# 1DX II cfast write speeds for 4K



## East Wind Photography (May 15, 2016)

Not much published regarding CFast card write speeds needed for sustained 4K recording. Please post your experience in 4k recording using the 1dx mark ii, both 30 and 60fps. Also which card you are using. 

Prices vary widely depending on write speed. Would be nice to see some real field data.


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## mistaspeedy (May 19, 2016)

I don't own a 1DX, but I think I read somewhere that the 4K video bitrate is 800mbit per second... Or to put it another way, 100MB/s. This shouldn't be problem for most, if not all cfast cards. I've seen speeds of up to 440MB/s. Hopefully an owner will see this thread and post their experiences.


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## J.R. (May 19, 2016)

I don't use the video features much (may change going forward) but the information you are seeking is given at page 530/531 of the manual.


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## East Wind Photography (May 20, 2016)

J.R. said:


> I don't use the video features much (may change going forward) but the information you are seeking is given at page 530/531 of the manual.



Not exactly. It still just says cfast 2.0 required for 4k 60 fps. Doesnt say you need a card that can write xxmb/sec.

The other chart shows the bit rate but its not clear if that is the buss bit rate or after jpg compression. I dont know of any card that can write 800mb/sec which leads me to believe this is the buss bit rate before jpg compression. Likely a useless spec for the average user but usefull for determining bit rate differences between settings.


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## kaptainkatsu (May 20, 2016)

[email protected] is 800 Mbps, megabits per second. So it's really 100 MB/sec, megabytes per second. 

Manual says you can shoot [email protected] on a umda7 cf card.


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## J.R. (May 20, 2016)

kaptainkatsu said:


> [email protected] is 800 Mbps, megabits per second. So it's really 100 MB/sec, megabytes per second.
> 
> Manual says you can shoot [email protected] on a umda7 cf card.



+1 

Difference in the megabits and megabytes


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## East Wind Photography (May 20, 2016)

kaptainkatsu said:


> [email protected] is 800 Mbps, megabits per second. So it's really 100 MB/sec, megabytes per second.
> 
> Manual says you can shoot [email protected] on a umda7 cf card.



Intersting about the mbps and MB/sec. That would seem to make sense. However if that were the case we should be able to record sustained 4k 60fps using a fast udma7 card and at best we can only get 10 seconds of video. Im thinking it should be in the order between 200 to 400 MB/sec.

If it is actually approximately 100MB/sec then we should be able to record 4k 60fps using the least expensive cfast 2.0 card we can find. slowest ive seen is about 270.


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## douglaurent (May 20, 2016)

Tested it. Normal 1000x CF cards do write 4K 25fps. They also record 8 seconds of 4K 60fps. All CFAST cards work.

Not too surprising for me, as the 1DC was able to record on 1000x CF cards AND the video quality of the 1DC is even better / less noisy.


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## East Wind Photography (May 20, 2016)

douglaurent said:


> Tested it. Normal 1000x CF cards do write 4K 25fps. They also record 8 seconds of 4K 60fps. All CFAST cards work.
> 
> Not too surprising for me, as the 1DC was able to record on 1000x CF cards AND the video quality of the 1DC is even better / less noisy.



Are you able to record the full 30 minutes....or until the card is full? I was only able to get 10 minutes on a freshly formatted card before the buffer gave up. About 10 seconds at 60fps.


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## East Wind Photography (Jun 2, 2016)

So thought i would post an update to this. Obtained a 256gb Lexar Cfast 2.0 card 3500X model.

Started with a formatted card, fully charged battery, and the camera set for 4K 60 fps.

I was able to record 42 minutes of video with no frame drops and no buffer issues but had to restart the recording after 30 minutes which is a hard limit. The camera got very warm but not unbearably hot and it recorded until the card was full...then the camera shut down and i mean no displays until i cycled power. I checked the battery status under battery info and it was exactly 50%.

Not having a card reader, i tethered the camera to my computer and was not able to see the files in windows explorer that were over 4gb. They show as 0 bytes and not readable. This was the same for both win7 and win10.

I was able to transfer the files using EOS utility 3 but it was very slow. I believe the issue has to do with the windows cfs driver that is native to the os. Likely results will be different with an actual cfast card reader and dedicated drivers.


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## Bane (Aug 1, 2017)

douglaurent said:


> Tested it. Normal 1000x CF cards do write 4K 25fps. They also record 8 seconds of 4K 60fps.


Can you please confirm that you can record few seconds of 4k60p on CF card?


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 2, 2017)

I've just come across this and have interacted a bit on an alternate thread. 

