# CF Cards Vs SD Cards



## Sabaki (Sep 17, 2014)

Hi everybody

I've only ever shot with a 500D and have zero experience with CF cards.

I'm definitely getting a 7Dii but I'm unsure whether to continue with SD cards or if CF cards are the way to go.

I have my eye on a Sandisk 32gig for about $200.

What would you recommend and why?

Thanks guys


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## pleasehelp (Sep 17, 2014)

Sabaki said:


> Hi everybody
> 
> I've only ever shot with a 500D and have zero experience with CF cards.
> 
> ...



for me it doesn´t matter. 
SD cards are fast enough for my needs.

i never had issues with my SD cards (lexar, sandisk).

so if you have SD cards already, use them. 
if you want to use two cards in the 7D you have to buy CF cards anyway.


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## Don Haines (Sep 17, 2014)

SD cards are cheaper per GB, more devices can read them, and unless you are running your camera in burst mode, you should have no problem keeping up. If you are firing off more than a picture per second and keep it up for a while, you will fill the camera buffer and a fast compact flash card is faster than a fast SD card and will clear the buffer sooner.... but the difference is not noticeable until you get to the very fastest compact flash cards.... or so conventional wisdom says..... 

but if you look at Sandisk and the fastest cards that they sell:
Sandisk extreme pro HSII 64G SD card - 250MB/s write speed, $230
Sandisk extreme pro UDMA7 64G CF card - 150 MB/s, $200

You end up with an SD card that is both faster and more expensive.... the exact opposite of what people believe to be the truth.


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## Sabaki (Sep 17, 2014)

Don Haines said:


> SD cards are cheaper per GB, more devices can read them, and unless you are running your camera in burst mode, you should have no problem keeping up. If you are firing off more than a picture per second and keep it up for a while, you will fill the camera buffer and a fast compact flash card is faster than a fast SD card and will clear the buffer sooner.... but the difference is not noticeable until you get to the very fastest compact flash cards.... or so conventional wisdom says.....
> 
> but if you look at Sandisk and the fastest cards that they sell:
> Sandisk extreme pro HSII 64G SD card - 250MB/s write speed, $230
> ...



This is very interesting! So perhaps I should shoot with an SD card and if I hit limits with it, try CF.

Don & pleasehelp, much appreciated


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## Pancho (Sep 17, 2014)

Don Haines said:


> Sandisk extreme pro HSII 64G SD card - 250MB/s write speed, $230



The 7D MkII seems to be only compatible with UHS1 and not UHS2 as the latest Sandisk SD card is. So the Write speed seems limited to 95MB/s and not 250MB/s...


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## Canon1 (Sep 17, 2014)

If you have an option to not use CF cards, use them.

CF cards = bent pins = broken things and frustration.
[/quote]

All I use is CF cards. I have never bent a pin... I don't know anyone who has bent a pin. You would really need to mash the card in improperly to cause any damage.

If you plan to shoot bursts get a couple of fast CF cards. My 5D3 only bursts at about 6 FPS and it is HUGELY noticeable if I am writing to CF or SD. Also, if you are not in a hurry you could wait until SanDisk or Lexar has a rebate or sale. You can save a ton of money this way. 

Just remember that this camera will shoot 10FPS. You will fill the buffer in no time at all if you are writing to SD.


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## BLFPhoto (Sep 17, 2014)

Yup...enough with the fear mongering. 

I've been shooting CF cards for 15 years and not once have I bent pins or messed up the mechanical interface in any way. I've had exactly one card go bad in all that time (of hundreds I've owned), and that was when one fell out of my card wallet and got run over by a fire truck.


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## docsmith (Sep 17, 2014)

Just remember that the card itself is only half the story. The other half is the camera. For example, you can put as fast an SD card as you want into the 5DIII, but it isn't going to write faster than 20 MB/s. Shooting JPEG on the 5DIII, you'll be limited to less than 50 MB/s. The camera becomes the limitation in both these scenarios. 

http://robgalbraith.com/camera_wb_multi_page7de5.html?cid=6007-12452


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## Don Haines (Sep 17, 2014)

Sabaki said:


> Don Haines said:
> 
> 
> > SD cards are cheaper per GB, more devices can read them, and unless you are running your camera in burst mode, you should have no problem keeping up. If you are firing off more than a picture per second and keep it up for a while, you will fill the camera buffer and a fast compact flash card is faster than a fast SD card and will clear the buffer sooner.... but the difference is not noticeable until you get to the very fastest compact flash cards.... or so conventional wisdom says.....
> ...



