As cheap as CF cards are now, I'd skip the adapter. Some I've seen aren't made with the same precision as a quality CF card, and you can run the risk of bent pins in the camera body when inserting a poorly-made adapter into you camera body.
dcains wrote:
As cheap as CF cards are now, I'd skip the adapter. Some I've seen aren't made with the same precision as a quality CF card, and you can run the risk of bent pins in the camera body when inserting a poorly-made adapter into you camera body.
Thanks.
My man intended use of the SD to CF adapter ... being able to bring an old 2GB SD card as a backup to my wife's point-n-shoot camera and in a crunch be able to use it in my 20D. Also I was thinking of using it to read SD cards in my ExpressCard CF reader.
However, I don't want to get a really cheap one that can bend my CF pins in the camera. That would really upset me.
irispatch wrote:
I have one of the spring loaded ones. Works fine, no alignament issues and the SDHC cards record and download just about as fast as they do alone.
Thanks. I think I will order one. Do you remember where you got it? eBay? Which seller?
I have one for travel - my laptop has a SD reader built in. Mine is the Delkin Devices(available for about $25 on Amazon - got it from my local camera store).
They are very slow for writing, but ok for reading. With a 16G class 6 card (Patriot from Fry's) that gets 10mb/sec write and 16mb/sec read in the cardreader, the delkin slows it to 2.8mb/sec write and 7.5mb/sec read.
The device has worked just fine in a 30D, 40D, and 5D II... except that the 5D II can't write the HD video. The 640x480 video has been fine.
There have not been any read/write errors nor lost data. Shot 32G on 2 cards on vacation without any problems with a 40D. The big benefit for having this, besides the convenience of the laptop SD reader, is that Fry's often run these cards for $35/16G. So, for $70, I have a ton of storage for personal work.
If you regularly get even close to filling the buffer, these are not for you. I don't tend to take more than 2 or 3 shots before a couple seconds of down time, so it's never been an issue for me.
I got one from Amazon as well, I think mine's the Delkin like shawn...works fine in my 40D. I take the card out of the CF when reading in the computer at home. I bought the adapter b/c 1) I figured the next few years will see Canon, etc going to SD only slots, and I'd like to have cards that won't become useless in a short time, and 2) it was so much cheaper than the CF of the same size/speeds, it made sense to. I've never noticed a lag during shooting my 40D.
And just in case anyone wants to knock my methods (which is fine): I'm very happy.
I shoot JPG. It's rare I shoot anywhere near enough to fill up the buffer, and when I do, I almost always know ahead of time, and then I put in a CF card. Since most of my shooting is 2-3 shoot bursts, with plenty of time in between, a SD->CF adapter works great. I actually can't give you any estimate on how much is might have slowed down the write speeds, but I can say that it's not noticeable. As I said before, I remove the SD when reading on the computer, and so I never see slow downs there.
Overall, if it's just for backing up your wife's 2GB cards and using in a card reader, and occasionally using in your 20D, I think it's worth the investment. If you were asking "should I use a SD->CF adapter in my 1D while shooting high speed sports," I'd say of course not.
Thanks for that info. I actually did pick up a generic SD->CF adapter and it works great for reading the SD cards in my ExpressCard CF reader. However, I've not tried it in my 20D.
Guess I can always try the spare 2GB SD card in the adapter in my 20D. Nothing to lose there, since that card is not used by my wife since she now has an 8GB SDHC card.