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00LL4QUX0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_img?_encoding=UTF8&colid=11JC4ONZKCUUH&coliid=I27SM1ZYZP4PJD

I'm pretty insecure in what I'm doing but my thought was it's cheap enough that even for stills it's decent value. Presently I have only the Canon gift 64GB Cfast and a friends gift of a 8GB CF (all mine were SD). The seller states that it won't do 4k60 which I accept. Any comment appreciated?

Jack


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## gwooding (Aug 6, 2017)

Hi Jack,

I see that card is only rated at 160MB/s write so has a similar rating to the fastest CF cards on the market (it might be faster in the actual camera though). Therefore if you don't need any additional speed over standard 1066x CF cards I would say go for it (it is a nice option to just ensure you have a card in each slot).

I do believe with that card you will be able to do 4k30p without issue (I can shoot 4k30p on a Lexar 1066x CF card without issue).

Because a 256GB CFast 2.0 card in South Africa costs in excess of $1000 I decided to get a friend to bring me these two cards from the UK.

Integral Ultima Pro X2 64GB
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Integral-UltimaPro-CFast-Memory-Card/dp/B071Y43DZB/ref=sr_1_19?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1502039851&sr=1-19&keywords=cfast

Komputerbay Professional 3600x 256GB CFast 2.0
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Komputerbay-Professional-3600x-256GB-CFast-x/dp/B01LX7HEA0/ref=sr_1_18?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1502039851&sr=1-18&keywords=cfast

I bought the Integral as basically a gamble since it was so cheap while the Komputerbay seemed to get decent reviews.
I have attached benchmarks for the cards measured using a transcend CFast 2.0 to USB 3 reader. As you can see both cards measure pretty close and both should in theory be good enough for 4k60p.

In the real world I found I could achieve the following:
Komputerbay - I was able to hit the 30min limit
Integral - was a bit of a mixed bag, sometimes it would fill the card other times it would only shoot like 3 - 5min (I should mention that around 10 min is all you can get out of a 64GB card). I think this might be related to heat (I think the card might be getting too hot)

Lexar 128GB CF 1066x card - 13s


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## Cthulhu (Aug 7, 2017)

Bane said:


> douglaurent said:
> 
> 
> > Tested it. Normal 1000x CF cards do write 4K 25fps. They also record 8 seconds of 4K 60fps.
> ...



11 seconds on a lexar 1066 CF.


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 7, 2017)

Arydigital said:


> I'm pretty insecure in what I'm doing but my thought was it's cheap enough that even for stills it's decent value. Presently  Ary Tv Dramas
> I have only the Canon gift 64GB Cfast and a friends gift of a 8GB CF (all mine were SD). The seller states that it won't do 4k60 which I accept. Any comment appreciated?



You've lost me on this post??

Jack


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 7, 2017)

Thanks gwooding,

I didn't pull the trigger on the card I linked to but I will tomorrow just to have a large card for stills and if it works for video somewhat, fine.

My best option is to buy via Amazon.ca. It doesn't make a lot of sense to shop Britain, although in a couple weeks my son will be in London for a two year master's program so ... who knows.

Jack


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## gwooding (Aug 7, 2017)

Jack Douglas said:


> Thanks gwooding,
> 
> I didn't pull the trigger on the card I linked to but I will tomorrow just to have a large card for stills and if it works for video somewhat, fine.
> 
> ...



Hi Jack,

I think for you to buy in the UK would probably be more expensive (except if you decide to give the Integral cards a try).

If you are not interested in 4k60p then I believe that Transcend card you originally linked is great value. If you want to do 4k60p it will cost you an additional CDN$75.

https://www.amazon.ca/Komputerbay-Professional-3700x-128GB-CFast/dp/B01MSPELSS/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1502108715&sr=8-11&keywords=cfast+2.0

If you like when I get home I can try test photo (RAW & RAW + JPEG) buffer depth using my different cards.

Gareth


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 7, 2017)

Thanks Gareth. Don't trouble yourself on that issue. Last night I ordered one of the Transends. For 4K60 I actually wanted 256 so it's back to why did a poor guy buy a camera he can't afford cards for. 

I'm holding off, on more purchases and will follow whatever CR advice/info into the near future, there is. Next spring is soon enough for me regarding a proposed trip.

I should have the card in a week if anyone is interested in feedback on it.