I tend to shoot with jpg's and RAW.... For me, the best way to go for speed is one of those 90MB/s SD cards for the jpgs and a 150MB/s compact flash card for the RAW files.... that gives you the fastest speeds and an image backup....

It does not say in the specs if it accepts UDMA 6 or 7 ( I would assume 7) compact flash cards or if it takes UHS 1 or 3 SD cards (I would assume UHS 1). Hopefully we will know as the release date gets closer...


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## DRR (Sep 17, 2014)

Pancho said:


> Don Haines said:
> 
> 
> > Sandisk extreme pro HSII 64G SD card - 250MB/s write speed, $230
> ...



That appears to be correct, so for the purposes of the current discussion (7DII) it should be

Sandisk Extreme Pro UDMA7 CF 160MB/s, $210
vs
Sandisk Extreme Pro UHS-1 SDXC 95MB/s, $98

Canon does not seem to support bleeding edge bus designs. It barely supports standard ones. Look at the 5D3, doesn't even support UHS-I, which was about 18-24 months old at the time of 5DIII intro. 

Personally, if I were to buy a 7DII, the burst ability would be one of the main reasons why, and if that's the case, I would not get SD as it would limit the ability of the camera to maintain burst as it writes from buffer to the card.

If you don't shoot a lot of burst then by all means, SD offers a much better price to performance ratio.


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## kaihp (Sep 17, 2014)

docsmith said:


> Just remember that the card itself is only half the story. The other half is the camera. For example, you can put as fast an SD card as you want into the 5DIII, but it isn't going to write faster than 20 MB/s. Shooting JPEG on the 5DIII, you'll be limited to less than 50 MB/s. The camera becomes the limitation in both these scenarios.
> 
> http://robgalbraith.com/camera_wb_multi_page7de5.html?cid=6007-12452



And 18MB/s if you write JPGs to the SD slot.

As for bent pins, I haven't experienced that in 10 years of using CF cards, but my stepmom recently bent several pins on an poorly designed* card reader. 

*) Poorly designed because the pins aren't recessed enough in the body, so it is easy to mis-align the CF card when inserting it. At least it wasn't her camera body 

IMO: I'd stay with the SD cards you have now, and evaluate if I needed to move to CF cards later for speed.

Edit: spelling


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## Don Haines (Sep 17, 2014)

BLFPhoto said:


> Yup...enough with the fear mongering.
> 
> I've been shooting CF cards for 15 years and not once have I bent pins or messed up the mechanical interface in any way. I've had exactly one card go bad in all that time (of hundreds I've owned), and that was when one fell out of my card wallet and got run over by a fire truck.


CF cards in cameras.... in routers... in laptops... in spectrum analyzers.... in satcom modems.... for many many years and no bent pins yet either....

(I have a bunch of 16Mbyte ones in a drawer at work..... they have been around for a LONG time......)


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 17, 2014)

I've had two cameras with bent CF pins. One was a used Minolta DSLR that I had bought (Just before Sony bought them). I was able to straighten the bent pin out, and it was fine.

The other was a used Canon P&S that I bought for a dollar. The charger, battery, and CF card were worth more than that.

Many SD card advocates are not aware that you must do a low level format on a previously filled SD card in order to get rated write speeds. If you just do a regular quick in camera format, the write speed slows to a crawl. If you do a low level format every time, then the card gets lots of write cycles, since a low level format writes a 0 to every memory cell.

With a SD card, its best to buy a big one, and do a low level format whenever you have saved enough files to reach the card capacity.

For example, you have a 64GB card.

You do 4 photo sessions using 16 GB and doing a regular format(does not erase the cells or data). The card software tries to equalize card usage, so it tends to not over write cells with data in them until it has to. Thus, by the 4th 16GB session, the entire card has been written to, and now data must be erased to save more. This is very slow, so your right speed drops. Time to do a low level format to get the speed you are paying for.


