5D Mark III -- Compact Flash (CF) or Secure Digital (SD / SDHC)?

[Kernuak]

Looking at Sandisk cards in the 8-32GB range -

Does anyone have any recommendations between the 60MB/s & 90MB/s?
£80   gets you 1x 60MB/s 16GB SanDisk Extreme       400x UDMA CF
£129 gets you 1x 90MB/s 16GB SanDisk Extreme Pro 600x UDMA CF

£59   gets you 1x SanDisk 16GB Extreme Pro 95MB/s SDHC
£120 gets you 1x SanDisk 32GB Extreme Pro 95MB/s SDHC
£95   gets you 2x SanDisk 16GB Extreme Pro 45MB/s SDHC Card

What would be good for a) video or b) Taking a series of shots - would the different cards hit buffer full at different times?

Would you go for a 32GB 60MB/s CF cards for more GB for video (AI-I looks a GB eater!)? Or 2x 16GB 90MB/s CF cards?



Edit - Reading http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2012/5d3_hd_video_features.shtml?categoryId=122

* HD 50 fps or 60 fps recording places the greatest demands on memory card speed, especially during ALL-I recording. Required read/write speed during HD 720p ALL-I recording for CF cards is 30 MB/sec; for SD cards, 14MB/sec.

CF cards – UDMA "mode 7" support
SD cards – SD, SDHC, or SDXC-compliant cards are supported
(not compatible with UHS-I high-speed writing)

Have a look at the prices on play.com, they have a 16GB Extreme Pro CF card at £89.99. I recently got one a bit cheaper again from Robert White, but it was during a special offer.

Robert White still have them on special at £78.

[Mt Spokane Photography]

CF has a huge durability factor in it's favor as well. I've cracked a few SD cards in my time. Not too mention what my kids have done to theirs!

As a connector design engineer, I'd be more concerned with damage to my camera, since a trip for repair and replacement of the CF header is very expensive.

I've had three cameras with bent or broken CF pins in the camera, plus one that was shorted by a bad CF card and needed a new internal power supply board.  Two were p&S bodies that I threw out, I was able to repair the DSLR since I do have repair tools.

The pin in camera concept violates all the reliability and safety rules for pin and socket arrangements.  The pin side of a connection should never have power applied while disconnected.  Bend one against another and your camera can be damaged or ruined.

Cracking a SD card would be the least of my worries, it would let me keep on taking photos by merely using another card and tossing the broken one.  Soiling one is nothing, just wipe it off.  but contaminate the sockets of a CF card and you may not see they are blocked up,  and it can ruin your camera.

[kdsand]

this is extremely confusing for me. on amazon the sandisk extreme pro 16gb SD at 95 mb/s is 70$ the CF card at 90mb/s is 110$ .... why would a faster/smaller card be cheaper? why wouldnt everyone just buy the SD?

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-Performance-SDSDXPA-016G-A75-Packaging/dp/B006FKD01K/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1330793569&sr=8-15

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-16GB-Extreme-memory-card/dp/B002OL80UK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1330793653&sr=8-3

The price of memory seems to rise and fall alot especially on Amazon. These new cards are not supported on necessarily all older devices, that would be my guess as to why they are not selling at a higher premium now. I would also not be shocked to see the price actually increase substantially over the next year though that is speculation .

I have had no problems with compatibility using 60D, Toshiba Thrive tablet (3 months old), H.P. laptop (7 months old)internal card reader and Costco & Walgreens photo centers while on vacation.

My frame rate is impressive with the 60D. The buffer never fills now even when writing RAW & L. JPEGs at the same time and surprisingly seems to actually surpass the 60D's indicated specks.

I would like to clarify as to the cards going through the wash  . It wasn't done on purpose  and the cards are fine . I've always bought SanDisk higher quality cards and have not had any failures whether CF or SD knock on wood.

[stuartblance]

anyone recommend this card for MKIII?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Extreme-16GB-SDHC-Card/dp/B005LFT3MA/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1331475409&sr=1-2-fkmr0

[prestonpalmer]

anyone recommend this card for MKIII?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Extreme-16GB-SDHC-Card/dp/B005LFT3MA/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1331475409&sr=1-2-fkmr0

Yes, that is a great memory card!  If you can afford it, get the 32GB version.

[larryf]

My plan at this point is to use the CF card to record RAW images and the SD card to record a duplicate JPG image.

[wamsankas]

anyone recommend this card for MKIII?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Extreme-16GB-SDHC-Card/dp/B005LFT3MA/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1331475409&sr=1-2-fkmr0

5d Mark iii wil not use all 95mbps... only use 45 mbps. BEWARE

[kennethpfeifer]

Picked up an Eye-Fi Pro card and threw it in my S100 while I wait for the 5DM3.  After watching a few marketing videos from Eye-Fi, my thoughts were to have the EyeFi sync with my iPad and display the JPGs generated near realtime for things like studio headshot work.  Figured I could give clients some assurance/feedback as the shoot progressed rather than stopping to show the back of my camera.

Just so you all know, even with the 12.1mp S100 jpgs, the transfer rate is pretty damn slow, even on my home network wifi.  It seemed to take between 30 and 45 seconds per image.  After a few images the pipeline seemed to stop, and I had to restart the S100 and iPad2 app a few times to get it going again. 

It was my first time playing with it all, so maybe I noobed it up, but my experience with it so far is a little less encouraging for those purposes. 