Jack


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 8, 2017)

Wish I'd seen this before my purchase of 128. Seems impressive. Not after reading more. 

https://www.amazon.ca/Super-Talent-CFAST-Storage-FDM256JMDF/dp/B017YOX6Y6/ref=pd_sbs_504_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=Y87CQSBQE9BB8BTBE8K5

Jack


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 9, 2017)

My Transend CFX600 128 card arrived minutes ago and although it proves nothing I did pop it in and record about a 2 minute clip at 4K60.

I'm totally ignorant on video - the playback on my computer is jerky and seems like it's jumping from frame to frame. Looked OK on the camera. I can sure see how pulling frames could be interesting with 8M stills.

I'm supposed to be working and the boss isn't exactly thrilled, I mean wife, so back to the drudgery. 

Jack


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 10, 2017)

Well, I did manage to fill the card with 4K60, close to an half hour. I'm quite surprised and wondering if that's going to be hit and miss. Could these cards have different speeds due to a greater tolerance in manufacturing and sometimes be OK? The supplier said it wouldn't work.

As I said I have no experience and although I have Corel Video Studio X9, I haven't learned how to use it or even if it is up to the job. My first attempt to import the 1DX2 .mov file is failing, as if it doesn't recognize .mov. Should I record in an alternate format? Anyone willing to guide me just a bit to get started? 

Jack


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## gwooding (Aug 10, 2017)

That is great news that the Transcend can do 4k60p, in theory it is possible since to do 4k60p you only need 100MB/s and that card is rated higher than that. I had also seen some mixed reviews stating it could or couldn't do 4k60p so it is good to hear your experience. You might find that after using the card a while it will stop being able to fill with 4k60p when this happens performing a low level format of the card will normally sort this out.

As for the choppy playback that could be an issue with either your player (or PC hardware) or the actual video itself (the fact that it works on the camera steers me to it being your player). 4k60p can be very taxing to playback on a PC and some players don't handle it at all. I have had good results with Media Player Classic Home Cinema as well as VLC player.

In terms of editing I unfortunately don't know anything about Corel Video Studio X9, it does look like that is not the latest version of the software so you might need to upgrade to the latest version to open the files.

If you continue to have problems with it (unfortunately if I remember correctly you can't change the format of the files coming out of the camera) I can highly recommend Davinci Resolve 14 (the free version is very good to get started with video editing and grading). Initially version 14 didn't work with my 4k60p files but a subsequent update fixed it and it now works.

Editing 4k60p on my machine is smooth without any issues.
My PC specs are as follows:
Intel i7 5820k 6 core 12 thread CPU
32GB memory
Nvidia GTX 680 (this is currently my bottleneck and I intend on upgrading soon).
512GB ssd (OS Drive)
256GB NVME SSD (I use this as a sort of scratch drive since it is crazy fast)

Gareth


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 10, 2017)

gwooding said:


> That is great news that the Transcend can do 4k60p, in theory it is possible since to do 4k60p you only need 100MB/s and that card is rated higher than that. I had also seen some mixed reviews stating it could or couldn't do 4k60p so it is good to hear your experience. You might find that after using the card a while it will stop being able to fill with 4k60p when this happens performing a low level format of the card will normally sort this out.
> 
> As for the choppy playback that could be an issue with either your player (or PC hardware) or the actual video itself (the fact that it works on the camera steers me to it being your player). 4k60p can be very taxing to playback on a PC and some players don't handle it at all. I have had good results with Media Player Classic Home Cinema as well as VLC player.
> 
> ...



Gareth, thank you ever so much for this. My feeling, after reading more last night is that you are absolutely right about everything. It's starting to sink in. 

My good but 10 year old PC is no longer up to the task with its 6 GB of Ram etc. Nothing in my house can handle 4K viewing so really why am I shooting it. I guess the answer is that it gives flexibility and options if in due course I have something worthy of further editing, for example when I head back to that wonderful little island of Haida Gwaii. So, I'm sure I need to persevere and learn the basics.

Can you or anyone else recommend a good resource or book that would soften the pain of learning all this ASAP.

Jack


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## ethanz (Aug 10, 2017)

I would suggest that you don't shoot 4K. It is a beast to store long term, even short little clips. My computer is new and is quite fast but even it has problems playing 4k60. If you have the adobe CC, you can download Premier and use that to edit. You can easily work with 4K files and go frame by frame to grab/export stills. 

With our camera you can only shoot .mov with 4k. And if you are wanting to take frame grabs, you wouldn't want to shoot at the lower quality mp4 that it records anyways. Since you can take frame grabs right from the camera, so you shouldn't even need software. 

If you are just interested in making home movies, I would again not suggest using 4k. It takes a good editor and time to learn that editor. HD is great. As we talked about on other threads, don't listen to all the forum dwellers mocking Canon's lack of 4k as being such a big deal.


