last question on this: any virtue in CF over SD (or vice versa)? SD is certainly cheaper per byte by the look of it.............
Specific to the Canon 5D Mark III, the CF interface can write at actual/measured speeds of 100MB/s. The SD interface can only do around 20MB/s. If you have both card types installed, the camera slows to the slowest common denominator.
For best performance use the CF card alone, and it supports very fast CF cards at that.
Also see Rob Galbraith's empirical tests of the Canon 5D Mark III card tests: http://www.robgalbraith.com/camera_wb_multi_page7de5.html?cid=6007-12452
These tests seem to roughly corroborate the other observations about the camera's slow SD card write speeds (although the tests are somewhat outdated and some better CF cards are now available which work very nicely in the 5D3).
In addition to what's been mentioned, CF cards are much more durable than SD cards. I've had a few SD cards fall apart. If you flex them, they will break. I've never had a problem with a CF card physically breaking.
Diva...I have a question. When you imported the video to your computer, how did you remove them from the card? Did you delete/format the card while in the card reader or did you format the card in the camera? If you deleted the video(s) and or formatted the card in the card reader, that might have been your problem. I read that you should only format the card in the camera. Another thing I was surprised to find out, that if you take a bunch of photos, that you should not delete any of the earlier photos and then start shooting more. They claim that that can mess up the file structure of the card as well. I'm willing to bet that since you formatted the card in the camera, that that card will be fine now, unless you delete/format the card outside of the camera. Just to let you know, I'm still using the same memory cards I purchased back in 2008 with no issues.
GaryB
GaryB “The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!” - Ansel Adams
Gary, I only ever format in-camera, for all the reasons you cited. And that's why this was WEIRD - I've never had a problem before, either.
To follow up: no further clue why those cards failed, BUT I will say that the new UDMA 7 Sandisk Extreme I picked up has been great.... and when you said "transfers faster" I didn't realise it would be THAT much faster! Holy cow!!!! I don't need speed for sports etc, but getting a huge batch of production images uploaded to deliver in a hurry this week that thing was a lifesaver - 32g on the old cards took a while... with this? Only a few minutes.
Diva, I have a friend who experienced this problem several times. After eventually telling me that he saved some files to his card from the computer we were able to fix the issue. All that was necessary was to format the card in the computer to remove any files that were saved and then format in the camera and it was like having a new card. No more problems. I always put the card in my computer or card reader and save a copy to my desk top. Then be sure to remove the card right away to avoid any mistakes. I'm not sure if this will help you but it's easy enough to try and won't hurt anything.
Comments
Specific to the Canon 5D Mark III, the CF interface can write at actual/measured speeds of 100MB/s. The SD interface can only do around 20MB/s. If you have both card types installed, the camera slows to the slowest common denominator.
For best performance use the CF card alone, and it supports very fast CF cards at that.
Sources Magic Lantern forum research plus Jeff Cable who wrote the "Why you should not put an SD card in your Canon 5D Mark III (if you shoot to both CF and SD and care about speed)" blog page.
Also see Rob Galbraith's empirical tests of the Canon 5D Mark III card tests:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/camera_wb_multi_page7de5.html?cid=6007-12452
These tests seem to roughly corroborate the other observations about the camera's slow SD card write speeds (although the tests are somewhat outdated and some better CF cards are now available which work very nicely in the 5D3).
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GaryB
“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!” - Ansel Adams
To follow up: no further clue why those cards failed, BUT I will say that the new UDMA 7 Sandisk Extreme I picked up has been great.... and when you said "transfers faster" I didn't realise it would be THAT much faster! Holy cow!!!! I don't need speed for sports etc, but getting a huge batch of production images uploaded to deliver in a hurry this week that thing was a lifesaver - 32g on the old cards took a while... with this? Only a few minutes.
Thanks all!!!