that the SD card slot is not set up well in regards to maximizing the speeds of the cards inside.
(I have a lexar pro CF X1000 and a lexar pro SD X600 - if that tells you something)
and I understand that if you write to the SD card - the speed of the write speed will be reduced (significantly)
Does this occur if there is a SD card in place, but not being written to?
i.e. I have both SD and CF card in place...and I have it established that I will write first to the CF the RAW+JPG and then to the SD?

Or will the speed be equalized if I have it done in parallel - JPG to SD and RAW to CF?

thanks and sorry for being so late to the party!

Congrats !
great camera
I hope someone answer your question because i use just one old SD memory on my camera
enjoy

Congratulations on your 5DIII. I think the slowdown occurs when you are writing on the buffer. For shooting 4-5 photos (i.e. not filling the buffer) the FPS is the same. At least that's how it sounded in my 5DIII a moment ago when I tested it. I tested shooting RAW in both and each card individually.

Saving JPG in the SD may affect the point when the slowdown starts.

Speed is based on the speed of the lowest card. No SD card, speed is based off of the CF. Not being written to, speed based off of the CF. If you are writing to both, that's when you get affected. Keep in mind though, this would really only affect you shooting bursts and filling the buffer. You won't notice it doing single shots or low continuous. I never ran into this issue with the 5d3, so I don't think it's a big deal.

Congrats on the new camera! To answer your question about card speeds, the camera will reduce the CF speed to the SD speed when you're shooting in parallel. If you have it just set to the CF, then it won't reduce the speed.

The fast CF speed is most important for video work IMO. I've shot just on the SD card, and I haven't encountered too many buffer issues (but then again, I don't do large bursts of photos).

huntersdad wrote in post #17007075
Speed is based on the speed of the lowest card. No SD card, speed is based off of the CF. Not being written to, speed based off of the CF. If you are writing to both, that's when you get affected. Keep in mind though, this would really only affect you shooting bursts and filling the buffer. You won't notice it doing single shots or low continuous. I never ran into this issue with the 5d3, so I don't think it's a big deal.

Actually, someone had tested this previously and it shows that the SD slot will always write slower, regardless of what card you have in there. And if you're writing simultaneously to CF and SD, the rate at which buffer clears will be dependent on how fast the camera writes to the SD card.

This apparently has been the case with all previous 1D models as well. Not sure why Canon doesn't up the writing speed to really take advantage of the faster SD cards out there.

But again, not an issue unless you're bursting, filling up the buffer and waiting for buffer to clear. Should not be a concern if/when you're shooting video.

thanks all for the time and the congrats!

makes sense about the buffer issue. I just started reading about it - I was about to set my preference and then I saw people who go so far as to say to remove the SD card completely so as to enjoy from the speeds of the CF cards. I mean, both are 32GB versions, so I suppose I could do that - but I just thought it was a waste since it was one of the selling points of the 5d3 over the 6d (for me). Anyway, I guess that I will have to play with the camera settigns more. I was just hoping that (for once) the answer isn't "it depends"!

I did a little testing with my cards.

5D Mark 3 set to record large RAW and small jpg. Auto focus, ISO 1600. On a rainbow colored image on my screen.

Using a stop watch. Measure the time from first shutter click until then red light went off.

SD Ultra 32GB 30MB/s (right) 30 seconds and 7 images.
SD Extreme 32GB 45MB/s (middle) 16 seconds and 7 images.
CF Extreme 32GB 120MB/s (left) 7 seconds and 9 images.

Noticeable difference. I also tried various combinations of both cards. No matter what way I tried recording to both cards wouldn't do better than 15 seconds and 7 images. Recording to just the CF with the SD card in the camera did not affect the high speed. (A lot of info I found said otherwise, maybe firmware update has changed this?)

I had read some rumors of the 5DIII still writing at SD speeds when set to CF as well. I don't know if they weren't just true or if it was an early firmware change. At least with all currently sold 5DIIIs, just setting to the CF will give you CF speeds

jwcdds wrote in post #17007103
Actually, someone had tested this previously and it shows that the SD slot will always write slower, regardless of what card you have in there.

Yeah, it's been documented that the 5DIII's SD slot doesn't support the fast SDXC speeds. For some reason the single SD Canon models do. But for normal everyday shooting, SDHC is a fine speed.

