Sandisk Ultra II or Extreeme III for 5D

So I'm off to France from Australia in June and I need to buy some memory cards.

The plan is to keep my photos on the cards but back them up to a PSU - I'm a paranoid from the IT industry.

As I am buying about 6-8 4GB, I have looked at the cost differential between these two cards and the amount is worth thinking about.

From what I have read the download speed from the card reader will be slow but that doesn't matter to me but what about the transfer speed within the 5D.

Will this be a significant problem

Unless you take as much advantage as you can of the FPS, then the Ultra's are fine. Although with prices of the extreme dropping, I say get what's cheapest right now. Do ya'll have the Sandisk rebate going on down there?

The below will give you some idea of the relative speeds in your 5D

http://www.robgalbrait​h.com …ti_page.asp?cid​=6007-8198

I say go the Extremes. The price difference is so small now it's not worth worrying about. I picked up a 4GB one recently and it was a whopping $10 more than the Ultra ($85 v. $75.)

AdamC wrote in post #5379061
I say go the Extremes. The price difference is so small now it's not worth worrying about. I picked up a 4GB one recently and it was a whopping $10 more than the Ultra ($85 v. $75.)

You are lucky, the price for an Extreme over an Ultra here is almost twice as much!

FlyingPete wrote in post #5379076
You are lucky, the price for a Extreme over an Ultra here is almost twice as much!

That used to be the case here too, no idea what happened. If that's the case, I'd say go for the Ultras unless you're planning to visit places with extreme temperatures.

AdamC wrote in post #5379160
extreme temperatures.

Does it really make a difference?

Even down here the Extreme III and the Ultra II is priced very closely. I have an equal batch of them and really don't see much of a difference in either my 5D or 1Ds II.

The problem with Canon (and Nikon) cameras and their transfer speeds between camera and card is because niether support the newer format of data transfer (UDMA - which has been in hard drives since the mid 90's) the only real difference you'll notice is when is comes to transferring the image from the card to your computer.

SanDisk and Lexar have released new card readers which use firewire 800 technology allowing the cards to transfer data at their full speeds (around 40Mbps). The newest and fastest cards are the Extreme IV's (not sure if they're released yet) and the Lexar 300x Pro cards, the card readers are around £40 ($80) which is a lot more expensive than your normal USB card reader. Until Canon (and Nikon) start putting UDMA transfer into their cameras you'll not notice much difference in speed between the top end cards.

play.com have a 2GB Extreme III for £16.49 including shipping!

Couple of points. Nikon has several models which support UDMA. And Extreme IV cards have been out for at least a year. The fastest SanDisk cards now are the Extreme Ducati Edition. SanDisk also offers an Extreme USB reader which, while not theoretically as fast as the Extreme FireWire reader, is still quite fast. Plus it handles SDHC cards as well as CF.

Jon wrote in post #5380111
Couple of points. Nikon has several models which support UDMA. And Extreme IV cards have been out for at least a year. The fastest SanDisk cards now are the Extreme Ducati Edition. SanDisk also offers an Extreme USB reader which, while not theoretically as fast as the Extreme FireWire reader, is still quite fast. Plus it handles SDHC cards as well as CF.

Did you bother reading the O/P's question

antonroland wrote in post #5380146
Did you bother reading the O/P's question

Yes. Did you bother reading the post immediately above mine, which I was correcting?

Hi All
Thanks for the information.

In fact, when I looked around a bit further I found a reliable source that I have dealt with before where the card price difference betwen the Ultra II and the Extreme III was only $7. (http://www.d-d-photographics.com.au/m​emory.htm)

I went with the Extreme III (plus I threw in an Extreme IV for god luck!!)

BTW. If you do end up looking for a Reader for the Extreme's & have connectivity on your computer. The Extreme Firewire Reader is an awesome investment. Extreme III cards are rated up to 40 Mbps. However, when using Firewire 800, it will dump an 8 GB card full of raw images in under 3 minutes. (Personal Experience) .... Or using Firewire 400, it takes about 5 minutes to dump an 8GB card.

Jon wrote in post #5380111
Couple of points. Nikon has several models which support UDMA.

Pardon my ignorance but which models? I was reading a report the other day about the Lexar 300x cards and the author of that report stated no Canon or Nikon camera currently support UDMA, no new Nikon cameras have been released since that report

Jon wrote in post #5380111
And Extreme IV cards have been out for at least a year.

I did say that I wasn't sure, sadly posting at work I don't have time to check.

Jon wrote in post #5380111
The fastest SanDisk cards now are the Extreme Ducati Edition. SanDisk also offers an Extreme USB reader which, while not theoretically as fast as the Extreme FireWire reader, is still quite fast. Plus it handles SDHC cards as well as CF.

Not just theoretically but simply USB is no-where near as quick as Firewire 800.

The Extreme III's will have faster transfer rate to your PC using a card reader than the Ultra II's. At least that's the only thing I noticed.