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## wtlloyd (Sep 17, 2014)

Got any links to support this, or is this all just seat-of-the-pants common sense reasoning?




Mt Spokane Photography said:


> I've had two cameras with bent CF pins. One was a used Minolta DSLR that I had bought (Just before Sony bought them). I was able to straighten the bent pin out, and it was fine.
> 
> The other was a used Canon P&S that I bought for a dollar. The charger, battery, and CF card were worth more than that.
> 
> ...


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## CanonOregon (Sep 17, 2014)

As a lab owner I saw lots of 'bent pin' CF cameras, usually because they were inexpensive P&S cameras and the owners carried the cards around in their pocket. I did bend a pin on my 10d many years ago. It seems as if the design of today's dSLRs is better for CF- easier to align and prevent pin damage. 
If you go CF just remember to carry it in a case to prevent 'pocket lint' from entering the pin sockets and NEVER force it into the camera! About eight years since and have not bent a pin ever again. (I was lucky enough to straighten that one out- do it SLOWLY with a jeweler's loop or some other magnifier!)
And I have seen bent contacts on SD cards, more broken SD cards and ones where the lock slider has jammed locked or fallen out- so neither card is 'bullet proof'.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 17, 2014)

wtlloyd said:


> Got any links to support this, or is this all just seat-of-the-pants common sense reasoning?
> 
> I covered many things in your quote. All are factual.
> 
> ...


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## ecka (Sep 17, 2014)

I prefer CF.
Both formats can be fast enough and 7D's big memory buffer makes it even more irrelevant for most users. However, CF cards tend to work faster, even when compared to higher rated SD cards. That depends on your camera as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkRiIbxNzwQ
SD cards are cheaper, *because *they are more popular and have wider field of use (because they are smaller, simpler, use less power and *because *they became cheap). They are not really better in speed or data safety. CF cards (even dual slots) are used in professional gear for a reason. Just don't buy cheap counterfeit pin-benders.


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## tphillips63 (Sep 17, 2014)

I use CF, usually 32GB in size from Lexmark, Sandisk, Transcend and even a couple of Duracells. Not one has ever been too slow or cause a problem. For SD I use a mix of the same brands.
I set the CF card for full sized RAM and the SD for either small JPG or small RAW, it just depends on what I am shooting and how much time I think I will spend on the computer with the files.
This is with a 5D Mk III but if I get the 7D Mk II, I would do the same.


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## alexanderferdinand (Sep 17, 2014)

Using 1d4 and 5d3 its simple: I prefer the CF cards due to the slow SD interface
In my Sony or Fuji the SD shine with speed.....

7d2 supports finally the UHS protocol- wow. Canon, the late adopter.


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## jheez (Sep 17, 2014)

CF are more reliable and sturdier than SD. And usually faster. 

SD cards will break from a small bend. In that case you can't recover the data. I mistakenly put two SD cards in my well padded wallet once while I went to dinner. They were unreadable. In comparison, I have a CF with a huge dent in it that surprisingly still works. My buddies and I send CFs through the mail without cases all the time and never had issues.

I've had 5 cards go bad in my career:
1 CF in over 7 years
4 SD in the last 2.5 years

I shoot close to 200,000 frames per year. I'm not that careful with my gear and I've never had bent pins. But I don't see how it's that big of a deal. Bent pins is a small repair, no? I'd rather have bent pins and safe(r) data than the reverse


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## NancyP (Sep 17, 2014)

This is all very interesting. I have only cameras with SD cards, and I always did low level format in the camera, every time. Performance of these cards has stayed stable with time. CF, if faster, merits a look. Any comments on a good card reader? I have a MacBookPro with a SD slot built in, so I have not used a card reader before.

Re: power consumption - is this significantly different between the two types of cards? 600 shots per battery when writing to CF vs 1,000 shots per battery when writing to SD? Or is it 950 shots vs 1,000 shots per battery, not really worth worrying about.


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## lo lite (Sep 17, 2014)

pleasehelp said:


> if you want to use two cards in the 7D you have to buy CF cards anyway.



