Fast memory card making writing faster???

haringharing Registered Users Posts: 281 Major grins
edited January 31, 2011 in Cameras
Some people say that a fast memory cards don't make Medium Format cameras to write faster. Some people say it does, Hasselblad and Mamiyas write photos faster on faster CF cards so one can take more photos in a given time. I am confused....
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Comments

  • RhuarcRhuarc Registered Users Posts: 1,464 Major grins
    edited January 31, 2011
    It all depends on where the bottleneck is for the write speed. If the camera has the capability to write faster than the card can handle then the bottleneck is the card and you would see a speed gain by getting a faster card. If the bottleneck is th camera then you could get a card that is 100x faster and it would make no difference in the write speed.

    What camera do you have?
    What card do you have?

    Check the write speeds of both of these, and see which one is slower. By upgrading that slowest item you would see a performance gain.
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  • Art ScottArt Scott Registered Users Posts: 8,959 Major grins
    edited January 31, 2011
    Rhuarc wrote: »
    It all depends on where the bottleneck is for the write speed. If the camera has the capability to write faster than the card can handle then the bottleneck is the card and you would see a speed gain by getting a faster card. If the bottleneck is th camera then you could get a card that is 100x faster and it would make no difference in the write speed.

    What camera do you have?
    What card do you have?

    Check the write speeds of both of these, and see which one is slower. By upgrading that slowest item you would see a performance gain.

    Absolutely Correct!!!!
    "Genuine Fractals was, is and will always be the best solution for enlarging digital photos." ....Vincent Versace ... ... COPYRIGHT YOUR WORK ONLINE ... ... My Website

  • haringharing Registered Users Posts: 281 Major grins
    edited January 31, 2011
    Rhuarc wrote: »
    It all depends on where the bottleneck is for the write speed. If the camera has the capability to write faster than the card can handle then the bottleneck is the card and you would see a speed gain by getting a faster card. If the bottleneck is th camera then you could get a card that is 100x faster and it would make no difference in the write speed.

    What camera do you have?
    What card do you have?

    Check the write speeds of both of these, and see which one is slower. By upgrading that slowest item you would see a performance gain.

    Phase One + my friend's Mamiya DM33 (whenever I can use it....:) 266x Kingston CF card. Do you think I can make shooting faster if I buy a faster card...?
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  • RhuarcRhuarc Registered Users Posts: 1,464 Major grins
    edited January 31, 2011
    Something else I just thought of that you should think about is the type of shooting you are doing, and does the camera have a buffer?

    If the camera has a buffer and you are never shooting more shots at one time than the buffer can hold then a faster card would not help, since the shots get written to the buffer, then from the buffer to the card.
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  • RhuarcRhuarc Registered Users Posts: 1,464 Major grins
    edited January 31, 2011
    The card that you have looks like it has a maximum theoretical write speed of about 40MB/s. The DM33 looks like it can clear about 1 shot per second maximum, which is about 64MB. This would seem to indicate that in this case the Card is the bottleneck, and that getting a faster card could help to increase your shooting speed by about 30% or so. Here are the places I got this information:

    Information about the DM33 shooting speed: http://kenrockwell.com/mamiya/dm33/index.htm
    CF Performance speed: http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/reader_report_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-9392

    From the charts it looks like you would need to go with one of the Lexar Professional series between 233x and 600x. None of the Kingston Ultimates seem to support write speeds that high.

    Remember that a lot of this is theoretical maximums, and that in real life results may vary.

    Hope this helps!
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  • haringharing Registered Users Posts: 281 Major grins
    edited January 31, 2011
    Rhuarc wrote: »
    The card that you have looks like it has a maximum theoretical write speed of about 40MB/s. The DM33 looks like it can clear about 1 shot per second maximum, which is about 64MB. This would seem to indicate that in this case the Card is the bottleneck, and that getting a faster card could help to increase your shooting speed by about 30% or so. Here are the places I got this information:

    Information about the DM33 shooting speed: http://kenrockwell.com/mamiya/dm33/index.htm
    CF Performance speed: http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/reader_report_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-9392

    From the charts it looks like you would need to go with one of the Lexar Professional series between 233x and 600x. None of the Kingston Ultimates seem to support write speeds that high.

    Remember that a lot of this is theoretical maximums, and that in real life results may vary.

    Hope this helps!

    Rhuarc, you ROCK!!!
    Miami Wedding Photographers
  • RhuarcRhuarc Registered Users Posts: 1,464 Major grins
    edited January 31, 2011
    haring wrote: »
    Rhuarc, you ROCK!!!

    Anytime! Just trying to pass the help along that other's have provided to me so many times here!
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