Compact Flash - The End?

Foxbat Flyer

Foxbat Flyer

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Chris
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Having made the change from a 450D to a 7D, I'm now starting to get hold of some CF cards. Went to PC World to spend a gift voucher and was surprised to find just 1 CF card - that's 1 card -not 1 type. There were dozens of SD card variants and Memory Stick etc. but just one miserable Kingston 4GB CF card.

So, is CF on it's way out? I'm not sure I see any advantage of CF over SD, what does the future hold, will the remaining Canon cameras migrate to SD as new models are released?

Chris
 
You'll probably find PC World is on its way out.

Try amazon or perhaps the 7Dayshop.
 
A lot more 'consumer' devices like P&S cameras and photoframes use SD cards. Not much else uses CF cards aside from pro DSLRs.

Thanks
Rick
 
I love CF cards, can't stand fiddly SD Cards, little things - nice & chunky is the future :thumbs:
 
Has anyone tried an SD to CF adapter in a 7D?


I've been using SD for a long time and never experienced any problem. It seems a shame to waste my SD cards - for the cost of an adaptor.

Chris
 
Try a decent shop, plenty of cf cards if all varieties out there. As has been pointed out, it's mostly lower end stuff and consumer items that use sd, so there will be more about.
 
CF will last a long time more - but likely be more and more for top-end gear. Too many photographers have invested a lot of money in both the cards and the cameras which use them.
 
Quoth said:
CF will last a long time more - but likely be more and more for top-end gear. Too many photographers have invested a lot of money in both the cards and the cameras which use them.
Click to expand...

I've heard this argument before, and tbh it holds no water at all - if you are a pro spending £3000-5000 on each camera body, let alone tens of thousands on lenses, the extra cost of some memory cards is completly trivial (even a $500 64gb CF card...). Especially when the client is paying for a new set on each job anyway...

The "not losing the damn things because they are so small" is much more important though - but with wireless tethering / downloading directly from cameras to external storage getting better all the time, soon won't need to remove the card in the camera - ever.
 
wack61 said:
I'd need to be shooting a royal wedding with 10 minutes to go before I'd ever buy a card from PC World

This is £74.99 in PC World :bonk:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003PJ65...de=asn&creative=22218&creativeASIN=B003PJ655W
Click to expand...

Those aren't the same cards, mate.... but Amazon is selling the PC World one for £27.... :lol:

On saying all the above, all big name stores make a lot of their money on the smallest items (Jessops another prime example) - TV's, PC's etc are all normally quite competitive....
 
Foxbat Flyer said:
Has anyone tried an SD to CF adapter in a 7D?

I've been using SD for a long time and never experienced any problem. It seems a shame to waste my SD cards - for the cost of an adaptor.

Chris
Click to expand...

Give it a go! You can use a CF/SD adapter for eye-fi cards in certain cameras so you might be lucky
 
incapete said:
Give it a go! You can use a CF/SD adapter for eye-fi cards in certain cameras so you might be lucky
Click to expand...

Just ordered an SD to CF adapter, I expect it might be a little slower, but I'm not using video so I don't expect to notice any major difference.

I'll report back when it arrives.

Thanks for all the comments.

Chris
 
Foxbat Flyer said:
Has anyone tried an SD to CF adapter in a 7D?


I've been using SD for a long time and never experienced any problem. It seems a shame to waste my SD cards - for the cost of an adaptor.

Chris
Click to expand...

Hadn't thought of this. I have a bunch of high quality SD cards but with my 7D accepting CF, this seems a great idea. Would it work? Must investigate.
 
SD cards are slow fragile toys compared to the top-end CF cards and simply don't compare.

As others have said, CF will live on for ages yet but restricted to high-end gear, thus the high-street retailers won't bother stocking it.
 
Try jessops if if you want expensive memory cards. :eek: :lol:

CF cards are the faster memory card technology and so appeal to the pro or high end user who needs that speed, either during capture and/or downloading.

SD cards are the cards that are fast enough for most people and their devices. Their popularity has brought prices down, but I think that also helps CF prices stay at a reasonable level. The size of SD cards has helped make them a popular format with camera manufacturer who seem to want to make cameras smaller and smaller.

SD cards can be fragile though, I had one disintegrate in my fingers a few weeks ago. :eek: It wasn't mine so I had to replace it. :( I can't even bend a CF card, not that I've tried too hard. ;) :lol:
 
Is this a good time to mention that I used to fix 20mb SMD drives that took two of us to lift? You youngsters don't know ya born! :)
 
woof woof said:
Is this a good time to mention that I used to fix 20mb SMD drives that took two of us to lift? You youngsters don't know ya born! :)
Click to expand...

I'm only 21, but microsd cards still genuinely remind me that we're living in the future. To use 1990's terms, they'd be container loads of floppy disks... in the size of your thumbnail o_0
 
itsdavedotnet said:
I'm only 21, but microsd cards still genuinely remind me that we're living in the future. To use 1990's terms, they'd be container loads of floppy disks... in the size of your thumbnail o_0
Click to expand...

Aye, the physical size of the cards can blow some peoples minds. I have an 8GB CF card and a 8GB Micro SD card and when you show some people them together. :eek: :lol:

It is a scary thought that one of those 8GB cards could hold the same amount of information as approximately 5555 floppy disks. :eek: :lol:
 
I use both but much prefer CF to SD.

Perhaps it's a fear of loosing the little blighters or having them break.
 
The simple answer is CF will stay around as it is a faster medium. Anyone doing large sensor captures at decent frame rates especially RAW needs the CF system.
 
arad85 said:
The simple answer is CF will stay around as it is a faster medium. Anyone doing large sensor captures at decent frame rates especially RAW needs the CF system.
Click to expand...

yes, they will keep CF in the pro level products
 
redhed17 said:
Aye, the physical size of the cards can blo some peoples minds. I have an 8GB CF card and a 8GB Micro SD card and when you show some people them together.
Click to expand...
redhed17 said:

It is a scary thought that one of those 8GB cards could hold the same amount of information as approximately 5555 floppy disks.
Click to expand...


I have a 16Gb microSD card in my phone which measures approx 10mm by 8mm and about 1mm thick. I’ve not taken it out to measure it but it’s pretty tiny.

16Gb worth of floppy disks would fill a bloody big suit case and probably get close to 20kg.

Funnily enough you can get 32Gb microSD cards that are exactly the same size as 16Gb ones but you’d need 2 huge suitcases of floppy disks.

Technology eh? Where will it take us next?

I wouldn’t be surprised to see cameras being made with 100Gb of in-built memory with 100Mb/sec read and write speeds and wireless tethering as standard.
 
Even scarier was the fact I used to have a Sony mavica cam at work that used floppy's as the storage media! I thought it was the best thing ever! Even went on eBay a while back looking for one. And to think I thought that was a robust idea that would last for ages!!!!!!
 
My SD to CF adapter arrived today and I'm pleased to say it works fine with the 7D. It is definitely slower than a CF card, but it does at least let me use my collection of SD cards. I wouldn't use one if I was a pro, but for a "hobby tog", it seems to do the job.

Thanks for all the comments re the pros and cons of CF and SD format. It's interesting to read different opinions.

As for memory and storage capacity - it only seems like 5 minutes since I was using 8 inch floppy disks to load diagnostic programmes and we had 16K memory cards - yes 16K not MB or GB! - they were about 18x18 inches, using core store technology - those were the days!


Chris
 
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