Memory Prices

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chameleon

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John
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I've been looking at the cost of CF memory.
The Sandisk Extreme 8G 60m/s (£37ish) seems to be a lot cheaper than the Extreme III (£53)which is rated at only 30m/s?
What gives? Why would the faster memory be so much cheaper than the slower stuff? Prices from Amazon as an example.
 
I think it may be something to do with the model of the Sandisk, the Extreme and the Extreme III, the III will be a newer model/technology.

If the Extreme is going end of line they will sell them off to get rid of old stock. Theres nothing necessarily wrong with it, just that the manufacture is not producing them any more.
 
Actually I think its the other way round...

The UDMA ones are the new ones... They are coming in at a better price than the old III
 
I've just ordered an 8GB UDMA one and thanks for spotting that John. My camera struggles at full fps rate with anything less than an Ultra IV - I've only one of these and it's 2GB which fills up in a heart beat.

Jessops are wanting £60 for the same card!
 
Phoebian said:
I think it may be something to do with the model of the Sandisk, the Extreme and the Extreme III, the III will be a newer model/technology.
Click to expand...

Bizzarely and very confusingly it is the other way around, the Extreme is actually newer and faster than the Extreme III and actually the equivalent to the old Extreme IV. The equivalent to the Extreme III (30MB/s version) is now the Ultra.

One thing to keep in mind when buying memory cards is that only the latest cameras can really benefit from the UDMA and get above 30MBs. Plus due to the limits of USB even with a UDMA USB card reader there won't be much noticable improvement between a 30MBs and 60MBs card. To get an improvent during transfer you need a UDMA card reader plugged directly into the PC bus (e.g. SATA or Express Cards for Laptops).

I have no idea why the Extreme IIIs are being sold at a higher price possibly becuase there is a demand for them caused by the confusion and the businesses are making what they can or they just have them at that price in the database and they haven't noticed because people are still buying because of the confusion.
 
I'm not all that fussed about the transfer speeds from card to computer, although I guess if you process a lot of images daily then it probably is an issue. For me it's more for when shooting in high speed mode to keep the buffer clear.
 
Not a bad price for a 60mbs 8gb card. I got a sandisk 8gb 30mb one at Xmas for £20
 
Well as I just got my paws on a 7d with an 18mp sensor and 8fps, I reckon getting a fast card is a must. Just to cover all possibilities. I'm guessing they are on offer just now as I think amazon are showing that the full price is about 60 squid.
 
SimonTALM said:
One thing to keep in mind when buying memory cards is that only the latest cameras can really benefit from the UDMA and get above 30MBs. Plus due to the limits of USB even with a UDMA USB card reader there won't be much noticable improvement between a 30MBs and 60MBs card. To get an improvent during transfer you need a UDMA card reader plugged directly into the PC bus (e.g. SATA or Express Cards for Laptops).
Click to expand...
Or a FW800 reader if you use a Mac :)

Difference in speed is incredible: 1.5gig takes around 1min 20seconds over USB and about 25 seconds with FW800.
 
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