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Archive 2009 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?

  
 
Chuck Kuhn
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


which size CF card is recommended for new 5D M II? Speed 133 or Size?? just curious what you are using for video.


Jan 08, 2009 at 03:59 AM
swanny338
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


I am mostly using Sandisk Extreme III 16 gigs mostly and they work fine for me. Just downloading a full card to the computer takes a bit of time. That gives about 45 minutes of video per card depending on the scenes. I also have a 16GB 133x Kingston card that works just as well.


Jan 08, 2009 at 04:38 AM
Fr3d
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


I recently bought a SanDisk 16GB Extreme III CF Card (the 30Mb/s version) which works very well in the 5D II. My 4GB SanDisk Extreme IV is slightly faster in camera when viewing images even my other 4GB Extreme III is .. but hey it's plenty fast go get one. You can even use slower CF cards (Ultra II for example) for video the data rate is only 4GB/12 Min or 5.4Mb/s.




Jan 08, 2009 at 09:15 AM
dvarnav
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


I recently bought a SanDisk 32GB Extreme III CF Card (the 30Mb/s version) which works very well in the 5D II I got it from mymemory.co.uk at a special reduced price on Xmas and Boxing Day sandisk discount special at a price of 100GBP. The card is sufficient for a trip and it gives you plenty time for video. One thing I really do not understand is whats the use of UDMA card for a camera that only supports 4fps but anyway its only for 21Mpix usage. This camera needs the data write speed of a MarkIIN to achive the 4fps record at 21Mpix.


Jan 08, 2009 at 09:34 AM
Mark Booth
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


I read somewhere (I don't remember where) that the minimum write speed you need for the 5D Mark II is about 8Mb/s. So some of the older "Ultra II" type of cards might not be quite up to the task. Use Rob Galbraith's CF testing figures to determine where each brand/type of card fell:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/camera_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-9784

That said, I personally prefer UDMA cards. The camera clears the buffer more quickly with faster cards and does it most quickly with UDMA cards. You don't have to get the very fastest UDMA card, any UDMA type card would be a safe bet. Granted Extreme III type cards are pretty darn quick and perfectly fine for the 5D Mark II. But there is one area where UDMA cards shine even more.... when copying the files to your computer. I use SanDisk's Firewire 800 UDMA CF reader. It is BLAZINGLY fast! It dumps a full card off so quickly it's actually fun to watch! Again, see Rob's testing of the various cars for reading with CF readers, including the Sandisk Firewire 800 model, which generally tested fastest (scroll to the bottom for the test results):

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/reader_report_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-9392

All of that said, yes, UDMA (Extreme IV) cards are quite a bit more expensive and don't offer that significant of a difference IN the camera over, say, an Extreme III card. But they DO clear the buffer more quickly, as Rob's testing shows. But, again, the biggest benefit of UDMA is how blazingly fast they can be read to the computer (with a the appropriate UDMA reader). Even though my 1D Mark II doesn't support UDMA, I bought UDMA cards about a year ago simply for the faster reads. I know after a full day of shooting with 4-5 FULL cards, the last thing I want to wait on is the computer copying the images. I'm tired and I just want to look at my images.

Mark



Jan 08, 2009 at 09:58 AM
nathanlake
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


I find that the speed in the camera is generally not as important to me as speed during upload. That means UDMA for all my cards.

I am surprised that Canon has not come out with some more details on this for the 5DII. I would assume it is more important when considering video recording. For stills, if the card can't keep up, it just makes you wait. For video, I would guess it would interrupt your recording.



Jan 08, 2009 at 10:02 AM
BubbaJon
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


FWIW I've had no problem with my Ridata 8GB 233x cards. Snagged some on sale right before Christmas for $29 ea. Supposed to be UDMA too.

*Edit* Just checked - they're still on sale at
SuperMediaStore



Jan 08, 2009 at 03:42 PM
Chuck Kuhn
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


Thanks for the feed back. I will get the New 5D, and have been buying the following cards on sale:
Ridata 16GB 233x for $49.00
Kingston 16GB 133x for $29.00. This is still on sale via web at Frys.com also in store price.
Tks



Jan 10, 2009 at 12:38 AM
Mark Booth
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


I found those Ridata Lightning Cards a week or so ago and was very tempted. But when I referred to Rob Galbraith's CF testing results for the 5D Mark II, I found he had tested the 16GB version of the Ridata Lightning and, frankly, it didn't do so well for in-camera writes. The Ridata Lightning 233x 16GB version only managed 9.7MBps writing RAW files in the camera. Granted, it was fairly fast for reads with the Firewire 800 Reader but 9.7MBps writes are a far cry from the fastest cards, which fall in the 29-30MBps range.

Still, for $29, a pretty decent card deal.

