Hi all...
Just ordered a 1D Mark III and will be here next week

I have been using 4gig San Disk Extreme III's on my 40Ds and was going to get some new cards or a card for the new body.

Any opinions on the San Disk Extreme IV and does it take a different card reader?

How much better do you feel is the Extreme IV as opposed to the III's

Was thinking about getting two 8 gig cards as opposed to a 16gig. I have always had the fear if something went wrong and I had a total shoot on one card.

How many of you use the small card for backup..? along ith the CD card?

Any opinions will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Scuppy

We use the 4GB Extreme III's (CF and SDHC) in our Canon 1DMKIII's. It makes it easy for back-ups, one card, one single layer DVD.

Ty

www.thephotomafia.com

No advantage to the Extreme IV in write speed on the Mark III, as it is not UDMA. However you will see an increase in speed in read time when downloading to your computer, but only if you have a UDMA reader as well. I use Extreme III's both CF and SDHC and am quite happy with them in my Mark III. YMMV...

I almost opened an identical new post...I just have my 1DIII and wondering which SDHC to use. RG's data suggest the Mark III tops out at 15mb/sec read/write speed, makes me wonder if I should blow extra 20 bucks for the Extreme III 30mb/sec version. Downloading to computer is no concern to me.

helimat wrote:
No advantage to the Extreme IV in write speed on the Mark III, as it is not UDMA. However you will see an increase in speed in read time when downloading to your computer, but only if you have a UDMA reader as well. I use Extreme III's both CF and SDHC and am quite happy with them in my Mark III. YMMV...

I used the same in my Mark III and never had a problem.

You don't need to get anything all that special when it comes of CF cards. I always by inexpensive cards from vendors with guarantees and I've never had a problem. I would never pay extra for "name brand" cards nor would I pay for more speed than my camera can take advantage of.

CF cards are basically a cheap commodity item these days. Spending a bunch of extra to "get the best" is mostly a waste of money.

Dan

gdanmitchell wrote:

CF cards are basically a cheap commodity item these days. Spending a bunch of extra to "get the best" is mostly a waste of money.

Dan

You must not fill your buffer often, if ever. Or shoot anything that demands bursts.

A CF card that matches your cameras write speed is worth spending for. Thankfully, the mid end is often fast enough, but I would strongly urge people to not get the cheapest they can find, once you hit that buffer, waiting 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds sure feels like a lot longer when you need to get the next shot.

Also, downloading with a nice FW800 card reader and a high speed card vs USB and a standard speed card can be a difference of 5-15minutes depending on the size of the card.

Cheers,
Thomas

gdanmitchell wrote:
You don't need to get anything all that special when it comes of CF cards. I always by inexpensive cards from vendors with guarantees and I've never had a problem. I would never pay extra for "name brand" cards nor would I pay for more speed than my camera can take advantage of.

CF cards are basically a cheap commodity item these days. Spending a bunch of extra to "get the best" is mostly a waste of money.

Dan

I am sorry but I have to disagree here. I get the best my camera can handle, but no further. When the rebates are going the price of SanDisk Extreme III's are pretty low, and are a quality name brand card that I wholly trust.

fwiw: the new 34 nm process cards will be coming out soon (a few weeks) so look for big price drops on the current versions (and SSD prices will become almost reasonable)

FWIW, I haven't been able to persuade myself that shelling out the extra for the Extreme IV's is worthwhile - I use the Sandisk E. III's in various (increasing) sizes for both my 1DIII & 5DII.

Sandisk has some good deals going on now if you don't mind waiting for the rebate to arrive; I bought an 8GB extreme III card from adorama.com last night for my 1DmkIII.

I don't expect you to actually look at my photography but it is there if you want to see it. Among the photographs are wildlife including birds in flight and also professional bicycle racing.

I fill my buffer.

