Question about memory write speeds... Compact flash specific.

[RiceRocketDave]

Ok here is the deal..

I have a 1GB SanDisk Ultra II compact flash card and a Seagate 4GB Micro Drive.

On my D70s I can only get a three shot burst when shooting RAW and JPG. It does not matter which memory I am using they are both about the same speed.

I want to have a faster write time so I can shoot more continuous shots. I have heard that the speed of the memory really doesn't matter because the camera can only write so fast to the card. Is this true or do I need to be looking at something like the SanDisk Extreme IV?

Thanks in advance for any help provided.

[tjavery]

You might want to study this page:

http://robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_p...?cid=6007-7906

[joedanger11]

the link tj avery is great. i wished they did studies on the sony alpha.

anyway, theres a new lexar 300x compactflash worth checking out.

[Abel]

i always reference TJ's link when looking for Cards....

ive had a ton of luck with my Extreme III cards....

[jhom]

One suggestion to quicken your write times is to shoot in RAW only. You can always extract the jpg file from the RAW image.

I believe in your case the limiting factor is the camera and not the memory cards. Microdrives are typically much slower than solid state cards in writing and reading. Getting an Extreme IV would probably be a waste of money.

[jagphoto]

Thank you, thank you!!! This info was so great for helping me decide between the Ultra 2G and the Extreme 2G! The Ultra is actually a little faster and much cheaper!! Yeah!!

[jon_k]

One thing to consider is also the speed of your cameras buffer.

I'd assume that even if you had a hard disk attached to your computer - you'd still be limited by the write speed of the cameras cache/buffer. When you take 3-4 RAW shots and then the camera hangs up, that might be due to the fact your cameras buffer has a write speed limitation.

This can be seen in action as you can take lots of JPEG's in low quality mode. Turn RAW on and your camera memory fills up quick.