Best way to get your images off the 5D onto your computer?

[cayenne]

Hello all,

I'm anticipating the arrival of my 5D Mark III today.
I've gathered both SD and CF cards for my camera. How do most of you get your images off the camera and onto the computer?

Do you plug the camera into the computer?
Do you buy a card reader for the computer? If so, what's the best thing to look for? Any recommendations?

Oh...wondering, do you need to somehow format the CF and SD cards prior to putting them into the camera for the first time use? Can you put them into the camera and format them? (I'm still reading through the manual in sequence...but thought I'd heard someone say you could do this.).

Thanks in advance,

cayenne

 

[Loswr]

I use a card reader. Format the card(s) in the camera, not on your computer.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I'd recommend a good fast card reader. As long as you are buying one, a USB3 reader might be more future proof.

Format new cards in the Camera.

If you have a problem with a CF card, do a erase (Low level format not quick) in a computer, and then format in the camera. If its a SD card, do the low level format in camera to clear any bad sectors.

 

[Iahcon]

Get yourself a UDMA card and a UDMA card reader, and then watch your card load to your computer faster than you can imagine! I will never go back to anything less. Shop around, cheap prices are out there. The UDMA card reader even down loads my non-UDMA cards faster than before. i swear!!

 

[Drizzt321]

If you have USB 3.0, make sure you get a good, fast USB 3.0 card reader. Much, much faster than USB 2.0.

 

[digiitch]

I have a laptop with an ExpressCard/54 slot, and use one of these: http://reviews.cnet.com/flash-memory-adapters/siig-expresscard-54-cf/1707-8898_7-32816568.html

I get a consistent 80 MB/sec transfer rate (as measured by HD Tune)

 

[cayenne]

Get yourself a UDMA card and a UDMA card reader, and then watch your card load to your computer faster than you can imagine! I will never go back to anything less. Shop around, cheap prices are out there. The UDMA card reader even down loads my non-UDMA cards faster than before. i swear!!

I got the sandisk extreme sd card: SDHC 45 MB/s 32 GB
and for CF sandisk extreme 60MB/s 32GB card.....

Will those work ok?

C

 

[DB]

When I was shooting 9-10 hours of interviews in a hotel conference room recently using 2 x Canon DSLR's I was worried about transferring the files to my laptop expeditiously so went to an electronics store and bought this:

http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=459465

It was less than 30 euros and paid for itself in 1 day. Managed to dump 184 gigabytes of HD video across from SDXC and CF cards quite quickly (using just a USB 2.0 interface). Shooting just stills (even RAW) should be a lot easier.

Remember data transfer speed is not as important as having multiple memory cards.

 

[dawgfanjeff]

I bought the Lexar one. Love it. USB3 all the way.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Get yourself a UDMA card and a UDMA card reader, and then watch your card load to your computer faster than you can imagine! I will never go back to anything less. Shop around, cheap prices are out there. The UDMA card reader even down loads my non-UDMA cards faster than before. i swear!!

I got the sandisk extreme sd card: SDHC 45 MB/s 32 GB
and for CF sandisk extreme 60MB/s 32GB card.....

Will those work ok?

They worked fine on my 5D MK III. They even work well on my D800, and its writing a lot more data per image. The super fast cards can clear the buffer faster if you are taking a high FPS frame rate, but for normal usage they are more than needed.

 

[briansquibb]

Get yourself a UDMA card and a UDMA card reader, and then watch your card load to your computer faster than you can imagine! I will never go back to anything less. Shop around, cheap prices are out there. The UDMA card reader even down loads my non-UDMA cards faster than before. i swear!!

I got the sandisk extreme sd card: SDHC 45 MB/s 32 GB
and for CF sandisk extreme 60MB/s 32GB card.....

Will those work ok?

They worked fine on my 5D MK III. They even work well on my D800, and its writing a lot more data per image.

Only the same as a 7D and less than the 1D4

 

[Axilrod]

READ THE MANUAL!

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Get yourself a UDMA card and a UDMA card reader, and then watch your card load to your computer faster than you can imagine! I will never go back to anything less. Shop around, cheap prices are out there. The UDMA card reader even down loads my non-UDMA cards faster than before. i swear!!

I got the sandisk extreme sd card: SDHC 45 MB/s 32 GB
and for CF sandisk extreme 60MB/s 32GB card.....

Will those work ok?

They worked fine on my 5D MK III. They even work well on my D800, and its writing a lot more data per image.

Only the same as a 7D and less than the 1D4

My 7D does not write a average of 52 mb per image, not does my 1D MK IV, so my original statement of data per image is, I believe, correct. I have been comparing the D800 to my 1D MK IV, I want to find out exactly which things are better, or worse. So far, memory cards that are reasonably fast are not a issue for single frame or a short burst. Once the buffer is full, then a super fast card make a significant difference.

 

[nesarajah]

I use a card reader. Format the card(s) in the camera, not on your computer.

+1 for succinctness

 

[briansquibb]

Get yourself a UDMA card and a UDMA card reader, and then watch your card load to your computer faster than you can imagine! I will never go back to anything less. Shop around, cheap prices are out there. The UDMA card reader even down loads my non-UDMA cards faster than before. i swear!!

I got the sandisk extreme sd card: SDHC 45 MB/s 32 GB
and for CF sandisk extreme 60MB/s 32GB card.....

Will those work ok?

They worked fine on my 5D MK III. They even work well on my D800, and its writing a lot more data per image.

Only the same as a 7D and less than the 1D4

My 7D does not write a average of 52 mb per image, not does my 1D MK IV, so my original statement of data per image is, I believe, correct. I have been comparing the D800 to my 1D MK IV, I want to find out exactly which things are better, or worse. So far, memory cards that are reasonably fast are not a issue for single frame or a short burst. Once the buffer is full, then a super fast card make a significant difference.

They just produce twice the number of images to give the same data transfer requirements

 

[revup67]

I got the sandisk extreme sd card: SDHC 45 MB/s 32 GB
and for CF sandisk extreme 60MB/s 32GB card.....Will those work ok?

I took a chance and bought the exact same two as you and Mt. Spokane but not by seeing your post, strictly on research and calls to Canaon and a few photo stores. They work flawlessly at all aspects. Glad to see others have that same combo - I'm most pleased and have it set up to clone, not as additional storage.

 

[cayenne]

I got the sandisk extreme sd card: SDHC 45 MB/s 32 GB
and for CF sandisk extreme 60MB/s 32GB card.....Will those work ok?

I took a chance and bought the exact same two as you and Mt. Spokane but not by seeing your post, strictly on research and calls to Canaon and a few photo stores. They work flawlessly at all aspects. Glad to see others have that same combo - I'm most pleased and have it set up to clone, not as additional storage.

Cool.

I've only been trying to learn to shoot still so far...and have it set to RAW on the CF card...and jpeg on the SD card.

I'm going to pay with video this weekend, I think I'll swap out another set of both cards..and for video, set it to auto rotate for the extra storage....

cayenne