Best compact flash

Tomsk

Tomsk

Tomsk

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I'm about to order a brand Canon DSLR ;) and I'll be needing some new compactflash cards as my existing ones will be too slow and small.

What are the best current compactflash cards?
I'm not one to 'put all my eggs in one basket' so I'm looking at 8 and 16GB cards.
 
Sandisk, genuine ones from a proper retailer. There's a camera cost comparison website that lists CF cards and the cheapest retailers. I don't think OCUK sell CF, but I'll not mention names just in case...
 
I bought the Sandisk Pro 90mb/s 16GB cards when I bought my 7D, from Jessops as well as they were far cheaper than anywhere else. £130 each I think they were. They've been excellent so far, and I've been using 8fps a lot!
 
You can get six 4gb Extreme III's for under £100 if you look in the right place. (Personally I carry 4x 4gb cards and one 16gb spare that so far has only had one use :p)

For a more detailed idea of the card you would want what camera is it & what are you going to be shooting? Most camera's only write about 10MB/sec (Rebels, 1DII/III, 40D). Some write upto about 30MB/sec (1D4, D3, 50D ect.). Some only write upto 5MB/sec (D70, 1D ect.).

Extreme III's are fine in anything but the latest D3's and 1D's and perhaps the lastest high speed camera's like the 7D might just about make use of the faster cards.
 
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Tomsk said:
I'm not one to 'put all my eggs in one basket' so I'm looking at 8 and 16GB cards.
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err what? do you know how many shots you can fit on an 8gb card? probably a holidays worth. I wouldn't go above 4gb tbh, unless shooting video.

What cards do you have at the moment, and what camera have you ordered?
 
Stupot_ said:
err what? do you know how many shots you can fit on an 8gb card? probably a holidays worth. I wouldn't go above 4gb tbh, unless shooting video.

What cards do you have at the moment, and what camera have you ordered?
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I shot 8GB worth of RAW's yesterday without even trying :o And have been known to come back from (albeit 1 month) holidays with +20GB of photos :o I don't see too much harm in carrying extra memory around, even if you don't end up using it, better to have too much than too few :)
 
griffo_001 said:
I shot 8GB worth of RAW's yesterday without even trying :o And have been known to come back from (albeit 1 month) holidays with +20GB of photos :o I don't see too much harm in carrying extra memory around, even if you don't end up using it, better to have too much than too few :)
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Well yeh I'm talking about your average snapper who's probably shooting jpegs verses someone with a 1Ds Mk3 on RAW:) I'm guessing you're more the latter? And without knowing what the OP's style/equipment I still think 8-16gb is too big a card for an amateur.
 
Stupot_ said:
Well yeh I'm talking about your average snapper who's probably shooting jpegs verses someone with a 1Ds Mk3 on RAW:) I'm guessing you're more the latter? And without knowing what the OP's style/equipment I still think 8-16gb is too big a card for an amateur.
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I wish :p 40d, 10MP, RAWs are only 10mb. So if he's shooting raw and shooting a sports event of any sort that sort of capacity might be useful.

Before everyone abuses me.I know shooting around 6000 photos in a day is bad technique.... but :p

I think 8 - 16 gb is about right for total cf storage, but a bit much for a single card, don't put all you eggs in one basket. Imagine if you lost that single card when it was full? It's not QUITE so painful if you loose a 4gb card but still have photos on your other cards :)
 
Stupot_ said:
Assuming a 12 hour day, that's one photo every 7.2 seconds............
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Nice maths. If only my typing was as good :p I meant 600. The thought of having to process and convert 6000 images scares me..... :p

Again on the sports theme, I'd want at least 15Mbps write speed to help clear the buffer. Sandisk extreme III or better should be able to do that :)
 
Stupot_ said:
err what? do you know how many shots you can fit on an 8gb card? probably a holidays worth. I wouldn't go above 4gb tbh, unless shooting video.

What cards do you have at the moment, and what camera have you ordered?
Click to expand...

At up to 30MB per picture and some HD video, it might mean only a couple of hundred pictures per 8GB card.

Anyway the cards I've got are between 1 and 4GB, so the larger ones are OK for size, but far too slow for my forthcoming 7D. :D
 
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