How to buy Compact Flash (CF) cards

Beau1k wrote in post #11372779
Ya I wouldn't buy a card that's faster than the top performance of your camera. If you have an older model camera you will be able to get cheaper/older cards that nobody wants any longer.

I would imagine you could get 4GB+ cards all day long for $20 US each.

The thing is 16gb card at 400x (Transcend) which is blazing fast already and can handle a 7D no problem is only $60. You're not saving much by buying a 133x 16gb card.

It's like people "saving money" and buying a Pentium 4 today. You could get one of those dirt cheap AMD chips of today's generation for very little too and come out with performance way better.

The 20D is fully USB2 capable. Performance of some older cards in it here. I wouldn't, nowadays, get less than a SanDisk Ultra or similar speed card for the 20D. It's very easy to fill the buffer in one, and every little bit clearing it helps.

Whatever Compact Flash card you decide upon, just make sure you get it from a reliable source; there is a lot of counterfeit product out there. Unless you know how determine whether a card is counterfeit, definitely stay away from eBay.

Jon wrote in post #11372889
The 20D is fully USB2 capable. Performance of some older cards in it here. I wouldn't, nowadays, get less than a SanDisk Ultra or similar speed card for the 20D. It's very easy to fill the buffer in one, and every little bit clearing it helps.

I must be getting old, I would have sworn USB 2 became mainstream way more recently than it actually did!!

landth wrote in post #11372806
Use a USB cable, I doubt the 20D is USB2 capable so any USB cable will do, you should have had one in the kit, but if not they are cheap as buggery and a lot less stuffing around than a reader

But USB cable transfering is a lot slower though.

bcd01 wrote in post #11372979
Whatever Compact Flash card you decide upon, just make sure you get it from a reliable source; there is a lot of counterfeit product out there. Unless you know how determine whether a card is counterfeit, definitely stay away from eBay.

Thanks for the advice; though I reckon Amazon is a reliable source!


Thanks a lot guys (and girls?) for the advice and everything. I've gotten a lot of information and, once again, learned a lot! I think this thread can be closed now.

TijmenDal wrote in post #11381794
Thanks for the advice; though I reckon Amazon is a reliable source!

That would be a fair risk as long as you buy from Amazon and not their affiliates.