# 5d III CF and SD card



## mirekti (Oct 12, 2012)

I've been trying to comprehence the data and test results, but cannot put it in the real life perspective.
If I used a SD card only what would that mean? 
How many photos could I take before the camera would stop taking other photos?
How many would be the case with CF 600x card?

As CF cards are quite expencive would it be a better idea just to buy one 8GB 600x CF card and one 32GB SD and than just copy raw files from CF to SD from time to time?

I don't take video, but I wondered if I used 32GB UHC card (that 5dIII doesn't support) what would that mean, would it work all right?


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## neuroanatomist (Oct 12, 2012)

The faster CF cards are much faster than the fastest SD cards. If you shoot high-speed bursts, you are much better off writing images to a fast CF card. 

You can specify writing first to one then the other, or writing to both at once.


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## Drizzt321 (Oct 12, 2012)

Not to mention the 5d3 doesn't use the faster speeds on SDXC cards. It can still use them of course, just not at their max speed.


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## mirekti (Oct 12, 2012)

All right, but if I take some burst photos, how many could I take with and SD cards?
I almost don't do burst shoots, I just don't want to end up shooting a few photos and wait for them to store or something. As I wrote I cannot imagine what will happen if I use SD UHC card. Like, if I shot in a normal mode will I feel any delays or something like that?


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## Sitting Elf (Oct 12, 2012)

Personally, I don't make use of the SD slot except for my Eye-fi SD wireless card. I use large capacity and speedy CF's (Lexar 1000X) for the shutter, and the Eye-Fi for transfer and pseudo-tethering


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## mirekti (Oct 12, 2012)

Thanks all. I found what I was looking for Canon 5D Mark III buffer Test CF & SD RAW


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## DoJo (Oct 12, 2012)

Using even Class 10 SDs, You'll get around 14 shots burst before buffer slows you down. With my SanDisk Extreme Pro, I get over 34 images at the 6fps before buffer slows me down. I highly recommend just investing your money in the CF.


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## jabbott (Oct 12, 2012)

Here are the definitive links for this topic:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/camera_wb_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-12452
http://jeffcable.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/why-you-should-not-put-sd-card-in-your.html


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## Luciano Nova (Oct 12, 2012)

5D3 performance with several cards:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/camera_wb_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-12452


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Oct 13, 2012)

mirekti said:


> As CF cards are quite expencive would it be a better idea just to buy one 8GB 600x CF card and one 32GB SD and than just copy raw files from CF to SD from time to time?


Watch out, memory cards are very confusing, and so are the speed specifications. Many SD cards advertise a speed that only works with UHS-1 readers and writers.
THE 5D MARK III IS NOT UHS-1 COMPATIBLE!!
This means that you are paying for speed that you will not be able to use. The cards fall back to a slow speed in a 5D Mark III.
On the other hand, CF cards will operate at full speed in the 5D MK III. Even a cheap CF card will be faster than a fast SD card.
You paid $$$ for your camera, get a decent CF card for it. 16 or 32GB 60mb/sec cards are available for a good price and are faster than the fastest SD cards that will work in the 5D MK III.

http://www.adorama.com/ILXCF40032GN.html


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## Bruce75 (Oct 13, 2012)

Has anybody tried the Sd-cf adapter and their speed on the 5d mark iii slot? Could that be a way to have cheaper memory and to make the Sd cards work as fast as they can?


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## fugu82 (Oct 13, 2012)

I have heard that CF/SD adapters are a bag of hurt.


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## gilmorephoto (Oct 13, 2012)

As a counterpoint, if you already have SD cards, give them a try before you buy CF cards. I have yet to hit the buffer limit using SanDisk Extreme Pro SD cards (I try to avoid spray and pray however) so never saw the need to spend money on CF and potentially broken pins, etc. Someday I might change my mind and your needs might be different.


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## sanj (Oct 13, 2012)

Also decision heavily depends upon if you shoot Raw or jpeg.


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