CF recomendations? - About to buy

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Archive 2010 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

Dave Jr
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p.3 #1 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

Thank you Omar and Mike. I bought two of the 16x adata 533x speedy cards. The g-monster cards are appealing, but the adata cards at $59 better meet my budget.

Shooting video thus far with a 7d and two 4GB cards (Ridata Pro 150x and Sandisk Ultra II) I've not had any issues, other than the cards are too small. If the adata cards are at least as fast as my existing cards, I'll be fine with the purchase.

Jan 16, 2010 at 07:17 AM

OO7MIKE
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p.3 #2 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

My 16gb Gmonster Cards came yesterday. I've tested them out a few times but have yet to shoot a gig with them. As far as benchmarks go.. this is the puzzling part:

New card vs my old cards:

G-Monster 16gb 533x
17 Shots till buffer was full
5 Seconds for image preview
11 Seconds total for buffer to completely empty

Sandisk Extreme III 8gb 30mb/s
16 Shots till buffer was full
6 Seconds for image preview
16 Seconds total for buffer to completely empty

Sandisk Extreme III 4gb (Non 30mb/s edition)
15 Shots till buffer was full
12 Seconds for image preview
28 Seconds total for buffer to completely empty

Lexar Professional 4gb 133x (Write Acceleration)
15 Shots till buffer was full
14 Seconds for image preview
29 Seconds total for buffer to completely empty

What is the puzzling part? Well the 8gig sandisk was able to take 16 photos before the buffer filled up. The G-Monster was able to take 17 photos. Yes its faster.. but the cards real speed isn't seen in this benchmark.

After you fill the buffer if you check out the viewfinder you will see how many shots you can take before filling the buffer. After the buffer is full the 8gig Sandisk card reports that you can take 2 more photos for each additional second that goes by up until the number 8 appears. With the Gmonster card, it goes from 0 to 8 in about a second giving you the ability to spit off 8 more shots without having to wait. Once the number reaches 8 it starts to behave a lot like the Sandisk 8gig card. I do not know why this is happening. My "seconds until the buffer is clear" benchmark clearly doesn't show how this card shines. I wonder if anyone else has experienced this as well?

Jan 20, 2010 at 02:54 AM

theMAGE
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p.3 #3 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

It might be that some of that speed is due to some additional buffer on the card and you are filling that up? Try with both RAW and (smaller) JPEGs and see if that makes a difference. Also, make sure you test all the shots by pointing the camera at the same scene (I assume you are doing it, but I mention it since you are not saying it explicitly).

Jan 20, 2010 at 03:23 AM

runamuck
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p.3 #4 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

Always be extremely wary of ebay cards. Ebay is literally crawling with counterfeits.

Jan 30, 2010 at 08:12 PM

FretNoMore
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p.3 #5 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

So, I chickened out on the Photofast cards, too expensive locally and I got some strange reply when trying to buy from the manufacturer. I went the safe route and got two 16GB SanDisk Extreme (60 MB/s) cards instead.

I also updated my PC with a no-name Firewire 800 card and connected my SanDisk Extreme IV Firewire reader that I have since a few years back. I get close to 50 MB/s read speed to the computer, copying the 16 GB in about 5 minutes, which I find quite acceptable.

Jan 30, 2010 at 08:26 PM

EOS1D01
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p.3 #6 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

I use a 32GB G-Monster 533X PLUS. Works great. I did have to get a UDMA reader.

Jan 30, 2010 at 11:39 PM

omarlyn
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p.3 #7 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

OO7MIKE wrote:
Can anyone confirm the aData 533x card performance. I need to drop some $$ on a card soon.

Here's my post from an earlier thread regarding the A-Data CF cards: http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/854047/1#8010994

HTH,
Omar

Jan 31, 2010 at 02:35 AM

Kafn8td
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p.3 #8 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

I was in the same boat and bought a 16gb ScanDisk Extreme 60MB/s UDMA. Clears the buffer in no time.

Jan 31, 2010 at 02:46 AM

Dpic_arctic
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p.3 #9 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

EB-1 wrote:
1Ds IV will devour 32GB cards for sure.

EBH

wickerprints wrote:
Devouring cards, I can accept. But the real challenge is finding enough hard disk space for all these freaking RAW files. Pretty soon we'll all need 50TB RAIDs just to keep a few years' worth of photos backed up.

EB-1 wrote:
I have well over 40TB of drives now and expect to reach 50TB by ~June. Hard drives are practically free now compared to all the FF pro bodies.

EBH

What

Are you a professional photographer that shoots only RAW using the 1Ds Mark III?

Wickerprints- by that time, you'll be able to get a 10 TB HD for 150 bucks. It's not like the hard drives stop improving, despite all of the other technology advances. HDs will get larger and more inexpensive along with (if not faster than) the rest of technology.

Jan 31, 2010 at 04:50 AM

Dpic_arctic
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p.3 #10 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

wickerprints wrote:
50TB @ $100/TB = $5000. That's still a lot of money for disk space...granted, it's a lot more than I presently need but heaven help me if I start to take an interest in shooting video with my 5D2.

But I don't think he purchased all of his storage in the past 6 months.

