5D Mark II Memory Card Candidates?

[duronboy]

Ok, I just ordered the 5D2, and I know my current assortment of 133x cards aren't going to do the trick. I'm thinking I'd like to keep the card size at 8GB for the sake of not putting all my eggs into one basket. Tell me what you're using and where ya got it, and what you think about it's WRITE speed.

Transcend UDMA 300x $77

SanDisk ExtremeIII 200x $59

RiData 266x $56

RiData 233x $28

I'm thinking the transcend 300x is gonna be the way to go, I'm just hoping someone will say the RiData 233x will be fast enough for stills!

[Marv800]

Frys has kingston 266x 8GB cards for about $45

[mchong75]

I personally go with 16GB cards for the 5D II.

[Roy]

Are you saying the 133x won't work at all or just isn't fast enough write speed? I'm sure bigger and faster has advantages but I would of thought you could still use the 133x. Just askin' . I may want to get one of the 5d Mark II's one of these days.

[johnastovall]

You might want to look at Rob Galbraith's CF card speed tests with actual cameras.

[MHampton]

I just got 3 16gig sandisk IIIs the other day and got a $90 rebate. Ordered from B&H. I think the rebate thing is still going on.

[duronboy]

Thanks, marv! I'll check that out!

Roy, the 5D2 creates 26MB raw files. I'd like to help the buffer out as much as possible.

John, I'll read that in a bit, thanks!

Michael that sounds pretty sweet.

[AndrewCCM]

I use 8GB Extreme III's in my 5D2 all the time. Works great for everything including video.

Matter a fact, I am shooting a video in Austin (Pink Floyd Tribute Band) and will be picking up a few more of them...

AndrewCCM added 1 Minutes and 33 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Originally Posted by Roy

Are you saying the 133x won't work at all or just isn't fast enough write speed? I'm sure bigger and faster has advantages but I would of thought you could still use the 133x. Just askin' . I may want to get one of the 5d Mark II's one of these days.

133x is fine Roy... Video requires a constant minimum bit rate.. Can't recall what it is off the top of my head though. Seems to work fine even with my old San Disk Ultra II's and Kinsgston 100x... 4GB cards.

[duronboy]

Stovall, that's the most helpful review I've come across. THANKS!

I really never thought about it until now but yeah, it'll shoot 12 minutes of HD onto a 4GB card, so that's about 3,700MB / 12min = 308MB / 60 seconds = 5.14MB/sec. That's 34x at 150Kb per 'X'. Thing is, when these cards say 133x, or 266x, or whatever x, that's the READ speed, I think. So, it looks like even my 80x lexar cards will work for video, considering their write speed is about 9MB / sec.

-edit: whoops, looks like it records 12 minutes into 4GBs, not a 4GB card formatted to 3.69. So, one would actually have to have a larger than 4GB card to record 4GB of video. Oh well, I don't plan on shooting a lot of video anyway...

Andrew, can you shoot video and snap a full-res still without interrupting the video?

[AllenAyres]

I shoot with a 16gb card and want a 32gb card.

I've never had a card fail but think taking it in and out of the camera before/after each shoot really adds to the chances of that happening (bending pins, etc.). I format in-camera and don't remove it ever, connecting the camera to my pc when I get home from a shoot. After backing up I format the card in-camera before the next shoot. A 32gb card from a reliable source on my 5d2 should allow me to not have to remove it anytime soon :)

[duronboy]

Hmmmmm, I guess I'll get the 16GB 3-pack from Adorama. With live.com cashback and that $90 rebate, that's $70 per card. Yummy.

[zeroendless]

I've been shooting with 8GB sandisk 30mb/s for a while until Sandisk sent me the 16GB version for sampling, the bigger brother is actually faster than the 8GB version. Constantly put up 22-23 raw files in continue mode, and the sweet thing is i got to keep the card.

Now i look to replace all the 8GB version with 16GB cards, but moving up with UDMA units instead. Trenscend 300X UDMA is on top of my list.

[AndrewCCM]

I just haven't found a reason to spend the extra money on anything faster than what I have. They transfer as fast as I need, handle video and pics with no filled buffers, etc... Sure I'd like to have a faster offload speed, but a couple of extra minutes per shoot doesn't warrant the upcharge and/or replacement cost.

I'd rather buy other things. LOL

[groovyone]

I use the Lexar 300x UDMA cards with great performance in my A900. You can snag them really cheap right now from B&H after rebate, and Lexar has always come through on their rebates for me.

[ldelacruz]

I use the Sandisk's Extreme III's with video and pics with no issues. I have 1 Kingston 133X that buffers sometimes in video only.