7D - CF card, optimum specification

Hi.

I have researched but can find no definitive information on the following so would appreciate any knowledgeable input.

Can anyone confirm the CF card specification that Canon use for testing the frame rates advertised for a 7D ?

Assume that, say, a 60MB/s UDMA card is the standard, is there a 'in camera' performance gain from using a 90MB/s card?

If no to performance gain, could a future firmware upgrade address this or is the buffer transfer speed fixed ?

Thanks
Richard

The built in buffer can hold x amount of shots before while dumping the rest to the card.
The faster the card, the faster the buffer can dump them and the faster the camera can resume shooting.
the 7D support UDMA-6 cards so it can take advantage of the fastest CF cards out there when it comes to write speeds theoretically.

However not all UDMA CF cards work at their rated speed.

Thanks for the reply however, theoretically, UDMA 6 can support speeds upto 133MB/s (although I may have misunderstood and accept being corrected) There must be a point where a faster card cannot be utilised by the camera hence my search for the optimum specification.
Regards

True however there is not perfect CF card that works with their own rated speeds yet so there is no conclusive tests yet!

The 7D should be able to capitalize on the 300x, 400x, 533x and 600x cards no problem.
Plus if you shoot JPEG, you can keep shooting till the card is filled without having to wait for the buffer to empty.

Richardjjj wrote in post #10076587
There must be a point where a faster card cannot be utilised by the camera hence my search for the optimum specification.

Yes, but who cares? Only those people who regularly shoot 20 raw files in a single burst.

As for measuring the burst speed - the card makes no difference at all. As Elisha says, the first 16 to 20 shots are pumped straight into the camera's buffer. So a 60MB/s card will give the same 8 fps as a 3 MB/s card.

I keep hearing good things about the GMonster 533x cards.
I may have to pick one up soon myself.
And the Lexar 600x cards are tested to be extremely good as well.

With my sandisk extreme III 30mb/s cards I get a burst of about 17-18. So the buffer fills and I get about 3 additional by the end of the second.

Plenty for me I usually do not burst often anyway.

I use riData 233x cards, and have no problems whatsoever. I tried a friends Sandisk Extreme and noticed no difference at all. I get the riData's from my local Frys for $39 for a 16Gig.

Thanks for all the replies. All points are accepted, I use the Sandisk 60MB/s (very good price when purchased) and have no problems at all. Its unlikely I will ever fill the buffer however I would like to know what the best spec card is for the camera.
Regards

Here is my perspective from shooting a few baseball and basketball games so far with the 7D. I shoot RAW and high speed continues. I easily shoot 300-500 pictures per game of RAW and ISO from 400-6400. And I hardly shoot at an advanced level.

While the buffer is sufficient for most individual sequences, you sometimes find that you do multiple bursts close to each other, and with a slow card it takes longer to dump the buffer to the CF. SO you end up with the 2nd or 3rd burst slowing down to crawling frame rates, which can be very frustrating. Also doing a quick view of a sequence can be a pain as it is still dumping to CF. I.E. taking a sequence of a batter and then wanting to do a quick review for exposure and composition is slow, and then you miss the next pitch as an example.

Also viewing images seem slow when you scan a lot quickly with a slow card. Dumping 16GB of pictures to a PC from the a slow card also sucks.

SO I would say if you shoot a high volume of pictures a faster card definitely helps, not only for faster capturing of sequences, but also when you view and dump the pictures out. 18MP RAW files (especially at higher ISO) gets to be a pain quickly with a slow CF card, in more ways than just what fits in the buffer.

Only got my 60MB/s card (SanDisk) yesterday so will see how much of an improvement it is over the 133x card I used before.

If you really need to dump the buffer, try shooting JPEG or mRAW. Smaller file sizes to write to the card and more buffer freed up quicker!

Agree with this as well. My max burst is usually around 6-8 frames so the Extreme III 30mb/s card works well here, too.

Naturalist wrote in post #10085634
My max burst is usually around 6-8 frames

You must be shooting raw + jpeg - or you've got a duff buffer.

Elisha wrote in post #10082072
I keep hearing good things about the GMonster 533x cards.
I may have to pick one up soon myself.
And the Lexar 600x cards are tested to be extremely good as well.

+1 on the GMonster 533x card. I purchased one more than a month ago and it's working out very nicely. Now if I can just get a USB 3.0 CF reader to dump the files faster to my PC :P