Memory Cards need for speed

Zerodog

I am looking at getting another card. This time 32GB

It is between this one @ $219


And this one @ $349


I shoot mostly action and use a D3s, so my guess will be that the Extreme Pro will let me shoot for a longer burst without choking? And how much better will it really be? Is it $130 better? Right now I use the 16gb Extreme cards.

There are a few rebates right now on these that knock $50 off each of these.

ziggy53

Your camera's buffer determines most of your "burst" speed. The card speed has something to do with how fast the buffer gets transferred to the card and then how fast the buffer is subsequently cleared.

According to Rob G. the Sandisk cards to work pretty well on the D3, so I would expect similar results for the D3s.

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/camera_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-9255

According to DPReview, the D3s can record around 43 frames in RAW mode (@ 9fps, 12 bit mode. compressed), and then takes 10 seconds to clear, but allows around 2fps additional shooting per second when the buffer is full (using a Lexar Pro 300X, 8G). I suspect that even the fastest Sandisk would not improve too much on this.

14 bit uncompressed RAW files slow things down dramatically.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond3s/page13.asp

All of these cards discussed here are UDMA capable and I suspect that the camera-to-card flush rate is the primary limiting factor, not necessarily related to the published manufacturer speed ratings.

Zerodog

Thanks for the links ziggy. I guess to get the most I do need 90mbps. With my 60mbps I have choked it before with many short bursts in a row. Stuff jams up fast at that frame rate.
Another question is should I even go with Sandisk? I can get a transcend for half the price. Or a delkin for less as well.

zoomer

If you are shooting a D3s then you like using the best equipment available, you already know the answer to your question .

Zerodog

Memory sucks. It is expensive and isn't very cool.......

ziggy53

Zerodog wrote: »

... should I even go with Sandisk? I can get a transcend for half the price. Or a delkin for less as well.

You can, and you should, disregard the manufacturer speed ratings. Take another look at the Rob G chart. What is the fastest transfer rate using the Sandisk cards in general? What is the fastest for a Transcend card? Now Delkin?

Do you see that the camera/card relationship has nothing to do with manufacturer speed ratings?

That's because each CF card has its own controller and internal timings and the specific camera/card relationship is a very sensitive and tenuous link. Transfer speed is the first casualty of a weak camera/card relationship.

ziggy53

I keep forgetting to mention, pay little attention to the Sandisk names. Sandisk started "recycling" their names and if you don't know the new names vs the old names it gets very confusing.

For the purpose of the Rob G chart, the fastest cards in the chart, the Extreme Ducati for instance, now corresponds to the current fastest of the Sandisk cards.

Zerodog

It looks to me that the sandisk cards are the fastest with that camera. But those are all older cards. So it is sort of irrelevant with today's selection of cards.

ThatCanonGuy

Where in the world did you find an Exrtreme Pro for $350? Even before the rebate, that's a deal.

Zerodog

ThatCanonGuy wrote: »

Where in the world did you find an Exrtreme Pro for $350? Even before the rebate, that's a deal.

Man if that was a deal, why did my ass hurt so much after I bought it

I bought it at Pictureline in Salt Lake. They are also online at www.pictureline.com They aren't always the cheapest. But they always have stuff in stock and they always give great service.

In the end I didn't get the $30 mail in for it. It was only for the 60mbps cards. But I did get an instant in store deal for $20 off. The deal was trade in ANY old memory card and get $20 off any of the Sandisk cards. I brought in an old SD card I had laying around to take advantage.

Overfocused

Zerodog wrote: »

Thanks for the links ziggy. I guess to get the most I do need 90mbps. With my 60mbps I have choked it before with many short bursts in a row. Stuff jams up fast at that frame rate.
Another question is should I even go with Sandisk? I can get a transcend for half the price. Or a delkin for less as well.

I'm so glad you didn't get the 60MB/sec. Check these out (read the first one fully):

http://sportsphotoguy.com/extreme-disparity/

http://sportsphotoguy.com/all-about-cf/

As for the 90MB/sec cards, I have a 5D Mark II and it writes at 45MB/sec with a 16GB 90MB/sec Lexar card. That's 2 to 2.5FPS indefinitely with RAW after the buffer fills, and JPEG can shoot without ever filling the buffer! A D3S is %58 the pixel count of the MKII so you should be able to get ~3.5-4 FPS/sec indefinitely in RAW with the card you bought. On the computer the 90MB/s cards read/write at 70-90MB/sec like the rating says. The D3 line is very close to that transfer rate with either the Extreme Pro or the Lexar 600x card, so it should give you excellent speed with 12MP images and the word 'buffer' will never enter your mind.

Zerodog wrote: »

Man if that was a deal, why did my ass hurt so much after I bought it

Cause it wasn't a deal... you can still get it from a reputable seller for a lot less
http://cgi.ebay.com/Sandisk-32GB-CF-Extreme-Pro-600x-UDMA-6-memory-card-32G-/370294413528?pt=Digital_Camera_Memory_Cards&hash=item56374458d8

Plus %3 off with www.mrrebates.com = $286.15
The seller has many positive feedbacks selling these cards so returns shouldn't be an issue...

Zerodog

I know getting one on ebay or amazon would have been cheaper. But I needed it for a dance competition shoot this past weekend and had to have it right away. I was swapping 2 16gb extremes and the 32gb pro all day. I never ran into the buffer with either the way I shot these. And I knew for dance stuff I wouldn't have an issue with the slower card. Fight photos, snowboarding or even moto trials is where I will see the difference.

Overfocused

Ah yeah... well if you need it that day then I'd pay that much too

Pupator

Might want to look around. Prices on Extreme Pro cards seem to have plummeted. I just got an 8GB for under $40 and a 16GB for under $80.

catspaw

Zerodog wrote: »

Man if that was a deal, why did my ass hurt so much after I bought it

I bought it at Pictureline in Salt Lake. They are also online at www.pictureline.com They aren't always the cheapest. But they always have stuff in stock and they always give great service.

love them! course, the fact I can tweet them to place an order also helps. talk about ease of use and kick ass customer service

catspaw

Pupator wrote: »

Might want to look around. Prices on Extreme Pro cards seem to have plummeted. I just got an 8GB for under $40 and a 16GB for under $80.

see earlier replies (not from me, someone else) about how the names for old/new do not match. the ones you are talking about have slower speeds. match those to price shop better.

Pupator

Early reports from NikonCafe users are that on a D7000, these cards (even the cheap ones) take "buffer clearing" speed from ~30 seconds (Ultra II cards) to <10. I'll give them a try and report back.

ThatCanonGuy

Pupator wrote: »

Might want to look around. Prices on Extreme Pro cards seem to have plummeted. I just got an 8GB for under $40 and a 16GB for under $80.

You're exactly right! Extreme Pro, indeed! (Contrary to popular belief, see link below).

Right herehttp://www.adorama.com/IDS8GEPUHSI.html?emailprice=t&utm_term=Other&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=Other&utm_source=rflaid63773

Overfocused

ThatCanonGuy wrote: »

You're exactly right! Extreme Pro, indeed! (Contrary to popular belief, see link below).

Right herehttp://www.adorama.com/IDS8GEPUHSI.html?emailprice=t&utm_term=Other&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=Other&utm_source=rflaid63773

That's because it's an SD card... they've always been a lot cheaper than CF. Either way that's a nice card and I'm glad that SD cards are catching up to CF in speed while cutting costs by a large margin!