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## ethanz (Aug 10, 2017)

Jack Douglas said:


> Arydigital said:
> 
> 
> > I'm pretty insecure in what I'm doing but my thought was it's cheap enough that even for stills it's decent value. Presently  Ary Tv Dramas
> ...



He is a bot or some kind of advertiser. Posting a link by using your post.


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## ethanz (Aug 10, 2017)

Komputerbay has been around for a while (at least for being an electronics company). I bought computer memory from them like 10 years ago.


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 10, 2017)

ethanz, thanks for the comments. Did I somehow contribute to that bot? 

My thought about 4K is that I would be doing short clips, mainly of wildlife, primarily birds and would like the ability to assemble a short movie that allowed me to crop or zoom in etc. so wouldn't it make sense to record in 4K. However, what about 60 vs 30??

I wish I could get my hands on a good resource to study.

BTW I glanced through the manual and didn't see how to grab frames in camera. It must be in there then. Too much on the go at one time seems to be my present problem.

Jack


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## ethanz (Aug 10, 2017)

Except in a previous post you said you got 20 minutes of 4k60 chasing birds, which if I am correct is at least 100GB! A couple of seconds is several hundred MBs, which adds up quickly. Yes the ability to 'zoom' in while editing is nice, which is why I use 4k (my interviews are typically 4k24) and export as 1080. With birds you would want 60p. And I don't know about your experience, but trying to use the live view to chase a small bird was quite challenging and 95% focus failure for me. 

If you play a video file from your camera, all the way to the right, above the bottom row of play options is the frame grab button. 

Regarding your video editor, there is a work around. I looked and it does appear the corel x9 can at least edit 4k (not sure about 60p). It can also create proxies. Essentially a proxy is your same exact video file but downsized into a more reasonable video file. The software uses that to make the edits but then will revert back to the 4k file when you are exporting the final movie. On your older machine it might take quite a while to encode the proxies from 4k files, but it is a worth a shot. You could search online for how to create proxies in your software.


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## gwooding (Aug 10, 2017)

Jack Douglas said:


> gwooding said:
> 
> 
> > That is great news that the Transcend can do 4k60p, in theory it is possible since to do 4k60p you only need 100MB/s and that card is rated higher than that. I had also seen some mixed reviews stating it could or couldn't do 4k60p so it is good to hear your experience. You might find that after using the card a while it will stop being able to fill with 4k60p when this happens performing a low level format of the card will normally sort this out.
> ...



It's a pleasure, I will try find some resources to recommend to you over the weekend. If you have any specific questions feel free to pm me and I will try answer as best as I can.

As to whether to shoot 4K or not I think as mentioned by ethanz there are both positives and negatives. But I have to say looking at 4K footage on my 50" 4K tv looks amazing. The biggest drawback is just the vast amount of space it takes.

To be honest unless you want slow motion or screen grabs of fast subjects (although for screen grabs I would probably break the 2x shutter speed rule so that you can freeze the motion in video, this will make the video look weird though) I would just go with 4k30p.


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 11, 2017)

Thanks guys. It's always very painful and frustrating getting started when you don't have someone to run to for help. Right now I'm trying to do too many things.

The 25 minutes or so of 4K60 I did was nothing at all just trying out the card to see if it would keep recording. When I do actual bird video probably 10-30 seconds would be long, so I think 4K is no problem.

I have a request active with Corel (uploading about a 3 sec. clip of a chickadee - around 300MB!!) regarding why I can't load my 4K60 clip into the timeline. I don't even know if I'm following the correct procedure. Of course impatient me doesn't want to watch 3 or 4 hours of how to video help. 

Sounds like I should relax and let my wife get a 4K TV. She's a rare bird, the type that pushes me into new expensive photo gear when I'm resisting. :-\

Jack


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## ethanz (Aug 11, 2017)

Lol, yes get her a 4K tv if you want to.

My guess is Corel can't read 4K60p. I didn't read it anywhere, so its just a guess. 

What was your experience with keeping focus of the small birds in live view video?

Feel free to PM me as well.


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 11, 2017)

ethanz said:


> Lol, yes get her a 4K tv if you want to.
> 
> My guess is Corel can't read 4K60p. I didn't read it anywhere, so its just a guess.
> 
> ...