There are SD to CF card adapters available: http://www.enjoyyourcamera.com/Speicher-Computerzubehoer/Speicherkarten/Quenox-High-Speed-Speicherkarten-Adapter-SD-SDHC-SDXC-auf-CF::3598.html


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## mackguyver (Sep 17, 2014)

BLFPhoto said:


> Yup...enough with the fear mongering.
> 
> I've been shooting CF cards for 15 years and not once have I bent pins or messed up the mechanical interface in any way. I've had exactly one card go bad in all that time (of hundreds I've owned), and that was when one fell out of my card wallet and got run over by a fire truck.


+1 Seriously. Unless you jam the card in the wrong way or something, it doesn't happen. I've been using CF cards for 15+ years as well with no issues. I've never had a card failure, either and they are tough as hell and have been through many wash cycles  in my pants. I've only had 1 SD card failure, but find the size a bad thing in terms of them being easier to lose. 

If the CF cards are faster in the 7DII, I'd go for them as you're going to need all the speed you can get with that camera!


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## takesome1 (Sep 17, 2014)

mackguyver said:


> BLFPhoto said:
> 
> 
> > Yup...enough with the fear mongering.
> ...



It would depend on the card you used and how many mb/s it would read first, type of card second.

Were only talking how fast the buffer clears when it comes to stills and speed of cards. (maybe download time but I never cared about that)

I tested the 1D IV on this, anything faster than a 60mb/s card had no effect at all on the speed that the buffer cleared. No change going with 100mb/s cards. It was camera limited not card limited. At 45mb/s it would have very a small effect. We are only talking maybe a frame or two in a minute.

I suppose when the 7D II arrives I can test this again and see inside the camera body the new processors in the 7D II will clear faster with fast cards, or if there is a different bottle neck in the system that limits speed.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 17, 2014)

mackguyver said:


> BLFPhoto said:
> 
> 
> > Yup...enough with the fear mongering.
> ...


 
I sold my D30 many years back to a lady whose camera had died and was in for repair. I included a small CF card. A couple days later, she put in her old card that she had been using in the failed camera, and it killed the 6 month old 30D. I gave her a copy of my receipt from the local dealer, and they sent it in to Canon for her at no charge. The card was retired  I think it was one of the Hitachi Micro Drive cards, and shorted the power out coming from the camera.

The CF card is definitely due for a replacement. Not by SD cards, I hope.


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## mackguyver (Sep 17, 2014)

takesome1 said:


> mackguyver said:
> 
> 
> > BLFPhoto said:
> ...


I have tested CF card speeds on the 5DIII and 1D X and the 1D X was much less affected by the card speed, but the 5DIII was pretty big:

The test procedure was a body cap exposure at 1/8000s; ISO 100; f/0; ALO, High ISO NR, vignette removal, CA correction OFF; RAW; High Speed Drive shot until the buffer was full. More details are in the post itself.

*5DIII*
-Sandisk 32GB 60MB/s write: 19 frames
-Lexar 32GB 90MB/s write: 23 frames
-Sandisk 32GB 90MB/s write: 25 frames
-Sandisk 64GB 160MB/s write: 35 frames
-Lexar 64GB 160MB/s write: NOT TESTED

*1D X*
-Sandisk 32GB 60MB/s write: NOT TESTED
-Lexar 32GB 145MB/s write: 51 frames
-Sandisk 32GB 90MB/s write: 52 frames
-Lexar 64GB 160MB/s write: 53 frames
-Sandisk 64GB 160MB/s write: 57 frames


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## kaihp (Sep 17, 2014)

NancyP said:


> This is all very interesting. I have only cameras with SD cards, and I always did low level format in the camera, every time. Performance of these cards has stayed stable with time. CF, if faster, merits a look. Any comments on a good card reader? I have a MacBookPro with a SD slot built in, so I have not used a card reader before.



I have the Lexar Professional USB3.0 Dual-Slot Reader (it takes both CF & SD) and I am extremely happy with it. It can do sustained 90-100MB/sec downloads from a Lexar 1000x 32GB card to the local SSD drive (Samsung 840 Evo). At USD35 @ B&H, it's pretty inexpensive too.

Depending on which MBP you have, it may or may not have USB3. If it doesn't, consider looking for a Thunderbolt based reader.


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## takesome1 (Sep 17, 2014)

mackguyver said:


> takesome1 said:
> 
> 
> > mackguyver said:
> ...