A CF card that matches your camera's speed makes sense. That's what I use. I never suggested anything else. Paying extra for a brand name card that matches your camera's speed or paying extra for a card that exceeds your camera's speed do not make sense. (Yes, your images may download from your card reader a few seconds faster... )

The card you use does not make a "5-15 minute difference" in the speed of download from the card reader. I regularly fill a 16GB card and it doesn't take that amount of time to download the entire batch of photos. If your reader is taking 15 minutes it is not the card's fault.

Dan

Tomagado wrote:
gdanmitchell wrote:

CF cards are basically a cheap commodity item these days. Spending a bunch of extra to "get the best" is mostly a waste of money.

Dan

You must not fill your buffer often, if ever. Or shoot anything that demands bursts.

A CF card that matches your cameras write speed is worth spending for. Thankfully, the mid end is often fast enough, but I would strongly urge people to not get the cheapest they can find, once you hit that buffer, waiting 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds sure feels like a lot longer when you need to get the next shot.

Also, downloading with a nice FW800 card reader and a high speed card vs USB and a standard speed card can be a difference of 5-15minutes depending on the size of the card.

Cheers,
Thomas

I have a couple of Scandisk cards and they're ok. One has let me down in the past. An Extreme III would store images but corrupt them so they couldn't be downloaded/read by a PC.

My prime card is a Lexar Professional 8Gb UDMA 300x speed. I know the camera (nor my PC) can take advantage of UDMA. The card is brilliant, has never ever let me down is is always the first one I use for the most vital images.

I prefer 8gb over 4gb because of the fps of the 1dm3. A card can fill quite quickly and with over 500 RAW shots on a 8GB you're not constantly worrying about space. So I have three 8GB cards. It's easy to fill two of them doing a fairly small wedding.

I just pick a cheap card in my box

I am using Sandisk Extrime III - 30m/sec and Extrime III SDHC both 8G. Other brands might be fine, but I prefer Sandisk with rebates option.

Lars Johnsson wrote:
I just pick a cheap card in my box

Quick follow up to my original post....

Does switching cards between camera bodies mess things up at all...
Reason I am asking that I do have San Disk Extreme IIIs that I have used in my 40Ds
but my new Mark III will be here on Wed and am still looking for some deals on some new cards and was wondering if I can switch between camera bodies of different types and still be ok..I have tried to use the same cards all the time in the same bodies in the past...

Does this question makes sense?

Thanks,
Scuppy

Scuppy wrote:
Quick follow up to my original post....

Does switching cards between camera bodies mess things up at all...
Reason I am asking that I do have San Disk Extreme IIIs that I have used in my 40Ds
but my new Mark III will be here on Wed and am still looking for some deals on some new cards and was wondering if I can switch between camera bodies of different types and still be ok..I have tried to use the same cards all the time in the same bodies in the past...

Does this question makes sense?

Thanks,
Scuppy




In theory, it should not mess things up, but I always re-format a card when I place it in the camera. That means I avoid shooting some shots on one body and switching the card to another and shooting some more.

It might mess up the file numbering order, but nothing else. As Nathan Lake said, a quick reformat before switching bodies is advisable and would eliminate the changing of file numbers.

If a 5D MK II or newer is in your future, then EX4 cards are better. If there is a 1d MK IV, you may also regret getting the slower cards. However, a mere 16GB is nothing, so you can get faster cards later and use the "slow" EX3 cards for secondary storage.

If you plan to use the SDHC card for backup, the 16GB EX3 is OK.

EBH

I use the Lexar 8gb UDMA 300x as I had purchased them when I got the 50D which takes advantage of the UDMA. I always look for rebates. The last 2 I purchased (recently) they had a $60 rebate. So I got both for $100. Plus I alway reformat the card after transferring the files to the hard drive...to me it's easier and faster than deleting the files.

phillipyan wrote:
Lars Johnsson wrote:
I just pick a cheap card in my box

Colin Key wrote:
phillipyan wrote:
Lars Johnsson wrote:
I just pick a cheap card in my box
.

Your cache of cards have a total memory more than my desktop computer and laptop +CF+ SD combined

And that is just the top layer!!! How deep is that box?
Colin

Damn!

Lars: I would guess under the cards is your stash of replacement shutter assemblies
Take care pal