Hell, it's still incredible, just nowhere close to realtime.

[pwp]

Picked up an Eye-Fi Pro card and threw it in my S100 while I wait for the 5DM3.  After watching a few marketing videos from Eye-Fi, my thoughts were to have the EyeFi sync with my iPad and display the JPGs generated near realtime for things like studio headshot work.  Figured I could give clients some assurance/feedback as the shoot progressed rather than stopping to show the back of my camera.

Just so you all know, even with the 12.1mp S100 jpgs, the transfer rate is pretty damn slow, even on my home network wifi.  It seemed to take between 30 and 45 seconds per image.  After a few images the pipeline seemed to stop, and I had to restart the S100 and iPad2 app a few times to get it going again. 

It was my first time playing with it all, so maybe I noobed it up, but my experience with it so far is a little less encouraging for those purposes. 

Hell, it's still incredible, just nowhere close to realtime.

Just so you know there's a separate thread discussing Eye-Fi experiences started here:
http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php/topic,4621.0.html
Did you use the iPad app Shuttersnitch to connect your S100 to the iPad?
Just so you know, Rob Galbraith looks like he's spent a fair bit of time researching various Eye-Fi setups.

Paul Wright

[Bosman]

The newer Canon model might write to a CF card much faster than the 5D MK II did.  I'll need to see some tests before going out and buying a super fast card.

I believe that It takes SDXC cards which have larger potential capacity and speed, but you might need a new card reader for them.

UDMA 7, the latest fastest CF option. Def a plus for video but for photo 60mb/s up to 150 will all work fine. Chuck westfall says the faster the better just be above 30mb/s for the best experience. That is a synopsis of what i read on a post that he answered questions, not sure where.

[Bosman]

First post!!!   At some point reading just isn't enough. 

I use a canon 60D so I know some about SD cards and close to none about CF.  So I figured I'd share and then ask a question.

The Class on SD cards is a minimum writing speed which is supposed to be guaranteed even at non-optimal conditions.  So technically you could have a class 4 that writes much faster than 4MB/s.  Sandisk is known for having much higher write speeds then the class rating.

Also if you are looking for a review on SD cards on the 1D mark IV look here.
http://www.slashgear.com/sdhc-flash-memory-performance-on-canon-eos-1d-mark-iv-2082467/

And here for a good comparison site.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sdxc-sdhc-uhs-i,2940-12.html

Now for my question.   I normally buy SDHC cards no bigger than 8gb for fear of "putting all your eggs in one basket".  SD cards are known for going bad sometimes.  Does this happen with CF cards as well?  I'd love to get bigger storage CF cards (for a mark II i'll prolly buy soon once the "price drop" happens *crossing fingers*) if they are more reliable.

My experiences with the 24 or so cards i have
Sandisk never fail

Kingston failed 2-32 gig cards out of 4 in a 4 card purchase were corrupt and unusable within the first 2 times i used them. Dont ever compromise on card quality if you make money in photography.

Lexar i have no experience but it will be my next card at 1000x 150mb/s, just not soon. Never heard complaints about that card brand.

[Bosman]

this is extremely confusing for me. on amazon the sandisk extreme pro 16gb SD at 95 mb/s is 70$ the CF card at 90mb/s is 110$ .... why would a faster/smaller card be cheaper? why wouldnt everyone just buy the SD?

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-Performance-SDSDXPA-016G-A75-Packaging/dp/B006FKD01K/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1330793569&sr=8-15

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-16GB-Extreme-memory-card/dp/B002OL80UK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1330793653&sr=8-3

Durability and size, easy to break easy to loose.

[unkbob]

CF has a huge durability factor in it's favor as well. I've cracked a few SD cards in my time. Not too mention what my kids have done to theirs!

As a connector design engineer, I'd be more concerned with damage to my camera, since a trip for repair and replacement of the CF header is very expensive.

I think it's like £100 to replace the CF component, so it's not the end of the world. Use a backup camera and you can carry on shooting, or you can possibly still use the SD slot. I've never had the CF card slot fail, touch wood, but then I'm never shooting in particularly difficult conditions.

I will probably stick to CF for video, although I am concerned about the increased storage requirements with ALL-i and the 64GB 45m/b Sandisk SDs look good value.

[grahamsz]

My father worked on some of those photo kiosk things you see in grocery stores. This was probably close to 10 years ago, but he did observe something interesting about the technology.

CF works very much like a hard disk, there's a bunch of circuitry on the device that translates the signals coming in from the camera into signals that write to the physical memory chips.

SD is much more like RAM, there's very little in between the camera and the memory chips. This can be bad because there's a lot more potential for incompatibility between the SD card and the reader/camera. A faulty card reader could effectively wipe the card, and that's less likely on CF.

However, I suspect if you use Sandisk SD cards and a Sandisk branded reader (or just transfer off your camera via USB) then you'll be fairly safe.  SD cards also seem more durable to me because they don't have pins that can bend.

[m3tek44]

If I am spending $3.5K for camera I want to make sure I am capturing photos without worrying if CF/SD cards are working.  Over the course of the yrs. I have used MANY SD cards and CF cards.  SanDisk is simply the best in my opinion and you get what you pay for.  YES they are $$$$$.  I have seen others used Transcend or some other cards but really??? You can ask professional and they will tell you to use SanDisk or Lexar cards.  Last thing I want is to lose photos I took.  Did I also mention SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash Cards 90MB/s (or 100 MB/s for 128GB) are FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!