My experience is not going to be typical because I was shooting with 800mm and the bird was not that small as a result. The tracking was excellent and the focus quick and it had me wanting to do more. I uploaded 3 seconds of a chickadee for the Corel guy, if you want to look here it is:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2ySR23ld7gXaHZzNnZVTkRjYWM/view?usp=sharing

This was just grab 3 seconds only to have a representative .mov for him so it's nothing worthy. Took me 1/2 hour to upload 3 seconds!!

Jack


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## brianftpc (Aug 24, 2017)

Idk if this was resolved yet bc I only read the 1st page and got tired of reading. Cards have a minimum continuous write speed. Some CF cards rated at 90-100MB/s only ahve a continuous speed of 20MB/s. Which si why it will record a while then stop. The NEWEST CF cards have a continuous speed of 65MB/s which is why they will do 4k 30p at 500mb/s or 62.5MB/s. Also with the Sandisk CFast 2 cards you have to do full format every now and then bc they slow down over time. My 64GB CFast 2 card stopped recording any 4k then I did a FULL FORMAT and it was fine again. Sandisk has a specific program for their cards to do this on their website. Their CF cards must not have this issue but will only do 30fps 4k.


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 24, 2017)

Just thought I'd update that the TS128GCFX600 Transend CFast card referenced earlier in this thread that I bought for around $130 CAD has not presented any problems with 4K60 so far and I'm toying with buying another because it's big and not expensive relative to CF cards and can be used for photos if video is too challenging.

I had trouble playing back 4K60 on my computer but not anymore after downloading Canon's Video player, which also facilitates frame grabs nicely.

Since I'm new to video probably all my questions are pretty clueless. Does 4K60 play back at half speed and if so since it seems to, can it be used to produce video at normal speed.

I've pretty much figured out the camera relative to video but on the processing side I don't know where to begin both in learning and in acquiring software.

Corel is still working on my issue with not being able to open my 4K60 files and I've uploaded samples for them but it's taking a long time. It's video studio X9 that I have and it's supposed to handle .mov.

Jack


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 24, 2017)

Just checked - the card I bought was $120 and it's now listed at $220 from the same place! Guess that changes my re-purchase plans.

Jack


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## ethanz (Aug 24, 2017)

Jack Douglas said:


> Since I'm new to video probably all my questions are pretty clueless. Does 4K60 play back at half speed and if so since it seems to, can it be used to produce video at normal speed.



I'm glad you got it to play. Where is this Canon video player?

Regarding playback speed, that is a difficult question. I have made 60p movies and played on mac computers just fine with normal speed. But I played some 60p movies on a windows machine and discovered that it was half speed (the audio was normal speed though...). So I won't be much help at answering that Jack.


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 24, 2017)

ethanz said:


> Jack Douglas said:
> 
> 
> > Since I'm new to video probably all my questions are pretty clueless. Does 4K60 play back at half speed and if so since it seems to, can it be used to produce video at normal speed.
> ...



Sorry I can't remember right now which Canon site. I just checked one and it wasn't there. I'll try to find it later. It's EOS MOVIE Utility. Honest, it's on my computer right now. 

Found it in history a few days back! Boy have I wasted a lot of time on the internet lately!!

https://www.canon-europe.com/support/consumer_products/products/cameras/digital_slr/eos-1d_x_mark_ii.aspx?type=software&softwaredescriptionid=tcm:13-1331801&os=WINDOWS%207%20(64-bit)&language=EN

Jack


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## Viggo (Aug 25, 2017)

I see that there are two types of Sandisk CFast cards, one with a little video symbol in the bottom
Left corner and one without.

Can I record 4K 60fps on the "non-video" version?


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## Talys (Sep 3, 2017)

Jack Douglas said:


> My experience is not going to be typical because I was shooting with 800mm and the bird was not that small as a result. The tracking was excellent and the focus quick and it had me wanting to do more. I uploaded 3 seconds of a chickadee for the Corel guy, if you want to look here it is:
> 
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2ySR23ld7gXaHZzNnZVTkRjYWM/view?usp=sharing
> 
> ...



Cool video, Jack! I love chickadees. We have an endless stream of them all day  

Was that an 800mm prime or 400mm with a x2? The vibration is very bumpy, but there are super clear paused frames. I can see why you'd want to do more!

Thank you for sharing!


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## ethanz (Sep 3, 2017)

He has the 400 DO IS II with a 2X III. At that FL it is very hard to not be bumpy lol.


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## Jack Douglas (Sep 4, 2017)

Bumpy yes, and I sent a suggestion to Canon to put touch shutter on the LCD. Just pressing a button causes shake. I guess I'll have to dig out my remote release. Imagine touch focus and no touch shutter!

I wish more people would contact Canon regarding shortcomings.

Jack


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