R3 card slots

OmahaMav23
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · R3 card slots

Did a search but didn’t see anything.

Just picked up an R3 and the fastest cards available was:
1x Promaster 150GB (1770 MBread/1700 write)
1x ProMaster 64 GB (300 MB /260 write).

How can I expect consistency among recording/buffer performance with such a discrepancy between the two slots. Is there an optimal way to record? I want to use DUAL recording but don’t see how it doesn’t bog down my sports shooting.

Curious if there are any experienced folks who care to educate me about this discrepancy!

Nov 07, 2023 at 03:39 PM

jcolwell
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · R3 card slots

When I shot sports and wildlife, I often set my 1D-series cameras to record .CR2 to the CF card, and small fine jpegs to the SD card. Performance was not compromised very much (for shooting RAW), and I had a decent jpeg, should disaster strike the big card. In many cases, the jpeg file was directly useful, and the CR2 only opened for cropping, enlargement, and the usual suspects for post-processing.

Nov 07, 2023 at 05:56 PM

jedibrain
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · R3 card slots

That's what the camera buffer is there for. My R6 has files only slightly smaller, and only SD card. You can fill the buffer in about 10s of 20fps shooting. But I'm using slower v60 UHSII cards. You can get v90s to improve. Its not often I need to hold the shutter down at full speed for 10 continuous seconds. I can't think of actually doing so other than in testing.

So your R3 will hit a little harder, as its 30fps, and the files are slightly larger (24mp vs 20mp). To improve your buffer capacity, you could try shooting craw, or as mentioned shoot raw to the CFx and jpg to the SD.

Brian

Nov 07, 2023 at 06:05 PM

rscheffler
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · R3 card slots

The manual has some information on buffer capacities. This should give you some idea whether it will 'cramp' your shooting style. I'd also suggest running some tests to determine how long it will actually take to free up buffer space for your typical usage.

From the manual - If you're in e-shutter 30fps, buffer tops out around at similar frame numbers for the file type selected, no matter the card type. If you're using any of the mechanical shutter modes at 12fps, if recording jpegs, it's effectively unlimited for any card type. It's considerably different if shooting RAW.

If your preference is to shoot RAW and you need more than 150 images in a burst (roughly 5 seconds), then I'd suggest you consider cRAW instead. Image quality differences between it and standard RAW are minute and cRAW still gives you considerably more processing latitude than jpegs.

The buffer depth will also depend on file sizes that are affected by variables such as ISO, aperture (how blurry or how well defined background is) and subject content. Shooting sports with a long, fast lens and blowing out the background, you'll get a bit more total frames compared to burst done with a stopped down wide angle lens.

Nov 07, 2023 at 09:34 PM

OmahaMav23
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · R3 card slots

Yeah I guess real world application will determine and just getting out to shoot will be the test. I just notice the CONSIDERABLE write speeds between the two (I think it’s the largest discrepancy between those two slots in all the cameras I’ve owned). I am considering going full CRAW as I typically am a jpg shooter with several versions of 1DX’s prior.

Nov 07, 2023 at 11:03 PM

rscheffler
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · R3 card slots

When there is that much write speed difference, the buffer clear time will be that of the slower card. But it's also not clear how fast the R3's CFexpress slot writes to the card. It possibly does not reach the card's peak performance. You could test this by timing the duration it takes to clear the buffer.

I came from the 1 series, including the 1DXII all the way back to the 1D. The straight out of camera jpeg files from the R system are the best I've seen yet from Canon, but cRAW does offer image quality benefits at not much larger file sizes. IMO, one of the most significant benefits is compatibility with Adobe's new Denoise feature, which does not work with jpegs. I was initially skeptical about cRAW but you have to view files at 200-300% before you spot differences compared to standard RAW. And those differences are not typically that noticeable.

I'm shooting football with the R6II, also 24MP, and using cRAW due to the camera's under-sized buffer. The last game I did was mostly in the ISO 1600-6400 range and average file size was around 15-18MB. If at lower ISO, that file size will decrease somewhat.

Nov 08, 2023 at 12:06 AM


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