I've not found much if any info on higher speed CF cards, I've a few 400x and 800x cards, will moving up to a 1066x give me much of a write speed increase? I'm shooting mostly stills, a video only on occasion and thinking on the 64GB cards.
Stills subjects will be BIF, motor racing, lots of surfing and kids soccer...yea I'm up in my wheelchair, kind of . Most of the time I'll shoot bursts up to 8fps, will use AI Servo and the center AF point with expansion; I can't change the AF point on the fly... I'll also shoot RAW or RAW+Fine Jpeg...in late morning thru late afternoon light; summer in SoCal. I'll mainly shoot with the following lenses, 70-200 f4L IS and 300 f4L IS, on occasion with a 1.4x or 2x III T/Cs...yea I know about the AF and IQ hit
Most of my time will be hand-holding, until my arms fatigue, then I'll revert to my newfangled wheelchair support; it's finally in-place and working great; GP ballhead or CB gimbal. Had the opportunity to attach; a Sammy's Camera tech helped me, my 1DMk2N and the 500 f4 IS; not the Mark II, to my setup. I was surprised how rock solid it felt and now am really looking forward to getting the 400 f5.6L...
Anyway, I'm a bit off track, those of you that have or do shoot with the 7D, will the 1066x CF card help at all or is the 800x fast enough...thanks for any thoughts!
...needs to be on your "to-read" list, it covers this subject quite thoroughly. At 7-pages and counting it's chock-full of info.
The short version...for those looking to eek-out the most from their gear speed-wise, yes, you will realize better high-fps performance with the faster cards...and you will realize better performance with higher-capacity cards (e.g 128GB performs better than 64GB).
I shoot bursts occasionally and video and the 90MB/s Sandisk's I use are more than up to suiting my needs with my 7D and 5D2 shooting RAW + Large JPEG...but it's nice to know I can "soup things up" with some faster and larger cards should the need arise.
Go have a ball with the BIF, Motor racing, surfing and soccer shooting!
Jimmy, thank you very much, I'd read Lars's bag reviews but did not know he had memory card reviews/speed testing...he is a great FMer! I'm off to read his thread, no doubt it will help
Quote from Canon
"Note: UDMA 7 CF memory card read/write speeds are not fully supported with the EOS 7D Digital SLR camera, if using UDMA 7 memory cards, the read/write speeds will be equivalent to UDMA 6."
XSpringer wrote:
Quote from Canon
"Note: UDMA 7 CF memory card read/write speeds are not fully supported with the EOS 7D Digital SLR camera, if using UDMA 7 memory cards, the read/write speeds will be equivalent to UDMA 6."
I don't own the 7D so I don't know: but your link say it's UDMA7 compatible if you have upgraded the firmware. And I would guess that 99% have done that. It's also a very old link so I would expect all the later 7D already have a UDMA7 compatible firmware
‡‡ Figures based on updated firmware, ISO 100, Standard Picture Style and with 8GB CF memory card (normal speed). Figures in parentheses apply to 128GB UDMA 7 CF memory card (high speed). Note: UDMA 7 CF memory card read/write speeds are not fully supported with the EOS 7D Digital SLR camera, if using UDMA 7 memory cards, the read/write speeds will be equivalent to UDMA 6.
The above is from the Canon Firmware update page. If you lookup the UDMA 6 specifications for Read/Write speeds you'll find that the maximum transfer speed is 133 MB/s. Maximum transfer speeds for UDMA 7 are 167 MB/s.
UDMA 7 cards max out at 167 MB/s or about 1066x, UDMA 6 cards max out at 133 MB/s or about 885x. The quoted speeds are almost always the read speeds because they are usually faster than the write speeds.
May 29, 2014 at 06:30 AM
Lars Johnsson Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
So, you're saying that manufacturer's frequently (always?) design their cameras to exceed the specifications of various standards? Not trying to put words in your mouth, but in my experience I find very little evidence that cameras exceed their design specifications. If that were the case, wouldn't the marketing team be all over the higher specs and be promoting it to potential buyers?
I find it hard to believe that a 5 year old camera (even older if you consider the development/engineering time) that was designed to meet specs of that era, UDMA 6, is now able to perform to the specs of any card you load into it.
Your "informal testing" is a best just that. While it is a great benefit to the community and you should be congratulated for starting the thread and continuing to pursue updated data on cards and cameras. It really needs to be realized that the results are not scientific, the sampling is too small, and at best the results are just estimates for what a specific camera/card combination can achieve.
