CF vs SD

Phil1974

Phil1974

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A few days ago Play were selling 16gb SD cards for £8! I thought I would surprise my dad and get him one but then realized his Olympus E-420 will only take CF or X-D cards. Having had a look at some of the top of the range DSLR's it seems CF is still very popular. My question is why when the cost per Gb is over double the price? Is it just down to durability and transfer/write speeds?
 
Back in the day, around the turn of the century, they hadn't managed to shrink the memory chips that sit inside the cards down - so CF ruled the roost. It just stayed that way because professional photographers tend to be reasonably conservative in switching from backing horse A to horse B.
 
No idea about the cost implication but CF cards do feel a lot more robust than SD
 
I've managed to recover a cf card having put it through the washing machine! Plus there is one running 24/7 as a hard drive in my server. I suspect they are tougher and given the size and cost of pro slr the relative size of the cf card and cost per gb is probably irrelevant.
 
I think it's a couple of reasons they are less likely to be lost, feel more robust, and if you've invested in them why change. The internals of the cards are slightly different CF uses the old IDE standard for disk drives and SD uses its on protocol. SD is more common hence the far cheaper price for similar Gb's. I had a shock when I bought my first CF cards I think people forget about the cost of cards when moving upmarket to more so called pro bodies. Without power most USB, cf, SD cards will go through the wash with no issues
 
I might be wrong or off the mark (I'm not a technology buff), but I understand that CF cards have their own IDE controller on-board - maybe that accounts (historically) for their larger size?

I've see a few of the thinner type cards (and also 3½" floppies ;)) including SD split along the plastic joint but I've never seen a CF card physically break.

I think CF capacities can go larger than SD and that they are more reliable at temperature extremes than SD too - but this is hearsay on my part and could be off the mark or out of date. I certainly feel safer handling and storing CF than I do SD cards - they feel more substantial and solid and less fiddly.

Edit addition: just re-read Paul's post above and noticed he mentioned the IDE standard before me ;). Luckily (so far) all my digital cameras have been CF.
 
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moving from an entry level consumer body that used SD to pro body that will use either I was happy to just stick with SD for both I already have a few decent cards anyway but the thing of there was an empty slot made me buy a CF card after all I did need to replace 8GB of storage that I gave away when I sold the old camera they do feel better and more sturdy transfers seem to be quicker as well. I'm not sure if I will buy any more or not it is very rare that I will shoot 8GB in a day never mind 16GB that I can put in there with 2 cards.
 
hunnymonster said:
It just stayed that way because professional photographers tend to be reasonably conservative in switching from backing horse A to horse B.
Click to expand...

It stayed that way, for Professionals at least, not because they were conservative, but because CF was the fastest format. And speed wins. ;)

Manufacturers have stayed with CF cards in their top of the range models because again, CF was the fastest format.

Semi Pro models have both a CF and SD slot to tempt upgraders from SD camera, and to have a the Pro format too, for speed should the user need it. :shrug:

XQD cards have the potential to be the fastest card format, which is one of the reasons Nikon have chosen it for the D4, as well as a CF card slot.

I'll take CF over SD every time. :)
 
I'm not too worried about the speeds and technical details, but I do find CF cards a bit easier to handle because they're larger. Having said that, we've got a couple of compacts and I haven't fumbled/lost an SD card yet. Not really an issue for me, and certainly not a deal breaker if I wanted something that uses them.
 
Chivers said:
Can damage pins putting in a cf card,sd is the future.
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not easily though, you have guides to stop that happening and unless you're seriously clumsy its pretty difficult. You could just as easily argue cause SD is so much more fragile they'll get broken in your pocket
 
Chivers said:
Can damage pins putting in a cf card,sd is the future.
Click to expand...

Yes, you can, but most people - including pros - seem to get along just fine with them. They'd have abandoned CF if this was a real problem.

I wouldn't put money on SD being 'the future' either. Who knows, with the pace of development in digital technology?
 
SD is the foreseable future as the userbase is so large. :eek: But something will replace it, maybe that will be XQD, or something else, that remains to be seen. :shrug:

The needs of the future tech, in what capacities and what access speeds will be needed is unknown, but most importantly cost will determine if a new format will usurp SD cards. So far SD has the cost and capacities bases covered. Read/Write speeds, and imho the robustness of the format are where it lags behind at the moment. XQD seems to cover that, and everything else, in a not too much bigger form factor. But it is starting from scratch. :eek:

We are getting close to all we need capacity wise for images, higher quality video may be a different thing. We are near to the access speeds needed for images, again, higher quality video may be another thing. Obviously this is at the moment.

Of course if someone comes out with a 12 fps 36MP monster that can shoot RAW files until it fills the card up with no drop in frame rate, that's another thing. ;) :lol: Then, the card will have to up to the job, and if it is a Pro that needs that, then they will be willing to pay the extra for the card that can deliver that. :shrug:
 
Thanks for all the replies. It does seem that CF is only really the choice of top end DSLR's (and therefore pro's) due to some unwillingness to change, build quality and speed. I agree with Redhed in that we are surely somewhere near where we need to be, at the moment, in terms of capacity except for HQ video. Does anyone here ever fill a 16Gb, let alone a 32/64, before downloading?
 
Having had experience with both, I've found I much prefer working with CF cards & I'm not a professional photographer. I think the way forward is those new DSLRs that contain both CF & SD cards simultaneously! I currently work with CF only tho ~ I've never had one currupt.
 
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