But, again, I emphasize the advantages of using a fast UDMA card with a Firewire 800 Reader. Let's assume a completely full 8GB CF card. Using Galbraith's test results, here are some times for how long it will take to copy that full 8GB card off to your computer:

Sandisk Ultra II 8 GB (13.5 MBps): 9.87 minutes
Sandisk Extreme III 8 GB (13.9 MBps): 9.59 minutes
Sandisk Extreme IV 8 GB UDMA (40.2 MBps): 3.31 minutes
Sandisk Extreme Ducati 8 GB UDMA (43.3 MBps): 3.10 minutes

The Sandisk UDMA cards can be copied to the computer in about one-third the time of the older Sandisk cards. This sort of speed becomes increasingly more important with the larger files of high megapixel cameras like the 5D2. Those big RAW files will simply fill up the card faster!

Further, the sheer size of those RAW files and the ability to shoot video tempts us to use larger and larger cards. Personally, I don't want to wait nearly 20 minutes for my 16GB card to copy to the computer.

Mark




Jan 10, 2009 at 01:08 AM
Chuck Kuhn
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


Mark, thanks for the advise (2nd time). You've educated me enough to seek out the UDMA cards. Tks


Jan 10, 2009 at 04:07 AM
Chuck Kuhn
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


May be useful ...
http://www.hjreggel.net/cardspeed/index.html#cs_udmacf.html



Jan 10, 2009 at 04:24 AM
Marcus Watts
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


4 gig cards. Easy for me to just burn each card to dvd as well for quick backup and i don't mind changing on the job.


Jan 10, 2009 at 08:59 AM
shadowcat
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


I just bought a 8gig extreme IV udma card but my old cards work still the udma cards offer better continuous shooting.


Jan 10, 2009 at 11:11 AM
Mark Booth
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


Chuck, Just remember that the extra (read) speed gain on UDMA is pointless if you aren't also using a UDMA reader. My favorite is the Sandisk Firewire 800 UDMA reader:

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-SDDRX4-CFR-Sandisk-Extreme-FireWire/dp/B000I04WWY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1231603384&sr=1-1

Also, this PNY Optima Pro 266x UDMA CF card seems like a pretty decent deal:

http://www.amazon.com/PNY-Optima-CompactFlash-Memory-P-CF8GB-266W-DVDC/dp/B000WJ9IWA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1231603288&sr=8-2

$75 minus a $10 mail-in rebate (one rebate per household, unfortunately). This PNY card rated 29.5 MBps RAW write speed for the 5D Mark II at Galbraith's site. Better yet, the same card rated 47.7 MBps read speed in the Sandisk Firewire 800 UDMA reader. So, a full card (8GB) would take approx. 2.8 minutes to copy to the computer. That's pretty darn quick compared to those slower cards mentioned above.

I should also mention that the Sandisk Extreme III figure I gave above was for the older (original) Extreme III card. Sandisk upgraded the Extreme III card with a faster controller (who knows when) those newer Extreme III cards can do 29.7 MBps reads in the Firewire 800 reader. That's 4.48 minutes dump a full 8GB, much better than the older Extreme III but still relatively slow compared to the PNY card or the faster Sandisk UDMA cards.

Mark



Jan 10, 2009 at 11:12 AM
BubbaJon
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


Just my 2 cents here. The extreme speed is really only useful if you're filling the buffer and want/need it to clear out quickly. So if you're shooting sports and like to keep the hammer down then I recommend the higher priced cards that can dump quickly. However - if you're doing most other types shooting who cares? A pretty modest card like the Ridata can easily keep up with the video requirements on my 5D MkII. As far as unloading - well I don't usually care too much about that either as I have plenty of spare cards on hand plus my Hyperdrive backup. I have never ever been able to shoot faster than my Hyperdrive can backup. And that's assuming I'm dumb enough to show with only two cards. At $29/8GB or $49/16GB I think most of us can afford to have plenty of bullets for even an extended shoot. So when I get home and say I am downloading from teh card - I'm busy culling while the shots are loading into Lightroom, so that's never been much of an issue either. Bottom line I think the fascination with extreme speed is more of a marketing thing than a true requirement for most shooters. Why spend 3x the amount to save a small amount of time that probably isn't really being wasted anyway?


Jan 10, 2009 at 02:20 PM
abam
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


120x 16gig extrememory card.

30 euros cheap



Jan 10, 2009 at 02:41 PM
Chuck Kuhn
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


Here is the link for on line ordering for Kingston ($29.99) CF 16gb 133x free delivery.
http://shop4.frys.com/product/5669251?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG



Jan 10, 2009 at 02:55 PM
shadowcat
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · 5D Mark II Which CF card?


My camera shop is selling the udma cards the same price as the regular cards. they'll just sell the regular cards first except to really good customers like me lol.


Jan 10, 2009 at 05:58 PM





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