Cf cards

gus

Ive given in & let go of the railing only to be sucked into a giant vortex of expensive equipment.

Is the current range of 1 & 2 gig CF cards as reliable as my old 128 that i have dropped..sat on...got wet etc etc ?

Any-one had any recent problems with these larger cards ?

Got a pref for any brand speed ?

John Mueller

I been using 2 gig Extreme SanDisk.
I havent had any problem with them.
Aw yes,the vortex of expensive stuff,it gets worse:D
Have fun:):

wxwax

No difference in reliability. I read today that smaller cards write faster than larger cards even when they have the same speed rating, didn't know that.

I've had a handful of corrupted images in the last year. Not a big deal, but I admit I expect a CF card to be perfect and to never make a mistake.

I religiously reformat the card in the camera before every shoot.

Khaos

No problems here also. 2 gb and 1 gb. They are a hell of a lot cheaper than when I got my first digital point and shoot 5 years ago. Then anything past 128MB was extremely expensive. And that 128MB card I got then is still going strong.

swilner

I have several 1 and 2 gig cards and they are very reliable. I have opted not to spend the money on fast cards as I don't usually need anything with supersonic write speeds. I shoot in Raw and have never personally run into buffer issues. So for me, I go with the cheapos and they have served me very well.

Steve

pathfinder

swilner wrote:

I have several 1 and 2 gig cards and they are very reliable. I have opted not to spend the money on fast cards as I don't usually need anything with supersonic write speeds. I shoot in Raw and have never personally run into buffer issues. So for me, I go with the cheapos and they have served me very well.

Steve

I have a couple of 1 Gb and 2 Gb cards - only one is 40X speed, but like Swilner says, since I shoot RAW and am not really stuffing the buffer full, I just buy the standard Sandisk 1 or 2 Gb cards and don't seem to have to wait on anything.

If I was going to Antarctica for a once in a lifetime trip, I would probably pony up for the Sandisk Extreme cards, but for my uses, the tariff just seems too high to be justified.

As to brand, I use Sandisk ( probably more of them), Lexar, PNY, Whatever is the cheapest if its nationally known. I draw the line at stuff I have never heard of. I did have 1 early Sandisk Ultra II 1Gb chip go belly up in my 10D. Sandisk customer service whined and said it was my camera, but ultimately did replace the card at no cost to me. I continue to buy Sandisk as a result.

gus

Thanks everyone...ok..im going to buy two on Ebay tonight.

I really need two so as one is loading to my H/drive i can throw the other in. In my olympus i just used to swap between CF & xD.

Mongrel

Just one bad experience...
Hi Humungous, congrats on the new cam-you are in for some great picture-taking times Sorry, I didn't say that sooner, just been too busy to drop by for too long.

Anyway....

I recently had a 'budget' CF card totally fail on me. It's a 512MB 'budget' brand-PQI-standard speed card. Locked my 1D up, and even after reformatting failed to work on any of my cameras.

Moral of the story-

Stick with the 'big' names-Lexar, Sandisk, etc. Don't worry about the speed too much unless your shooting style needs it.

I prefer to use multiple 1GB or 2GB cards (don't have any yet-they are "on the list" lol) and carry the 512s as spares. I'm leery of using anything larger than 2GB and prefer to spread my shots out over several cards rather than trusting all of my images to just one or two. This may not be a big deal for everyone, but I shoot the occasional wedding or family type events and I don't want to have to explain that "my CF card died and I lost all of your pictures." :cry


Again, congrats and good luck with the new camera!

gus

Mongrel wrote:

Hi Humungous, congrats on the new cam-you are in for some great picture-taking times Sorry, I didn't say that sooner, just been too busy to drop by for too long.

Anyway....

I recently had a 'budget' CF card totally fail on me. It's a 512MB 'budget' brand-PQI-standard speed card. Locked my 1D up, and even after reformatting failed to work on any of my cameras.

Moral of the story-

Stick with the 'big' names-Lexar, Sandisk, etc. Don't worry about the speed too much unless your shooting style needs it.

I prefer to use multiple 1GB or 2GB cards (don't have any yet-they are "on the list" lol) and carry the 512s as spares. I'm leery of using anything larger than 2GB and prefer to spread my shots out over several cards rather than trusting all of my images to just one or two. This may not be a big deal for everyone, but I shoot the occasional wedding or family type events and I don't want to have to explain that "my CF card died and I lost all of your pictures." :cry


Again, congrats and good luck with the new camera!

Ta mongrel...yep i was oing to buy 2 of the known brands.

