Super Slooooow CF card?

irw1

irw1

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Ian
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Hi guys!

I purchased a spare Kingston 8GB 133x CF card recently, to use in my D700. I got round to testing it last night and boy, was it sloooow!! :( Reading and writing was painfully sluggish, and even reviewing the images took and absolute age.

I'm not talking about high fps shooting either, just in single shot mode, but it actually prevented me from taking any more shots for about 30-40 seconds while it recorded 3 images to the card! I have never experienced such dire performance before, even with apparently slower cards. :suspect:

Have I got a duff one, is it a compatibility issue with the D700, or are they all this woeful? :shrug:
 
Never come across anything that slow. Not even the cards I've had for years. Is the camera OK with other cards?

Recently....

I experienced my Canon 40D running very slowly and thought it was the card taking a long time transfer the data some reason as the 'busy' display was illuminated.

After some thinking, and a little experimentation it turned out to be the pop-up flash taking a long time recycling.
 
Something in the back of my mind says there's an issue with these cards and the D700, didn't Puddleduck have problems with one?
 
I could be dribbling like a complete cabbage but I'm sure I've read somewhere that D3's, D700's and D300's don't like UDMA CF cards?

I have a Sandisk extreme IV and the transfer speed is laughable.
 
Badger UK said:
Never come across anything that slow. Not even the cards I've had for years. Is the camera OK with other cards?
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Nor have I tbh, and yep, it's spot on with every other card I've tried - even an old Viking 1GB I've had for years! :lol: It wasn't just a slightly noticeable difference in pace either, it really is almost unusable in my experience.
 
Tomas Whitehouse said:
I could be dribbling like a complete cabbage but I'm sure I've read somewhere that D3's, D700's and D300's don't like UDMA CF cards?

I have a Sandisk extreme IV and the transfer speed is laughable.
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Lol, I am beginning to think that it's a compatability issue Tomas. I have really never seen anything this slow before! Think 486 PC's vs a modern PC and you'll be in the ball-park! :eek:
 
irw1 said:
Lol, I am beginning to think that it's a compatability issue Tomas. I have really never seen anything this slow before! Think 486 PC's vs a modern PC and you'll be in the ball-park! :eek:
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You've never shot with a Fuji S5 set at raw and 400% DR then :nuts: :bang:
 
Flash In The Pan said:
It was a sales post, not the same card, but the same brand
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Cheers for that mate, much appreciated. :thumbs:

Hmmm... I've not had the error that PD encountered, but it was only on a quick test last night. I just don't trust it at all - at an important event I'd have missed loads of shots due to it's dire speed...
 
irw1 said:
Nor have I tbh, and yep, it's spot on with every other card I've tried - even an old Viking 1GB I've had for years! :lol: It wasn't just a slightly noticeable difference in pace either, it really is almost unusable in my experience.
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So I suppose that is good news really. At least it's just a few quid wasted on a card rather than a problem with the 700.

I suppose you can sell the card to someone without a D700?
 
Badger UK said:
So I suppose that is good news really. At least it's just a few quid wasted on a card rather than a problem with the 700.

I suppose you can sell the card to someone without a D700?
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Good point. If I had got the D700 with this card, I would have been seriously worried about my outlay on the body! :gag:

Not sure my conscience would allow me to sell it, even to someone without a D700, I suspect I'll be giving it away to some (un)lucky soul on here at some point! :lol:
 
irw1 said:
Good point. If I had got the D700 with this card, I would have been seriously worried about my outlay on the body! :gag:

Not sure my conscience would allow me to sell it, even to someone without a D700, I suspect I'll be giving it away to some (un)lucky soul on here at some point! :lol:
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They work fine on my Canon 30D/50D hint hint ;)
 
Tomas Whitehouse said:
I could be dribbling like a complete cabbage but I'm sure I've read somewhere that D3's, D700's and D300's don't like UDMA CF cards?

I have a Sandisk extreme IV and the transfer speed is laughable.
Click to expand...

i have no problems with UDMA Sandisk extreme IV and Transcend on my D300.
 
marko said:
i have no problems with UDMA Sandisk extreme IV and Transcend on my D300.
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Transcend are awesome cards, I have no problems with those either but as far as I know they are not UDMA based.

The extreme IV works fine apart from the transfer speed on my main camera (D3), after a full buffer, it takes 5 times as long compared to a transcend 133x card. :shrug:

I expect it's a compatibility issue too, all extreme IV cards have been the same so far.
 
Tomas Whitehouse said:
Transcend are awesome cards, I have no problems with those either but as far as I know they are not UDMA based.

The extreme IV works fine apart from the transfer speed on my main camera (D3), after a full buffer, it takes 5 times as long compared to a transcend 133x card. :shrug:

I expect it's a compatibility issue too, all extreme IV cards have been the same so far.
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Tomas, I'm really surprised to hear that you have had speed issues with extreme IV's. :eek: I have mostly used extreme III's in both my D700, and my work's D3, without any probs at all - are the IV versions potentially more problematic in your experience?