Jan 31, 2010 at 04:51 AM

Dpic_arctic
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p.3 #11 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

I like the Sandisk extreme family the best (although I have no experience with a-data or g-monster- only Lexar). They have been very reliable for me. But I haven't used them with any other camera than a 40D and 50D.

Jan 31, 2010 at 04:54 AM

paulfeng
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p.3 #12 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

EOS1D01 wrote:
I use a 32GB G-Monster 533X PLUS. Works great. I did have to get a UDMA reader.

Hi EOS1D01,

I'm interested in this card - could you test the write speed per this method that I described in this post:

paulfeng wrote:
My measurements were for shooting RAW only at max continuous speed, first formatting the card in-camera, then starting the timer when I pressed the shutter, {edit: releasing the shutter after the buffer filled}, and stopping the timer when the CF light went dark. Megabytes of data on the card divided by timed interval is what I am reporting.

I haven't seen a real world report on this card's actual in-camera write speed anywhere, so yours would be very helpful. You are shooting with a Mark IV, right? If you have a 7D, it would be great to know the write speed in that too, though I am wondering if they have similar CF write performance. Thanks...

Jan 31, 2010 at 02:29 PM

vpexp
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p.3 #13 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

I have a 7d with a 16GB Speedy A-Data and a 32GB GMonster 533X Pro

With the 7d I recorded the following average times AFTER filling the buffer:

Time to preview: A-Data 4.5 Sec, GMonster 3.0 Sec
Time to clear Buffer: A-Data 18 Sec, GMonster 6.5 Sec
YMMV

Jan 31, 2010 at 03:17 PM

paulfeng
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p.3 #14 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

Thanks vpexp,

That's the first real-world report on that particular Gmonster I've heard, and it sounds good!

Jan 31, 2010 at 04:14 PM

Lars Johnsson
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p.3 #15 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

OO7MIKE wrote:
My 16gb Gmonster Cards came yesterday. I've tested them out a few times but have yet to shoot a gig with them. As far as benchmarks go.. this is the puzzling part:

New card vs my old cards:

G-Monster 16gb 533x
17 Shots till buffer was full
5 Seconds for image preview
11 Seconds total for buffer to completely empty

Sandisk Extreme III 8gb 30mb/s
16 Shots till buffer was full
6 Seconds for image preview
16 Seconds total for buffer to completely empty

Sandisk Extreme III 4gb (Non 30mb/s edition)
15 Shots till buffer was full
12 Seconds for image preview
28 Seconds total for buffer to completely empty

Lexar Professional 4gb 133x (Write Acceleration)
15 Shots till buffer was full
14 Seconds for image preview
29 Seconds total for buffer to completely empty

What is the puzzling part? Well the 8gig sandisk was able to take 16 photos before the buffer filled up. The G-Monster was able to take 17 photos. Yes its faster.. but the cards real speed isn't seen in this benchmark.

After you fill the buffer if you check out the viewfinder you will see how many shots you can take before filling the buffer. After the buffer is full the 8gig Sandisk card reports that you can take 2 more photos for each additional second that goes by up until the number 8 appears. With the Gmonster card, it goes from 0 to 8 in about a second giving you the ability to spit off 8 more shots without having to wait. Once the number reaches 8 it starts to behave a lot like the Sandisk 8gig card. I do not know why this is happening. My "seconds until the buffer is clear" benchmark clearly doesn't show how this card shines. I wonder if anyone else has experienced this as well?

But what camera are you using

According to your profile you own the 40D. To get any good speed out of the newer and faster UDMA cards, you need a good and new camera that supports UDMA 6 cards.
A lot of people here buy those cards and then complain that they are not fast. And they are only fast if your body support that kind of cards

Feb 01, 2010 at 07:46 AM

stanj
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p.3 #16 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

paulfeng wrote:
Thanks vpexp,

That's the first real-world report on that particular Gmonster I've heard, and it sounds good!

Yes but comparing The Gmonster to the adata 533x would be more sensible.

Feb 01, 2010 at 08:19 AM

John P Mulgrew
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p.3 #17 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

A bit OT but isn't funny how just about a year or so ago people were worried about putting all their images on a 4 GB or 8 GB card?

Feb 01, 2010 at 10:42 AM

FretNoMore
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p.3 #18 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

Image files get bigger and bigger, so maybe it's actually more or less the same number of eggs per basket?

Feb 01, 2010 at 10:45 AM

harrygilbert
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p.3 #19 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

wickerprints wrote:
EB-1 wrote:
1Ds IV will devour 32GB cards for sure.

EBH

Devouring cards, I can accept. But the real challenge is finding enough hard disk space for all these freaking RAW files. Pretty soon we'll all need 50TB RAIDs just to keep a few years' worth of photos backed up.

I just buy $99 1TB WD SATA drives, and put them in $25 USB enclosures as they fill up.

One thing that puzzles me regarding CF cards for the 1DIV: the recommended card at B&H is only a UDMA Class 5 card, while the specs say Class 6 or higher is recommended for video.

Feb 01, 2010 at 11:20 AM

vpexp
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p.3 #20 · CF recomendations? - About to buy

Stanj, comparing the GMonster to the adata 533x would only make more sense to me if I had an adata 533X. I compared what I had on hand. Didn't not feel that it was worth it to invest $ for this "critical" test.

Feb 01, 2010 at 02:06 PM

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