Andy

Humungus wrote:

Ive given in & let go of the railing only to be sucked into a giant vortex of expensive equipment.
Is the current range of 1 & 2 gig CF cards as reliable as my old 128 that i have dropped..sat on...got wet etc etc ?

Any-one had any recent problems with these larger cards ?

Got a pref for any brand speed ?

i fancy the 2gb lexar 80x w.a. (write accelerated) cards. presently i'm carrying two of these, more than enough for me for a full day's shooting (raw + large jpegs)...

but i don't recon there's a big difference between these and the sandisk ultras... i would stick with either of these. there's a comparison on write speeds, read speeds, and all that junk if you've a mind to kill some brain cells then step on over to rob galbraith's site and have a butcher's at that...

cheers gus

gus

andy wrote:

and have a butcher's at that...

cheers gus

Nooooowwwwwww your getting it mate

Ok...i wont look at the site. Im intolerant of the remote controls in the lounge room. But i will buy a few average ones.

3rdPlanetPhotography

uh oh
After reading this thread I got my worries up.... I'm shooting a wedding in may and I didn't know these cards ever failed or corrupted images.

Currently I only have 2 of the sandisk 256 cards and I'm planning to buy more cards before the wedding but now I'm not sure if I should buy a couple of 512k or just a 1 or 2 gig card. Should I spread a wedding event across cards?

Thanks
kc7dij

gus

kc..its right up there with 'will i be hit by a bus today'..you wont know until you walk up to the bride & groom with the card in your hand or look up at the road & see that greyhound closing fast.

I would use a few cards & maybe swap 'em back & fwd a bit. But i have never shoot a wedding other than a 2nd party & NEVER will cause i just wont do it.

Shay is the man to ask...but i recon he will tell you they can die without any warning also.

binghott

my 1gb lexar professional card has been great and even went in the washing machine by accident and didnt even miss a beat.

wxwax

kc7dji wrote:

After reading this thread I got my worries up.... I'm shooting a wedding in may and I didn't know these cards ever failed or corrupted images.

Currently I only have 2 of the sandisk 256 cards and I'm planning to buy more cards before the wedding but now I'm not sure if I should buy a couple of 512k or just a 1 or 2 gig card. Should I spread a wedding event across cards?

Thanks
kc7dij

Everything fails.

And yes. If you troll through old threads on this subject, the consistent refrain from folks who shoot for a living is spread the risk, shoot on many cards.

Sam

Humungus wrote:

Ive given in & let go of the railing only to be sucked into a giant vortex of expensive equipment.

You have no idea! You can stand on a bridge and think you know what it would feel like to hit the water below, but you really won't know until afet you have jumped and the cold reallity of water smacks you in the face.

Gus, your only standing on the railling looking over the side, and nudging your leg over the railling.

Wait, just wait.....it gets much worse.

Sam

Is the current range of 1 & 2 gig CF cards as reliable as my old 128 that i have dropped..sat on...got wet etc etc ?



Any-one had any recent problems with these larger cards ?

You will fill them up faster than you think.

Got a pref for any brand speed ?

The 20D can take advantge of faster cards so I would look into those.

davev

Humungus wrote:

Ive given in & let go of the railing only to be sucked into a giant vortex of expensive equipment.

Is the current range of 1 & 2 gig CF cards as reliable as my old 128 that i have dropped..sat on...got wet etc etc ?

Any-one had any recent problems with these larger cards ?

Got a pref for any brand speed ?

I have a lexar 1 gig 40x that I bought when I got my D Reb. No problems so far.
I think I payed $80 US at the time.

Has anyone used Kingston CF cards?

I've been thinking about a couple of these for around $65 US.
Any info is appreciated.

dave.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-160-026&depa=1

ian408

I've been using a Hitachi 4G microdrive for a while. It's nice but not as fast
as a slow CF card. For most things, it's not a problem. Otherwise, it's the 2G
Lexar for me.

Ian

Shay Stephens

I am currently using ten Sandisk Ultra II 1gb cards. Like others have mentioned, spreading the risk is the best course I think. I do feel more confident using solid state memory, but anything can happen.

I shoot RAW, so on the 20D I can get about 100 photos before having to change a card. And I like the speed advantage of the card. Using slower cards makes the 20D perform like a 10D, which is a real drag when you need to fire off a long burst. Preview takes longer too with slower cards.

Humungus wrote:

Ive given in & let go of the railing only to be sucked into a giant vortex of expensive equipment.

Is the current range of 1 & 2 gig CF cards as reliable as my old 128 that i have dropped..sat on...got wet etc etc ?

Any-one had any recent problems with these larger cards ?

Got a pref for any brand speed ?

gus

Picked up a 1 gig lexar 80x...tks everyone for your imput.