Read a review on Canon, interesting "complaint"

SD card is simply 'newer', and newer is not always 'better'...simply 'smaller'.

Let's see...SD is smaller, lighter, faster (arguably), and cheaper. The comments regarding SD size and usability are...well...laughable (to me anyway). A CF is just as darn near impossible to change with winter gloves as SD. You guys crack me up

homersapien wrote in post #5868255
Let's see...SD is smaller, lighter, faster (arguably), and cheaper. The comments regarding SD size and usability are...well...laughable (to me anyway). A CF is just as darn near impossible to change with winter gloves as SD. You guys crack me up

Hope you don't wash them in your clothes pockets with greater frequency, merely because they are too small and thin to feel when your wife pats them to check for items in the pockets!

SD are about 1/3 the cubic volume, so easier to misplace, even if you don't find a handling advantage with gloves.

As far as I know, washing them isn't going to cause any problem and I agree what homersapien has said. Having one card which works with all your cameras is a great asset as you don't have to carry/buy multiple types of them and can use them interchangeably.

This is one of the reasons why I dislike cameras from Sony, Olympus etc.

homersapien wrote in post #5868255
Let's see...SD is smaller, lighter, faster (arguably), and cheaper. The comments regarding SD size and usability are...well...laughable (to me anyway). A CF is just as darn near impossible to change with winter gloves as SD. You guys crack me up

You do qualify as cracked. I don't recall mentioning gloves...but during cold weather, with cold fingers...a CF card is much easier to grasp than an SD card. I've never launched a CF card across the room when I pushed the release mechanism, wish I could say the same for the SD card.

SD cards are too frail to withstand the rigors of high pressure use. I don't panic about stuffing a loose CF card in my pants pocket in a pinch....but there is no way an SD card could stand up to that abuse. I've seen them break in two just being inserted/removed from the camera.

Woolburr wrote in post #5870757
I've never launched a CF card across the room when I pushed the release mechanism, wish I could say the same for the SD card.

What camera were you using? Looks like a problem with the release mechanism unless you were intentionally trying to launch the card. Saying this after handling at least half a dozen cams which use SD cards.

Woolburr wrote in post #5870757
SD cards are too frail to withstand the rigors of high pressure use. I don't panic about stuffing a loose CF card in my pants pocket in a pinch....but there is no way an SD card could stand up to that abuse. I've seen them break in two just being inserted/removed from the camera.

I have been using SD card based camera for well over three years, I am a motorcycle tourer and I ride on terrain which makes majority of the people gasp and I handle my photography equipment quite roughly since I want to start riding as soon as I have clicked a photograph. Add to that, I some time also use the SD cards as pen drives to transfer data from one computer to another.

Three and half year old SD cards are still working as well as they were when I initially purchased them and the same goes for all my friends.

I hope you all can get used to SD cards in the newer pro level cameras. The writing is on the wall... we all know how Canon works. The low end cameras get the technology first then it trickles up. The XSI and XS cameras are harbingers of the future to come!

I would take bets that the 5d mkII is going to use an SD card.

Jethro790 wrote in post #5872022
I would take bets that the 5d mkII is going to use an SD card.

I'd bet it uses both CF and SD. Makes sense to me anyway.

I generally don't shoot with gloves and when its cold, I go inside.

At the time I bought the 1D Mark III, I would have preferred 2 CF card slots

I put a SD card into the slot to fill it up. It was an 8GB Class 6 SDHC card. When the camera switched to it (from a 266X CF card) it about stopped working.

Well, I bought another SD card. This was a 16GB Class 6 SDHC card. Guess what? They changed some in the last 10 months. Maybe it was the card, maybe it was the software from Canon (last firmware update)

This card is every bit as fast as the 8GB CF card. The 8GB CF card cost about $88 each and the 16GB SDHC is $68. So its as fast, holds twice as much and cheaper.

I can say the SDHC doesn't fit as snugly in the card case, but I bought a bunch of them and they work great.

For those who wonder, I have been told that Canon is headed to SD cards and the CFs are going to be phased out. We shall see.

Mark H

Yogesh Sarkar wrote in post #5870831
What camera were you using? Looks like a problem with the release mechanism unless you were intentionally trying to launch the card. Saying this after handling at least half a dozen cams which use SD cards.


I have been using SD card based camera for well over three years, I am a motorcycle tourer and I ride on terrain which makes majority of the people gasp and I handle my photography equipment quite roughly since I want to start riding as soon as I have clicked a photograph. Add to that, I some time also use the SD cards as pen drives to transfer data from one computer to another.

Three and half year old SD cards are still working as well as they were when I initially purchased them and the same goes for all my friends.

How often do you change cards though? We're talking about people using DSLR's that may be changing cards out several times an hour. No offense, but when you are riding, I doubt you are changing cards at a rapid pace, taking hundreds of photos an hour in RAW.

The contacts on SD cards are more prone to damage also. The constant changing of cards and throwing them in a pocket would do more damage to these contacts.

I've got plenty of old SD cards too that still work great, but I never take them out of the devices they are in. I am constantly changing cards in my DSLR.

I've read in Canon's own statements that one reason for using only SD cards in the new 450D and 1000D models was that they wanted to keep the size of the cameras down, and SD cards with their connectors are smaller than their CF counterparts.

The reason for providing both types in a 1D Mark III I assume is flexibility? Or they could just as well have used dual CF, which I think some Nikon models do.

I like both SD and CF, but prefer CF mainly due to the pin/socket type of contacts. Never had a problem with bent pins, and I like the feel when they "plug in".

Some SD spring release receptacles require a stiff push to lock the card in, and I've found that to be annoying at times. I also find it a little discomforting when I plug an SD card into my card reader that has no spring release. Did it insert all the way? Is it making contact?

So I guess it's just the mechanical differences that put me in the CF camp. Just be thankful they're not switching to micro SD!