CF card speed, real world examples?

Ok, we all read on here about how fast each card is, and there is that nifty website that tells you how fast certain cards are with certain cameras, but that's all laboratory testing, how about some real world examples, i'll start off.

With a 2gb Ritek Pro 150x card in my 5d I can shoot in burst mode 15 shots then a 1/3 second stutter and 3 more shots in RAW. The most I've ever done in Jpeg was 20 in burst mode.

What I've read in "real world" tests is one review where they were using the Extreme IV from Sandisk. The guy used the example of how fast the downloading speeds were compared to the SD3. Can't find the link, but the times were significant. Something like times went from over three minutes to under 30 seconds. The guy was thrilled as in his business, this is a bottleneck for the employees, download times. I have the SD IV, if I felt better, I'd run some tests of my own. Maybe later.

right on, that stuff is interesting but there are too many variables to make comparison very reliable. Computers, card readers, is the usb port working correctly, hard drive speed. That's why I think using our cameras to test write speed is a more reliable method. Just switch to continuous burst mode and pull the trigger and count. Stop when it doesn't go anymore.

Well the cameras write speed isnt accurate either as not all pictures from a 10MP picture are 4MB exactly some well be under some over a picture way under exosed well take up less memory than one perfectly exposed

BradT0517 wrote in post #2322629
Well the cameras write speed isnt accurate either as not all pictures from a 10MP picture are 4MB exactly some well be under some over a picture way under exosed well take up less memory than one perfectly exposed

this is true, but shooting 2 or 3 20 burst shots will give you a good average.

All I will say is RobGalbraith's CF/SD card comparison web site mirrors my own experience very closely (at least in the past) so I trust that data set. I also like the methodology he uses as being fairly reliable.

How often do you shoot a 20 frame burst? If you do so very often why don't you own a 1DMKIIN? For everyday shooting I find that a cheap card will do just fine, but for downloads I prefer something faster. I buy SanDisk Ultra II cards and a 1GB card downloads in around 3 minutes.

I purchased a couple of 8GB 120x CF Cards by Transcend... The first "real world" test for me was during a "kiddie" football league my nephew was in... Here's a quick scenario:

- Rebel XTi w/tripod
- Lens used: Canon 28-135 IS USM and Quantaray 70-300mm (old I know)
- Program Mode
- ISO 100 : AI Servo AF : Manual AF (middle point) : Continuous shooting
- Picture style set at Standard : toggled between Evaluative & Center-weighted Metering
- Clear sunny Saturday morning in Southern California (mid to low 70's)
- Mostly shot in RAW format and some JPEG (Large) formats too

I could easily get about 10-12 shot (RAW format) while holding down the shutter button before it stopped to catch up... I switched to JPG (Large format) and got about 18-22 shot before it stopped... I personally don't know if that's a rough benchmark of a "real world" scenario, but i'm happy with the results I got... Just my two cents into this thread...

- airbutchie