As I'm now considering options for my next card(s), would you advise staying away from the extreme IV's?

I have never tried Transcend's cards, think I'll give them a look... :thumbs:

Cheers,

Ian
 
irw1 said:
..are the IV versions potentially more problematic in your experience?

As I'm now considering options for my next card(s), would you advise staying away from the extreme IV's?

I have never tried Transcend's cards, think I'll give them a look... :thumbs:

Cheers,

Ian
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I'm no expert mate, but during the Europeans figure skating champs in January I groaned every time I filled both my 8GB 133x transcend cards and had to move onto the two extreme IV's.

Extreme III's were much better in terms of transfer speed, Transcend were easily the quickest and the extreme IV's were just crap.

When time is not so sensitive it really doesn't matter but after the buffer filled and I had to wait until it was free again, the extreme IV's = extreme poor!

Give transcend a whirl if you need the speed :thumbs:

Transcend even offer 266x speed cards, I expect those to be pretty darn fast.
 
Tomas Whitehouse said:
I'm no expert mate, but during the Europeans figure skating champs in January I groaned every time I filled both my 8GB 133x transcend cards and had to move onto the two extreme IV's.

Extreme III's were much better in terms of transfer speed, Transcend were easily the quickest and the extreme IV's were just crap.

When time is not so sensitive it really doesn't matter but after the buffer filled and I had to wait until it was free again, the extreme IV's = extreme poor!

Give transcend a whirl if you need the speed :thumbs:

Transcend even offer 266x speed cards, I expect those to be pretty darn fast.
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Thank you very much for the feedback mate, much appreciated! :thumbs: Speed isn't always an issue for me, but tbh I'd rather have a stock of cards I am fully confident will perform at a decent pace when I need them to.

I will definitely have a look at the Transcend cards now - missing a shot/s in an important situation is more painful to me than paying a bit more for a fast and reliable card. If I go for the 266x Transcend versions, I'll be sure to let you know if they live up to expectations. ;) Many thanks again for your input dude. :thumbs:
 
Tomas Whitehouse said:
Transcend are awesome cards, I have no problems with those either but as far as I know they are not UDMA based.

The extreme IV works fine apart from the transfer speed on my main camera (D3), after a full buffer, it takes 5 times as long compared to a transcend 133x card. :shrug:

I expect it's a compatibility issue too, all extreme IV cards have been the same so far.
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i have 2 no transcend 4gb 300x UDMA great card for the money
but i wanted to try the 4gb UDMA extrerme IV 45 mbs they do seem a bit faster than the transcend.
 
Thats odd I have 2x4gb Kingston 133x speed cards and they are great, work fine in both cameras, certainly as well as the Lexar and Sandisk I have
 
I've just got an 8Gb Elite 133x, using it with a 350D and it's very very slow. I have had a 50x Elite 500Mb for a year or so and it's like a rocket by comparison.
 
ppp said:
Thats odd I have 2x4gb Kingston 133x speed cards and they are great, work fine in both cameras, certainly as well as the Lexar and Sandisk I have
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I think the phenomenon only occurs with D700's, D3's and maybe D300's?

Something to do with compatibility and UDMA :shrug: I wish I could find the article I have in my memory concerning a D3 definitely not being UDMA compatible.

The cards will work but after filling the camera's memory buffer, the transfer speed to the CF card is painfully slow, aside from this the cards appear to work fine.
 
Tomas Whitehouse said:
I think the phenomenon only occurs with D700's, D3's and maybe D300's?

Something to do with compatibility and UDMA :shrug: I wish I could find the article I have in my memory concerning a D3 definitely not being UDMA compatible.

The cards will work but after filling the camera's memory buffer, the transfer speed to the CF card is painfully slow, aside from this the cards appear to work fine.
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Thats funny - I found these cards in my D300 hugely faster than my Extreme IIIs. I will keep testing them and if anything crops up let people know, but honestly no problems with them.

When people say hugely slow, what do you mean?
I was able to rattle off 26ish jpeg shots at the D300s (gripless sadly :() before the buffer filled, and then it took about 5seconds for the buffer to fully empty.

Is that really slow? :shrug:
 
alex_m90 said:
Thats funny - I found these cards in my D300 hugely faster than my Extreme IIIs. I will keep testing them and if anything crops up let people know, but honestly no problems with them.

When people say hugely slow, what do you mean?
I was able to rattle off 26ish jpeg shots at the D300s (gripless sadly :() before the buffer filled, and then it took about 5seconds for the buffer to fully empty.

Is that really slow? :shrug:
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To be honest, I have never shot a JPEG (I should give it a go sometime really), I shoot 14 Bit uncompressed NEF (roughly 24MB per raw), I've had the buffer expansion service on my camera so now I get 36 shots before the buffer is filled, with transcend cards the transfer speed to card is roughly one NEF every 2 to 3 seconds, with the extreme IV's roughly 1 NEF every 10 to 15 seconds. That's what I call sl'ooooowwww.
I have 2 but I have tried a total of 6 extreme IV cards, all were the same.
 
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