No Jeff... it is just the opposite. No UDMA 7 card or camera can reach the theoretical maximum write speed, same for UDMA 6.
The 7D, 50D, 5DII, and 1DIV got compatibility updates to work with UDMA 7 cards, that does not mean they can make use of UDMA 7 speeds. In fact they can't.
StillFingerz, there is no way in hell that the 7D can make full use of the Lexar 1066x UDMA 7 card write speeds. Don't wanna see you waste money when a slower card will probably write just as fast in a 7D. Probably the best cards for the 7D are the now discontinued 600x UDMA 6 or 7 from Lexar, Transcend, and Sandisk. Some of those cards are freaky fast. Case in point, I have a 600x Transcend UDMA 7 card that can write at 90 MB/s.
You will likely notice a difference. The theory is fine but the test is in the pudding.
With my 7d, I just tried - 28 frames with 5 seconds to clear. With lexar 1000 64 gb. UDMA 7.
Your number will vary with frame - dark vs light - but I typically get 24-29 before there is a pause at 8fps. The real difference though is the burst is cleared and ready for the next one in 4-6 seconds after the stutter if you stop.
The burst clear is what keeps you from missing the next shot. I tested it against my older cards and found the burst clear was 10s or longer.
If your current card can match this - don't bother.
I appreciate all the great info and ended up getting a pair of Lexar 64gb 800x's, I've several Transend 32gb 400x's that were picked up on the cheep and they work great. So I'm set for quite a while; I've a few 16gb and 8gb Sandisk Extreme pro's that have provided great service.
I just got a Lexar LECF1066X16G … 16GB Professional 1066x Compact Flash Memory Card (UDMA 7) from B&H for $48. I was just looking for a good 16G CF card… run up on this one so I bought it. I know the camera (1Ds II and 5D c) won’t take advantage of the speed, but it may shorten the time from card reader to computer.
If it clears faster than my SanDisk Extreme II 30mb/s allowing me to shoot sooner … so much the better, but I tend to “snapshoot” and usually do not fill the buffer before I pause ….
May 29, 2014 at 05:55 PM
Lars Johnsson Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
Jeff Donald wrote:
So, you're saying that manufacturer's frequently (always?) design their cameras to exceed the specifications of various standards? Not trying to put words in your mouth, but in my experience I find very little evidence that cameras exceed their design specifications. If that were the case, wouldn't the marketing team be all over the higher specs and be promoting it to potential buyers?
I find it hard to believe that a 5 year old camera (even older if you consider the development/engineering time) that was designed to meet specs of that era, UDMA 6, is now able to perform to the specs of any card you load into it.
Your "informal testing" is a best just that. While it is a great benefit to the community and you should be congratulated for starting the thread and continuing to pursue updated data on cards and cameras. It really needs to be realized that the results are not scientific, the sampling is too small, and at best the results are just estimates for what a specific camera/card combination can achieve....Show more →
Exceed the specifications !!!!!
No the opposite. You will never reach the theoretical top speed (of the memory card) with any camera in real life. And it doesn't matter if the camera is 10 year old or one day old, you will not reach that speed.
Yes the camera is maybe 5 years old. But the firmware is not 5 years old. And that's the most important part here. And the 7D you buy today is compatible with UDMA 7 cards.
Of course my test is not scientific. Have you seen any test here at FM beeing that? Or did I claim it was ? But the results are not estimates like you write. And it's not a thread where I continuing to pursue updated data on cards and cameras. It's one test with one specific camera. And I have not tested the 7D or own it, so I can't understand why you complain?
Thanks Jerry, yes 800x cards are often good value. I have a lot of those Lexar, Transcend 400x and 800x cards. Good & fast enough for 95% of the things I shoot with my 1DX
EB-1 wrote:
No, and I'm not sure it handle 64GB cards. I have a 30D in the back room somewhere.
EBH
My 64GB 400X Transcend cards work in my 30D so I don't see why the 1066X Lexar cards won't.
I just ordered a few of the Lexar while they are on sale, but won't get them for 3-5 weeks to
try it :-( Oh, and the 30d doesn't even support udma6 so it won't give you any increase in speed.
. Most of the time I'll shoot bursts up to 8fps, will use AI Servo and the center AF point with expansion; I can't change the AF point on the fly... I'll also shoot RAW or RAW+Fine Jpeg...in late morning thru late afternoon light; summer in SoCal. I'll mainly shoot with the following lenses, 70-200 f4L IS and 300 f4L IS, on occasion with a 1.4x or 2x III T/Cs...yea I know about the AF and IQ hit 