I did it exactly the same way. I wonder why your Scandisk 64GB 160MB/s had a big jump on the 5D III but a smaller jump on the 1D X.


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## takesome1 (Sep 17, 2014)

mackguyver said:


> *5DIII*
> -Sandisk 32GB 60MB/s write: 19 frames
> -Lexar 32GB 90MB/s write: 23 frames
> -Sandisk 32GB 90MB/s write: 25 frames
> ...



You didn't by chance go back and figure out the actual MB/s that was written did you?
I have my data at home I would like to compare.


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## mackguyver (Sep 17, 2014)

No, but I guess I could use a timer to get the total write time and then add up the file sizes to get an approximate MB/s speed. When I did the tests, my only purpose was to find the biggest buffer depth for an equestrian event I was shooting. I knew I would be doing lots of burst shooting as it was my first event and I had no idea what I was doing. Now that I have the 1D X, I try not to shoot too long of bursts as it results in way too many photos to review.


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## jhpeterson (Sep 17, 2014)

I'm definitely one who favors the CF cards, even though I've broken pins on card readers. (Some are, to say the least, pretty flimsy!) Then again, I've snapped an SD card in half trying to install it while on a moving boat!


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## Sabaki (Sep 18, 2014)

Guys, thank you all so very much.

I've decided to buy a CF card but probably after a few weeks of experience with the SD cards I have.

I'm so excited about this 7Dii :


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## takesome1 (Sep 18, 2014)

mackguyver said:


> No, but I guess I could use a timer to get the total write time and then add up the file sizes to get an approximate MB/s speed. When I did the tests, my only purpose was to find the biggest buffer depth for an equestrian event I was shooting. I knew I would be doing lots of burst shooting as it was my first event and I had no idea what I was doing. Now that I have the 1D X, I try not to shoot too long of bursts as it results in way too many photos to review.



Along with the burst I timed till the last picture wrote to the card.

For stills the super fast card would only help in a very rare instance.
As you mentioned it helps more to try and do short bursts.

In 6 years of digital I have only lost 1 very rare chance at a pic due to a full buffer. That instance changed the way I do burst shots, look at cards and how I view what is important with digital cameras.


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## jthomson (Sep 18, 2014)

Sabaki said:


> Guys, thank you all so very much.
> 
> I've decided to buy a CF card but probably after a few weeks of experience with the SD cards I have.
> 
> I'm so excited about this 7Dii :



Watch B&H and Adorama. Cards do go on sale. I picked up some 1000x Lexars in a 2 for 1 deal.


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## jthomson (Sep 18, 2014)

mackguyver said:


> BLFPhoto said:
> 
> 
> > Yup...enough with the fear mongering.
> ...



Roger at lensrentals reported that one of his main repair issues with the 5D3 was bent pins on the CF card slot.
Canon also apparently made some modifications to the slot as this stopped being an issue. One reason not to be an early adopter.

Personally I've trashed three SD cards, but never had a problems with CF cards. My original my 16 mb CF card from 1999 is still in use in a photoframe.


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## dawgfanjeff (Sep 18, 2014)

I use only CF for the myriad reasons cited here. I'd also add that my extremely unscientific observation is that reading the card whilst chimping is noticeably faster on my faster CF cards than the older, slower CF cards. This would probably hold true with SD cards on my 5DIII, too (although I have never used that slot). 

It also copies to my PC faster over USB3. 

One upside to SD...all of my devices have SD card slots, which makes transferring pics for slideshows or archiving on vacations much easier, so there's that. So, if you are on vacation with lots of people and everybody takes pics and shows them off, while your awesome raw files are locked up on your camera, you will recognize that advantage Now that I think if it...that's a great reason to use that SD slot:|


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## mackguyver (Sep 18, 2014)

takesome1 said:


> In 6 years of digital I have only lost 1 very rare chance at a pic due to a full buffer. That instance changed the way I do burst shots, look at cards and how I view what is important with digital cameras.


In my 15+ years of shooting digitally, I have lost dozens of shots due to a full buffer -- but that was mostly during the early years when the buffer happened between each JPEG, TIFF (really!), or RAW exposure. FPS was actually FPM with many of my early cameras shooting 4-5 frames per minute!

