Does 30D use full speed advantage of Extreme III?

Does the 30D benefit from using Extreme III cards? Can the camera write faster than say the Ultra II cards or would I just be wasting money?

Camera came with Extreme III bundled so haven't tried a slower card in it to compare.

Yes, it's faster.

Using an Extreme III 2Gb card, it took roughly 10secs to clear the full buffer to the car (from a sustained burst)

Using my Jessops 100x CF card, it took 17secs.

Then again, how often will you be filling the buffer, so does it really matter?

I read somewhere that using Extreme cards with the 20d has no advantage over the Ultra II series

For what it's worth, the 30D has a bigger buffer than the 20D.

Look 'em up on Rob Galbraith's CF/SD database. Extreme III shows slightly more advantage over the Ultra II on the 20D than on the 30D from his tests.

I've been asked to shoot a few dog agility competitions so there'll be quite a bit of constant burst. The previous photographer was renowned for shots with odd facial expressions on the dogs so I'm aiming to cover myself

Thanks, Extreme III it is

If you're concerned about filling up the buffer, then remember to shoot in JPG. RAW will fill up the buffer faster, with fewer shots.

Thanks, I was more concerned with recovery time between bursts as the action gets quite frantic at times

Don't forget that Speedlite flash units cannot shoot machine-gun style with anything but their lowest power output, and then probably not with AA batteries powering the flash.

You'd need a quantum pack if you ant to go crazy with the speedlite. Double A's, will never get you that must of a burst.

Ultra II and 80x Lexar's are more than fine. And the buffer with large JPG's will be suitable, if you wa nt to go spray and shoot.

Even the 350D performs slightly better with the Extreme III compared to the Ultra II. At least if you go by the Rob Galbraith's CF/SD database.

-Fi20100

Another thing that might be worth it for some and not others is the Extreme III is supposed to work better in much hotter and colder tempatures too.

hey but what about the new SanDisk Extreme IV ...

yeah how about the Extreme IV!!!

Well I don't want the current Extreme III getting an inferiority complex

Flash isn't permitted as it could distract the dogs