Sandisk Extreme CF card - advice needed!

jeangenie

jeangenie

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Jean
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I'm looking for an additional CF card for my D700. I generally use Sandisk Extreme III 8Gb, and for the odd occasion when I need the speed, the 30MB/s of this card is fine. But I'm a little confused by what's currently on offer.

Is this Sandisk Extreme CF 60MB/s an upgrade of the Extreme III or IV, or is a different beast altogether?

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-sandisk-8gb-400x-udma-extreme-compact-flash/p1033560

I've seen it a little cheaper (Morris photos, I think) but I'm paranoid about ending up with a counterfeit one, so any advice on good suppliers at good prices would be great.

Jean
 
Thanks, Ken. :) Does that mean the III is still 'current'? If I remember correctly (and I may not!) Sandisk introduced the 'Extreme' some years ago, then they upgraded it with the Extreme II, then the III and eventually the IV. The II, III and IV all seemed to be available at the same time and the differences were just related to speed/price.

The 'Extreme' cards (with no number) currently being offered appear to be faster - 60MB/s as opposed to the III's 30 (and I think the IV's 45MB/s) but I'm wondering if there are any other relevant differences. Has anybody got one, and if so, is it the same, but faster? If it's "just the same but faster" I would have thought it would be called the Extreme V, but I guess that's too simple! :lol: I hope that makes sense. :)

The Extreme IIIs are brilliant, and have been totally reliable - I just need another card. The extra speed's always nice to have, but I don't want it at the expense of reliability.

Jean
 
The Extreme III/IV etc have been replaced with the Ultra (30mb/s), Extreme (60mb/s) and the Extreme Pro (90mb/s)

I use the Extreme and Ultras, if you were happy with the Extreme III then the Ultra is the current equivalent to go for and prices are pretty reasonable too.
 
I use a couple of the original Ultra's in my 7D and to be honest I've never got to a position where the speed ahs limited me, personally I think the ultra fast cards aren't economic for a lot of people. Unless you machine gun shoot at 7fps the extra time to download isn't usually a problem I set it off and do something else.
 
artyman said:
I use a couple of the original Ultra's in my 7D and to be honest I've never got to a position where the speed ahs limited me, personally I think the ultra fast cards aren't economic for a lot of people. Unless you machine gun shoot at 7fps the extra time to download isn't usually a problem I set it off and do something else.
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I'm not too worried about downloading speeds - like you I can always find something else to do! :lol: but it sounds as though the current Ultra's are pretty nippy anyway. I think I'll do a bit of shopping around and see what the prices are for the Ultra 300 MB/s and the Extreme 600 MB/s. If there's not a huge difference I could easily talk myself into a 16Gb! :rules: :eek: I can remember how excited I was to get my first 1Gb microdrive.

Now I know why I don't come onto this forum very often - it gets expensive! ;)

Jean
 
AFAIK They just make what they call the 'Extreme' now. They got rid of the Numbering i think
 
gman said:
I got some of these and they are very fast and good value!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Ext...7Q26/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1306082704&sr=8-4
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Hi,
I use a mixture of (newer) 'Extreme' 60mb/s and (older) 30mb/s 'Extreme III'. The only time I notice a difference is when I'm using continuous shooting if I'm at a track. The 30mb/s (and even the 15mb/s 'Ultra II') is fine when I'm using composed shots when I've got plenty of time. Unless you're doing lots of high speed continuous shooting, then I'm sure you won't notice the difference, I wouldn't ;)

Neil
 
Simon, Graham and Neil - many thanks for your help. Graham - that Amazon deal looks cheaper than many I've seen! I don't do a lot of continuous shooting, but when I do it's nice to have a bit of speed, so I'm still being tempted by the 60Mb/s. But then the extra capacity of the 16 Gb is nice too! I need somebody to be strict with me and tell me not to overspend! :lol:

Jean
 
The extreme cards,are of a better spec than the ultra,they were made for toughter used,so if you give your cards a lot of stick,i go for the extreme,i use the extreme III :)
 
simonblue said:
The extreme cards,are of a better spec than the ultra,they were made for toughter used,so if you give your cards a lot of stick,i go for the extreme,i use the extreme III :)
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This is what I always wonder. It wouldn't surprise me if some of the cards where made the same but the ones that meet a higher standard are picked out and designated differently? I know this happens with a lot of mass produced materials where they just rate some higher than others?
 
As said I did only really notice the speed when doing continuous on the 50D but for an 8GB card at 60MB/s it was such a good price. I'm not sure, perhaps someone with more knowledge could correct, but I think being a UDMA card and not so widely compatible may have something to do with the price? Not sure though.
 
Blimey - this gets more complicated by the minute! Graham - what sort of compatibility issues are there? What is UDMA?

I once bought a Kingston 8Gb card that didn't work in my D700, but is fine in Mr JG's D200. I assumed any current Sandisk would be compatible with the D700 - but perhaps I'm wrong :eek:

Photon - thanks for the link - I'm not at all sure what it tells me, but I'll have another look when I've got a few minutes. ;)

Lensflare and Simonblue - it seems there's an element of luck in any mass-produced item. Does this mean that some cards that don't pass QI at the factory are rated Ultra and those that do are rated Extreme?

Jean
 
Not quite,the tolerances of the extreme cards are greater,ie they can stand greater adbuse :)

Been useing extreme III,in my Nikon D700 with no problem.
 
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I think UDMA is just an interface type. Worked on my 50D and also the older 5D so I'm sure it would be fine on a D700. I'm not sure if there's all the much of a performance different but it was more the price that attracted me to it. :)

Here's a small article I found if it helps: http://dpnow.com/4445.html
 
UDMA is just a way cameras and computers manage to get faster speeds, it's perfectly backward compatible so if the device doesn't do UDMA then the card is slower 16.6MBs max (I think).

Most modern cameras are UDMA but only really benfit from it when shooting bursts and wanting the buffer to clear quickly or video. IMO unless you are shooting HD videos or are shooting lots of sport then I wouldn't bother with anything above 30MBs.

It's the reading side where the speed of a card matters (transferring 16GB to a computer takes a while) but then there are a couple of things to be aware of.

USB2 pretty much tops out at 30MBs regardless of how fast the card is (the USB2 interface becomes the limiting factor) and to get that you need to use a card reader that can utilise the UDMA like this. Warning most USB2 readers don't utilise the UDMA mode, so are stuck at much slower speeds.

If you want to go faster than 30MBs and utilise the 60 or 90MBs the you need a reader that doesn't use USB2 and has a direct link into the computer such as this but then this Express34 slot is only available on a small number of laptops.

USB3 when it becomes more popular will be better but there is a distinct lack of card readers out there at the moment.

HTH
 
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simonblue said:
,the tolerances of the extreme cards are greater,ie they can stand greater adbuse :) :lol: That's comforting - when my new card plops onto the door mat I won't have to race the dogs for it! :) I've read tales about tp members who clean their cards in the washing machine and they still work!

Been useing extreme III,in my Nikon D700 with no problem.
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I've been using Extreme III in my D700 - also with no problems (looking for wood to touch!)

Graham - thanks for the link to the article. I've read it a couple of times now, and I *think* it makes sense - basically whatever I get won't be a disaster. :)

Hi Simon :wave: That's a really clear explanation and good advice. For me the main speed advantage is the times when I want quick fire continuous shooting. Thanks for the help. :)

Jean
 
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