I agree that good timing is a more critical skill, but some subjects really benefit from being able to crank out 50+ frames over the course of 5 seconds. This is particularly true of subjects that you have never shot before - such as the horse eventing I shot earlier this year. I was so clueless at first that I was facing the wrong side of the jumps! As I watched, I quickly picked up the timing, but there were a few obstacles where the rider had to negotiate several jumps over the course of 5 seconds or so and the burst of frames is really important if you're trying to get paid for your work. Plus, even on the 5DIII, it lets you do cool stuff like this:


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## Sabaki (Sep 18, 2014)

Guys, if you were recommend one CF model for the 7Dii, what would it be?


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## mackguyver (Sep 18, 2014)

Sabaki said:


> Guys, if you were recommend one CF model for the 7Dii, what would it be?


It depends on what you shoot, but the I'd go for at least 32GB and probably 64GB and the latest 1066x / 1067x cards from Sandisk or Lexar. They aren't cheap, but will last you for many years. Also, Adorama runs really good sales on the Lexar cards pretty frequently. The 1000x cards are a good compromise if you don't want to spend so much, but make sure you don't fall for the 800x cards. They are a lot cheaper, but they only read a 800x, and write far slower. It's great to download, but lousy for burst shooting.


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## ecka (Sep 18, 2014)

mackguyver said:


> Sabaki said:
> 
> 
> > Guys, if you were recommend one CF model for the 7Dii, what would it be?
> ...



I don't know, maybe UDMA6 or UDMA7 (133+MB/s) card makes a lot of sense for large amounts of data transfer through USB3 reader, but I think that anything with ~60+MB/s is fine. Sandisk, Lexar, Kingston, Transcend... doesn't really matter. I would go for better price.


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## Mitch.Conner (Sep 19, 2014)

BLFPhoto said:


> Yup...enough with the fear mongering.
> 
> I've been shooting CF cards for 15 years and not once have I bent pins or messed up the mechanical interface in any way.



I've been using CF cards for almost as long and have never had a problem. The first cards I ever bought still work. They're snail speed compared to what I use these days, but that's just technology getting better over time.

I never even heard of bent pin issues from anybody I personally know. Only on the net.


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## Canon1 (Sep 19, 2014)

Sandisk usually includes free recovery software vouchers with their high end cards. I have had to use this once when I accidentally formatted a cf card. The recovery software saved the day. Maybe the other manufacturers also include this, but after my experience I'm sticking with sandisk.


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## kaihp (Sep 19, 2014)

Canon1 said:


> Sandisk usually includes free recovery software vouchers with their high end cards. I have had to use this once when I accidentally formatted a cf card. The recovery software saved the day. Maybe the other manufacturers also include this, but after my experience I'm sticking with sandisk.



Lexar do that too. Or at least I got licenses with the 1000x cards I bought a couple of years back.


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## dickgrafixstop (Oct 9, 2014)

Have it both ways - buy a CF to SD adapter for less than $20 and use SD cards in the CF slot.


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## Halfrack (Oct 9, 2014)

dickgrafixstop said:


> Have it both ways - buy a CF to SD adapter for less than $20 and use SD cards in the CF slot.



The Delkin adapter I have is dog slow - not worth the double touch to swap a card - CF out of slot, SD out of adapter, SD into adapter, adapter into slot.

Nice to see the 7D2 has a SD slot, but at this point I'm so far deep into CF that I can't just switch. In fact, I counted an hour ago that I've got 176gb of Sandisk CF cards, and 104gb of Transcend/Delkin/Adata that I can't use in my fancy camera. To make it worse, I've got a camera showing up in the morning and it'll need at least 3x 32gb UHS1 SD cards since it can't take CF...

At least I won't have to empty cards on vacation.... Oh, and never think you're getting a 'deal' on memory cards - buy from a trusted source, or directly from Sandisk - there are too many fakes out there.


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## dgatwood (Oct 13, 2014)

alexanderferdinand said:


> Using 1d4 and 5d3 its simple: I prefer the CF cards due to the slow SD interface
> In my Sony or Fuji the SD shine with speed.....
> 
> 7d2 supports finally the UHS protocol- wow. Canon, the late adopter.



The 6D supported UHS-I (2009), too. Too bad Canon still hasn't adopted UHS-II (mid-2011). :/


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