Pixtus - Photography Forum, Photographers, Photo Tips

crbeveri · **Compact Flash vs. SD/ SDHD -** 06-28-2011, 07:30 AM

Okay, so I know the technical difference between the two but just wondering what yall think. Back in the day (early 2000's) CF were the high capacity fast write speed cards and SD's well.... were crap. Now however, they have SD cards that will write up to 45mb/s (and maybe faster) for a price that is less than most CF cards.

My delima.... Currently I have 30mb/s CF cards that I use for my 1D3's. The cards are faster than the camera can write so there is no issue here for that. I am wondering if I should save the money and use SDHD cards in the 1D's and then just get 2 faster CF cards for my FF body...? Just curious what yall's thought on the subject is.

Tom · 06-28-2011, 08:04 AM

What SD cards are faster and bigger than CF cards?

You can get a 32GIG CF card that reads at 90MB/s and writes at 60MB/s for $73.

I haven't seen any SD cards that come anywhere close to that. The fastest SD cards I have seen are about half that at 30MB/s - the Sandisk Extreme 30MB/s - which Sandisk has listed at $300.

crbeveri · 06-28-2011, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom

What SD cards are faster and bigger than CF cards?

You can get a 32GIG CF card that reads at 90MB/s and writes at 60MB/s for $73.

I haven't seen any SD cards that come anywhere close to that. The fastest SD cards I have seen are about half that at 30MB/s - the Sandisk Extreme 30MB/s - which will run you over $200 for a 32GIG card.

I never said SD cards were faster..... I said that I have curenttly 200x (30mb/s) CF cards right now that are faster than the 1D3 can write anyways so there's no issue in speed. I have found SD cards that write at 300x (45mb/s) for the same price if not a few dollars cheaper than the 200x CF cards. I typically don't buy bigger than 8gb to 16gb cards to begin with so these 32gig cards mean nothing to me. I would rather have multiple cards than one big card and have it crap out (have had this happen twice and no I am not buying cheap @$$ cards).

I simply asked.... if b/c of the write speed limit of the 1D3 would it be smarter to get SD cards as they are faster than it can write and a bit cheaper than the CF or just stick with CF.

Tom · 06-28-2011, 08:13 AM

Well, all the pro cameras (7D, 5D2, 1D3, 1Ds3, 1D4, D3, D3s, D700, D3x, etc) use Compact flash. Only the 1D3, 1Ds3 and 1D4 have the option of SD. I certainly wouldn't go with SD, just because it is an option. What happens when it is time to upgrade? All that SD is fairly useless, while the old CF cards can be still used as a backup.

I have a dozen or so Transcend 16GIG 400x cards and recently bought my associate photographer the Transcend 32GIG 400x cards. Greta cards for the money.

But I would stick with what is used in all the pro cameras. That's CF.

crbeveri · 06-28-2011, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom

Well, all the pro cameras (7D, 5D2, 1D3, 1Ds3, 1D4, D3, D3s, D700, D3x, etc) use Compact flash. Only the 1D3, 1Ds3 and 1D4 have the option of SD. I certainly wouldn't go with SD, just because it is an option. What happens when it is time to upgrade? All that SD is fairly useless, while the old CF cards can be still used as a backup.

I have a dozen or so Transcend 16GIG 400x cards and recently bought my associate photographer the Transcend 32GIG 400x cards. Greta cards for the money.

But I would stick with what is used in all the pro cameras. That's CF.

I wonder if canon will move away from SD totally with the pro bodies and have 2 CF slots instead of 1CF 1SD slot. But when you look at the pro video camera's they use only SD cards (2 slots).

groovyone · 06-28-2011, 08:21 AM

I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they went SD too. The Pentax 645D has dual SD cards.

Tom · 06-28-2011, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crbeveri

I wonder if canon will move away from SD totally with the pro bodies and have 2 CF slots instead of 1CF 1SD slot. But when you look at the pro video camera's they use only SD cards (2 slots).

I hope they do. And I hope they learn to have better buffers. The ****ty buffer in the 1D3 was absolutely inexcusable. And the fact that you can't upgrade it like you can upgrade Nikon's D3 and D3s is also inexcusable.

Other than all the focus problems with the 1D3, I think this was the biggest problem in a very troubled camera.

kenw · 06-28-2011, 08:25 AM

been using a CF/SD adapter for several years. Allows me to use the faster CF when needed, and the SD when I need extra since the wife's camera also uses SD. I find that the faster cards are not needed in most cases for the my shooting style. I can't ever recall filling the buffer and waiting for it to write.

crbeveri · 06-28-2011, 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by groovyone

I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they went SD too. The Pentax 645D has dual SD cards.

Forgot about that one... this is a good point. However, I haven't seen many SD cards that can write up to 400x+ so they are still lacking in the write speed..... which leaves me wondering why they only use SD slots on their pro video cameras.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom

I hope they do. And I hope they learn to have better buffers. The ****ty buffer in the 1D3 was absolutely inexcusable. And the fact that you can't upgrade it like you can upgrade Nikon's D3 and D3s is also inexcusable.

Other than all the focus problems with the 1D3, I think this was the biggest problem in a very troubled camera.

I been lucky so far (knock on wood) that my 1D's have not had any problems with the AF. However, I think b/c I get them used and so far past the release date of them most have been fixed. I will agree with you though that the buffer on the 1D3 is just retched and like you said inexcusable. But in all I got 2 1D3's for less than the cost of 1 1D4 so I can't complain and am every happy with the IQ and performance thus far. I do wish that Canon would put a little more effort into better High ISO performance.

crbeveri · 06-28-2011, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kenw

been using a CF/SD adapter for several years. Allows me to use the faster CF when needed, and the SD when I need extra since the wife's camera also uses SD. I find that the faster cards are not needed in most cases for the my shooting style. I can't ever recall filling the buffer and waiting for it to write.

I shoot sports and find that there are times where I fill the buffer up quite quickly.

Tom · 06-28-2011, 08:29 AM

I think most of the problems were 4 years ago when released and have been fixed now.

I think there would be a big revolt if Canikon switched to SD for their pro cameras. All the pros are HEAVILY invested in CF (I know I have something like 300 GIGs of CF and I know others with MUCH more.) It certainly would piss me off.

crbeveri · 06-28-2011, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom

I think most of the problems were 4 years ago when released and have been fixed now.

I think there would be a big revolt if Canikon switched to SD for their pro cameras. All the pros are HEAVILY invested in CF (I know I have something like 300 GIGs of CF and I know others with MUCH more.) It certainly would piss me off.

Oh with out a doubt it would upset a large portion of the Canon pro users and possibly to a point of manufacture switch. I am more interested in if they might venture away from SD and just have 2 CF slots.... It would all be speculation and rumor based right now till we see whats coming up but would be interesting to see what other Canon shooters here thought about it.