CF Memory Card Classes & Speeds??? I shoot stills only with a Canon 5D Mark 2. What is the recommended CF card I should be using? I like using the 16 GB size but what's with the...

Ventura Sam

I shoot stills only with a Canon 5D Mark 2.
What is the recommended CF card I should be using? I like using the 16 GB size but what's with the classes and speed numbers?
Any info will be warmly appreciated!

BigBear Loc: Northern CT

Class 10 is the fastest at this time. It means that the minimum throughput is 10 MB/s.

Ventura Sam

Hi Big Bear:
Thanks for your fast response but what is meant by throughput?

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

Ventura Sam wrote:

I shoot stills only with a Canon 5D Mark 2.
What is the recommended CF card I should be using? I like using the 16 GB size but what's with the classes and speed numbers?
Any info will be warmly appreciated!

Two cards in the same class are not necessarily equal. Ignore the class altogether and look at the read and write speeds.

SanDisk SDHC Memory Card Extreme Pro Class 10 UHS-I is an excellent card for your camera although there are few others as well.

Ventura Sam

Joer:
Thank You, I do appreciate your recommendation. What's with the UHS-1, Is that a quality designation or something also found in other brand cf cards?

Cameoblue Loc: British Columbia Canada

Ventura Sam wrote:

I shoot stills only with a Canon 5D Mark 2.
What is the recommended CF card I should be using? I like using the 16 GB size but what's with the classes and speed numbers?
Any info will be warmly appreciated!

Hi Ventura Sam: With my 5D Mark 3 I use SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC1 Class 10 16 GB 95 MB/s which is their read/write speed. I have been using it continuously for a year and a half. There are many Class 10 cards out there but the average speed is around 45 mega-bytes per second, the 95MB/s is noticeably faster especially when transferring to a computer. They are more expensive but in my books worth it. I gave one to a friend last year as a Christmas present and since then has thanked me several times for it.
FYI

OOPS, I see the 5D2 seems to only use a CF (Compact Flash) card not an SD card. So... the other card I use is the Lexar Professional 1000x, 16 GB compact flash UDMA7, VPG 20 (20 MB/s continuous video, newer versions go up to 65 MB/s for video) Again for a year and a half without any problems. I just looked up the specs for this card on their website and they claim " Leverages UDMA 7 technology to provide industry-leading 1000x (150MB/s) minimum guaranteed sustained read transfer speed* "

Here is a link to Canon's recommendations

http://www.canon-europe.com/Support/Consumer_Products/products/cameras/Digital_SLR/EOS_5D_Mark_II.aspx?faqtcmuri=tcm:13-1021157&page=1&type=faq

And Lexar's site

http://www.lexar.com/products/lexar-professional-1000x-compactflash-card
Also Merry Christmas Everyone.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

Ventura Sam wrote:

Joer:
Thank You, I do appreciate your recommendation. What's with the UHS-1, Is that a quality designation or something also found in other brand cf cards?

Its a class of cards and it is found on other cards. The class gives some idea on how fast it is but the read and write speeds are better.

I should also mention that different brands of cards do not necessarily perform equally in different cameras.
http://www.robgalbraith.com/camera_wb_multi_paged527.html?cid=6007-9784

Larrie Loc: NE Ohio

BigBear wrote:

Class 10 is the fastest at this time. It means that the minimum throughput is 10 MB/s.

If the OP was asking about a slow SD card, however CF cards are rated purely by write and read speeds with read speeds often being higher. All SanDisk cards (Ultra, Extreme, Extreme Pro) are adequate but I would stick with Extreme or Extreme Pro. For any other brands look for a write speed of 50 MB/s. If they rate their overall speed as 200x or 400x look elsewhere as that rating can be misleading

Cameoblue Loc: British Columbia Canada

Ventura Sam wrote:

Joer:
Thank You, I do appreciate your recommendation. What's with the UHS-1, Is that a quality designation or something also found in other brand cf cards?

UHS-1 (Ultra High Speed-1) cards are a speed designation on some SD cards not pertinent to your case as you use Compact Flash cards.

Ventura Sam

Joer, Big Bear, Larriem & Cameo Blue:
Thank You!, Thank You!
I now have a basic understanding of CF cards and what I need for my Mark 2.
Your responses were informative and gave me the direction I needed and lacked. You have made my day!
Hope each of you and your loved ones have a wonderful Christmas.
Ventura Sam

Effate Loc: El Dorado Hills, Ca.

Cameoblue wrote:

Hi Ventura Sam: With my 5D Mark 3 I use SanDisk Ex... (show quote)

Did not read your Canon link (should have) but I too shoot 5D mk III. A rep told me that this camera only has a udma reader for the CF slot and super fast sd cards were a waste of money (save for download to your computer). He also said if I have an sd card and a CF that my camera would default to the slower drive speed. Was he wrong?

Ventura Sam

Hi Effate:
Thanks for the input and URL links.
Maybe another Hedge Hog member has an answer & will respond to your question.
Ventura Sam

Wall-E Loc: Phoenix, AZ

Effate wrote:

Did not read your Canon link (should have) but I too shoot 5D mk III. A rep told me that this camera only has a udma reader for the CF slot and super fast sd cards were a waste of money (save for download to your computer). He also said if I have an sd card and a CF that my camera would default to the slower drive speed. Was he wrong?

No. He's absolutely correct.
Installing ANY SD card in a 5DMIII slows the camera writing speed to the crawl of the speed limited SD slot. Stupid decision by Canon. Had they put a hi-speed SD slot in, and then speed limited to the slower of the 2 cards, would have made a whole lot more sense.

Here's a blog post from a lens rental company about this:
http://www.borrowlenses.com/blog/2013/01/tip-optimize-canon-5d-markiii-write-speeds-avoid-sd-cards/

Cameoblue Loc: British Columbia Canada

Effate wrote:

Did not read your Canon link (should have) but I too shoot 5D mk III. A rep told me that this camera only has a udma reader for the CF slot and super fast sd cards were a waste of money (save for download to your computer). He also said if I have an sd card and a CF that my camera would default to the slower drive speed. Was he wrong?

I've heard talk of this before but it does not bother my shooting style. My SD speed is 95 MB/s which is much more than the average SD speeds out there. I like to use my CF card for RAW and SD for JPEG. Having 2 different cards makes my live easier for sorting and filing. JPEG to Aperture, RAW to LR... easy peasy. Somebody will always want/have a better idea, but for me and thousands of others, Canon got it right.

Cameoblue Loc: British Columbia Canada

Wall-E wrote:

No. He's absolutely correct.
Installing ANY SD card in a 5DMIII slows the camera writing speed to the crawl of the speed limited SD slot. Stupid decision by Canon. Had they put a hi-speed SD slot in, and then speed limited to the slower of the 2 cards, would have made a whole lot more sense.

Here's a blog post from a lens rental company about this:
http://www.borrowlenses.com/blog/2013/01/tip-optimize-canon-5d-markiii-write-speeds-avoid-sd-cards/

One blog, by some guy 12 months ago is not going to convince me to change my style. Mind you if it is on the internet it must be true.....