Fast Compact Flash Card

[pat]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

I have been told that some compact flash cards are faster than others but I
don't see anyway to tell one from another when looking at them in the store.
There doesn't seem to be any objective rating measure on the package--except
for one that I saw. I have a couple of the compact flash cards already. How
do I tell what their rating is?

Can anyone tell me preferred cards to get? I want to upgrade to something
that processes the images faster than what I already have, which is Iodata
and Kingston.

thanks,

Pat

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Pat wrote:

> I have been told that some compact flash cards are faster than others but I
> don't see anyway to tell one from another when looking at them in the store.
> There doesn't seem to be any objective rating measure on the package--except
> for one that I saw. I have a couple of the compact flash cards already. How
> do I tell what their rating is?
>
> Can anyone tell me preferred cards to get? I want to upgrade to something
> that processes the images faster than what I already have, which is Iodata
> and Kingston.

There is no industry standard for CF cards, but as of late, the 'X' is a
pretty good way to tell the speed.. You'll see many stamped with 4X,
12X, 24X.... 80X.

The 'X' is an indication of the speed... Many manufacturers use the
transfer rate benchmark of 150 Kb/s to equal 1X. 40X is 40 X 150 Kb/s.

You never mentioned what camera you're using.. This is important because
cameras have different speed capabilities as well. You wouldn't want
to pay a premium price for a fast CF card that your camera can't use.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Jim Townsend wrote:

> Pat wrote:
>
>
>>I have been told that some compact flash cards are faster than others but I
>>don't see anyway to tell one from another when looking at them in the store.
>>There doesn't seem to be any objective rating measure on the package--except
>>for one that I saw. I have a couple of the compact flash cards already. How
>>do I tell what their rating is?
>>
>>Can anyone tell me preferred cards to get? I want to upgrade to something
>>that processes the images faster than what I already have, which is Iodata
>>and Kingston.
>
>
> There is no industry standard for CF cards, but as of late, the 'X' is a
> pretty good way to tell the speed.. You'll see many stamped with 4X,
> 12X, 24X.... 80X.
>
> The 'X' is an indication of the speed... Many manufacturers use the
> transfer rate benchmark of 150 Kb/s to equal 1X. 40X is 40 X 150 Kb/s.
>
> You never mentioned what camera you're using.. This is important because
> cameras have different speed capabilities as well. You wouldn't want
> to pay a premium price for a fast CF card that your camera can't use.

But the price difference between a slow versus a fast card is very
small these days. The fastest cards are still faster than most
cameras are rated, even top pro DSLR models. For example,
I have 4GB 40x and 80x cards but both write almost the same speed
on my Canon 1D Mark II camera. My advice is buy the
biggest and fastest card you can afford now, as in a couple of
years you may still want to use it in newer cameras that will
take advantage of the speed. For example, I only buy 4 GB 80x
cards now (and for the last few months). Note too there have been
reported in this newsgroup that Sandisk extreme III cards have had
reliability issues. I have an extreme II 4GB card and the card has
a switch on the side that can change it from two 2GB banks or one
4 GB card, but if you change the switch, you can lose all data on the
card. I inquired with tech support, and they gave me the run-around
answering a different question regarding the switch. When I
insisted they answer the question "If I accidentally bump the switch
to a different position do I lose all the data on the card," they
would not answer (at least I'm still waiting after a couple of months).
So my advice is stay away from cards with these bank switches on
the sides.

Roger

 

[pat]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

:
: There is no industry standard for CF cards, but as of late, the 'X' is a
: pretty good way to tell the speed.. You'll see many stamped with 4X,
: 12X, 24X.... 80X.
:
: The 'X' is an indication of the speed... Many manufacturers use the
: transfer rate benchmark of 150 Kb/s to equal 1X. 40X is 40 X 150 Kb/s.
:
: You never mentioned what camera you're using.. This is important because
: cameras have different speed capabilities as well. You wouldn't want
: to pay a premium price for a fast CF card that your camera can't use.

It's a Canon Power Shot A80 with 4.0 Mega Pixels. I should have thought to
include that info.

Pat
:
:

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Sun, 15 May 2005 07:50:46 -0500, in rec.photo.digital "Pat"
<Pat@newstime.com> wrote:

>I have been told that some compact flash cards are faster than others but I
>don't see anyway to tell one from another when looking at them in the store.
>There doesn't seem to be any objective rating measure on the package--except
>for one that I saw. I have a couple of the compact flash cards already. How
>do I tell what their rating is?
>
>Can anyone tell me preferred cards to get? I want to upgrade to something
>that processes the images faster than what I already have, which is Iodata
>and Kingston.

First you need to find out what the write speed of your camera is. Many
can't take advantage of the speed of the faster cards.
----------
Ed Ruf Lifetime AMA# 344007 (Usenet@EdwardG.Ruf.com)
See images taken with my CP-990/5700 & D70 at
http/edwardgruf.com/Digital_Photography/General/index.html

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Sun, 15 May 2005 10:15:00 -0600, Roger N. Clark (change username
to rnclark) wrote:

> I have an extreme II 4GB card and the card has
> a switch on the side that can change it from two 2GB banks or one
> 4 GB card, but if you change the switch, you can lose all data on the
> card. I inquired with tech support, and they gave me the run-around
> answering a different question regarding the switch. When I
> insisted they answer the question "If I accidentally bump the switch
> to a different position do I lose all the data on the card," they
> would not answer (at least I'm still waiting after a couple of months).
> So my advice is stay away from cards with these bank switches on
> the sides.

Every radio I've ever seen that has a localization switch or menu
setting (indicated either by 9khz vs. 10khz AM spacing or European
vs. American) immediately lost all memory presets on changing the
localization setting. But I doubt that anything like this would
happen if the switch on your Extreme II 4GB card is moved to another
position. In the new position you may not be able to see your old
image files, and the camera might even report errors reading the
card. But that would seem to be due to misinterpreting the
structure of the card. After noticing the problem, my guess is that
if you don't take any more pictures, after correcting the switch
setting nothing will have been lost. If you intentionally change
the switch position, you'd probably want to reformat the card in
camera as well.