Some advice for the 5DIII: start using that custom menu! I have the card select option on there, as well as different functions I'm regularly accessing.

that is a great experiment.
I mean, I have been known to use the spray and pray method from time to time (not the majoity of my shooting, but it has happened before)
I understand that you were just checking with the equipment you had available to you - but it would be interesting to see if there was a better turn out with better matched SD and CF cards. Anyway - right now I have the factory firmware of 1.2.1 on the camera - - maybe I will test sometheing about the speed now and after I upgrade to 1.2.3 and see if there is any difference.

davesrose wrote in post #17007157
Some advice for the 5DIII: start using that custom menu! I have the card select option on there, as well as different functions I'm regularly accessing.

Sorry, but I don't understand the point of your advice. Can you expand in what you meant, please?

ceriltheblade wrote in post #17007174
that is a great experiment.
I mean, I have been known to use the spray and pray method from time to time (not the majoity of my shooting, but it has happened before)
I understand that you were just checking with the equipment you had available to you - but it would be interesting to see if there was a better turn out with better matched SD and CF cards. Anyway - right now I have the factory firmware of 1.2.1 on the camera - - maybe I will test sometheing about the speed now and after I upgrade to 1.2.3 and see if there is any difference.

It was done mostly for my info and partially to test if it really slowed down with and SD in the camera but not being written to it. I am very curious to see the if there is a difference in speed between 1.2.1 and 1.2.3 firmware, mine came with 1.2.3.

I generally try to avoid spray and pray also but when shooting rodeos I find it easier to pick a good shot from multiple than trying to pick the perfect moment in 8 seconds or less or riding.

Another piece of info you may hear from people is it will not auto focus in video mode. This is has been changed with firmware at some point. Apparently early versions would not AF. This was the biggest reason I tested out the CF/SD speeds. Just FYI.

Don't listen to them, they haven't a clue and just propagate a BS misconception started in a poorly researched blog by Jeff Cable. In fact, if you search Google, there are plenty of mindless sites that continue to propagate that crappy misconception.

The 5D MKIII has 3 write options:
Auto Switch Card
Record Separately
Record to Multiple

The ONLY one that affects write speed is when you select record to multiple. The other options have zero affect. Simply putting a SD card in the slot does nothing unless you choose to write to both the CF and SD card at the same time.

ceriltheblade wrote in post #17007181
Sorry, but I don't understand the point of your advice. Can you expand in what you meant, please?

I meant that having the custom menu is a very nice feature. Instead of thumbing through ssooo many function menus, it's so much faster to be able to get to your most used functions with a few short flicks. At events, I like having the card select on the custom menu to be able to group photos or just record video on one.

Gregg.Siam wrote in post #17007226
Don't listen to them, they haven't a clue and just propagate a BS misconception started in a poorly researched blog by Jeff Cable. In fact, if you search Google, there are plenty of mindless sites that continue to propagate that crappy misconception.

The 5D MKIII has 3 write options:
Auto Switch Card
Record Separately
Record to Multiple

The ONLY one that affects write speed is when you select record to multiple. The other options have zero affect. Simply putting a SD card in the slot does nothing unless you choose to write to both the CF and SD card at the same time.

thanks a lot for the clarification. I had indeed read that through Jeff Cable. I had no tool in which to assess the veracity of the claim.

davesrose wrote in post #17007228
I meant that having the custom menu is a very nice feature. Instead of thumbing through ssooo many function menus, it's so much faster to be able to get to your most used functions with a few short flicks. At events, I like having the card select on the custom menu to be able to group photos or just record video on one.

thanks for the clarification. It seems that it will take me some time to set up the customization! The menu system alone is easily 2-3 times larger than the 7d! I was astounded at some of the choices. good idea for a centralized screen.

Traci_Ann wrote in post #17007212
It was done mostly for my info and partially to test if it really slowed down with and SD in the camera but not being written to it. I am very curious to see the if there is a difference in speed between 1.2.1 and 1.2.3 firmware, mine came with 1.2.3.

I generally try to avoid spray and pray also but when shooting rodeos I find it easier to pick a good shot from multiple than trying to pick the perfect moment in 8 seconds or less or riding.

Another piece of info you may hear from people is it will not auto focus in video mode. This is has been changed with firmware at some point. Apparently early versions would not AF. This was the biggest reason I tested out the CF/SD speeds. Just FYI.

Yeah, I can see rodeo being a good place for spray and pray. I just love watching it! never brought equipment for capturing!

I will find some time (a rare resource right now) and do some experiments. I will try out according to the protocol you listed. It seems easy enough and not too much investment in time. (unless you have any ideas for a change in your protocol)?

Thanks for the FYI. I have a full time video camera - but there are definitely times that I would prefer the DSLR - like when i forgot it at home!