CF Cards

AndyJ1980

AndyJ1980

Messages
1,651
Name
Have a guess.....
Edit My Images
Yes
Ok, this is going to sound stupid, but is there anything in particular I would have to look at (barring storage amount) when selecting a CF card?
For SD cards, they have a class system with 10 being the newest and fastest, is there similar for the CF's?

Cheers

Andy
 
CF cards are rated by speed - either in MB/s or AAAx where 1x = 150 kB/s. So a 100x card will have a speed of 15 MB/s.
 
so a 133x is not bad then?
 
depends a little on your camera, but usually the camera has a buffer, this is used when taking shots and more so when on continuous shooting mode and the size of the buffer in the camera typically denotes how many fast continuous shots you can rattle off machine gun style before it has to start writing them to the cf card and the speed slows down.
in real life this never becomes a problem imho - how often are you shooting continuously (finger pressed down, shots firing one after the other) for 20-30 seconds or more? at 3-5 frames a second that's a lot of photos.

only other thing is the read speed which is just how quickly they'll download to your pc, generally it's quicker to use an external card reader for cf than a cable connected to your camera anyway.

I've been using the sandisk 30mb/s cards on my 40d and never noticed any speed problem. In my opinion you don't need the expensive super fast card unless you've got really serious equipment or specific requirement to justify it.
 
thanks for the replies. its for a D300s which is winging its way to me soon :D

might get myself one of these then .... it'll match the SD card in terms of speed then (strange logic I know lol)
 
I just bought a pair of Transcend 4gb CF cards rated at 133x for £4.99 a pair.
No complaints from me re speed or price!
 
Avoid Kingston. My 133x is pathetic though it could be a fake. So yes always get good brand from reputable sellers. Hear good things about those Transcends though.
 
As already indicated, the speed of the card only really comes into play when your buffer is full, it then has to start writing to the card (thus emptying the buffer) before you can continue shooting - the speed of the card then dictates how quick the buffer is cleared. If you do not shoot in big burst or you shoot only jpeg (and not RAW) then card speed is no big deal.
 
I bought an 8th sandisk extreme III 60mbps from amazon for £35
 
AndyJ1980 said:
thanks for the replies. its for a D300s which is winging its way to me soon :D

might get myself one of these then .... it'll match the SD card in terms of speed then (strange logic I know lol)
Click to expand...

Been looking at those Transcend cards - amazing value 16gb for £20 delivered :eek:

The previous bargain champ was this one I think - Sandisk Ultra 8gb, now £18 delivered from Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sandisk-Ult.../dp/B0007QU74Q/ref=dp_cp_ob_computers_title_2 I've just ordered another one, and I know a few other folks on here use them.

It's at moments like this that I recall only a few years ago paying £100 for ONE GB, and anything over 2gb cost more than the flippin camera!

Edit: Kingston has a generally good rep.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top