Nice - faster write speeds

[Arkady]

High-speed test run.

Got my Sandisk Extreme Pro 16Gb 90Mb/s cards in my D3x and did a quick test-run.
http://www.sandisk.co.uk/Products/I...Extreme_Pro_CompactFlash_Card_90MBs_64GB.aspx

Shooting uncompressed 14-bit RAW at 500th sec, on Continuous-High, the camera fires at it's maximum speed of about 3fps as expected.
As the buffer fills, you can see the remaining shots start to slowly drop from the maximum of 16 after it hits about 14 frames: 10 shots remaining; after another five or six frames, 9 shots remaining and so forth.
It only hits '0,0' after 54 frames and then shoots at the Continuous-Low rate - continuously...it never stops firing...

When shooting JPEG-high, the maximum frame rate is upped to about 5fps as expected and the buffer starts to drop from it's maximum of 28 shots to 20, 15, 10 etc after about 15 frames, dropping slowly til it bottoms out at '0,0' after about 70 frames, then the camera continues firing at the Continuous-low speed - 3fps, until the card is completely filled...

It never actually stops firing until the card is full.

I got bored after 320 frames...

Theoretical capacity on each card is 300+ of 14-bit RAW and 1,000+ JPEG-High.
In practice I've gotten 300 images onto an 8Gb card that initially told me I would only get 203 onto it, so it depends on what you shoot...

Will I ever need this in a real-life shooting situation...nope, probably not...nice to have though...

 

[desantnik]

You could make it stop on jpeg if you turn on ActiveD

 

[Arkady]

You could make it stop on jpeg if you turn on ActiveD

Active D - remind me - that's that plastic E-number-tastic orange-stuff that makes kids hyper, isn't it?

Or is it that algorythm that buggers-up my shadow detail?

 

[desantnik]

No, he's a rapper apparently and his music had such a heavy base line that it prevents electrons flowing

 

[Nod]

Rob, what rates do you get using older Extreme III cards? Is there a huge difference or is it fairly marginal?

 

[Arkady]

The older cards did stammer a bit, but I've never had a buffer-fill/card-write stoppage since I used a D1x and a pair of 512mb cards trying to shoot RAW on a job in Iraq back in 2004...we were issued the cheapest cards available as the suppliers we were using didn't quite 'get' the difference between slow cards and fast ones...

After that I bought my own. Also neatly solved any OPSEC issues with me shooting girly-shoots on the side. I'd just hand my issue cards over for inspection if asked.

I upgraded cards as I upgraded cameras - Extreme III with the D1x (after that debacle in Iraq) and D2x, Extreme IV with the D2x and D3 and now Extreme-Pro with the D3x.