# SD/CF adapters



## Cali_PH (Apr 9, 2012)

Anyone have much experience with SD-to-CF adapters in their cameras? Any pitfalls/issues to worry about, such as 'xx' brand having a lot of failures, etc.?

I'll be renting a 5D mkIII for an upcoming trip, and do not have many CF cards and buying them seems a bit pointless at this stage (been shooting with a 60D/T2i). Since I have many SD cards, I hope to be able to use a SD-to-CF adapter. I'll probably also use SD cards in the SD slot for backup in case the adapter has issues. I shoot mostly landscape so transfer speed shouldnt be a huge issue, if the adapter slows data transfer down. Most of my SD cards are Sandisk, Class 10+, 30, 45, or 60 MB/s.

Thanks in advance!


----------



## briansquibb (Apr 10, 2012)

Cali_PH said:


> Anyone have much experience with SD-to-CF adapters in their cameras? Any pitfalls/issues to worry about, such as 'xx' brand having a lot of failures, etc.?
> 
> I'll be renting a 5D mkIII for an upcoming trip, and do not have many CF cards and buying them seems a bit pointless at this stage (been shooting with a 60D/T2i). Since I have many SD cards, I hope to be able to use a SD-to-CF adapter. I'll probably also use SD cards in the SD slot for backup in case the adapter has issues. I shoot mostly landscape so transfer speed shouldnt be a huge issue, if the adapter slows data transfer down. Most of my SD cards are Sandisk, Class 10+, 30, 45, or 60 MB/s.
> 
> Thanks in advance!



Why not use the SD cards? The 5DIII supports both CF and SD cards


----------



## Cali_PH (Apr 10, 2012)

briansquibb said:


> Why not use the SD cards? The 5DIII supports both CF and SD cards



Well, like I mentioned I was planning on it, for backup. Specifically, either RAW to CF and Jpg to the SD, or RAW to both. It's kind of a big trip so I like the idea of backup cards in case there's issues


----------



## Mt Spokane Photography (Apr 10, 2012)

*Beware*

The 5D MK III does not have room for CF Type II cards, which is what most adapters require. Its on pg 32 of the manual in the footnote. 

The 5D MK II did accept a CF Type II card because it had more space.

If you can find a SDHC or SDXC adapter that fits in a type I slot, then it might work. I've only seen them for micro sd cards.


----------



## Cali_PH (Apr 10, 2012)

Mt. Spokane Photography, thank you, I wasn't aware of that. Unfortunately I think the adapter I have is a type II. I'll check into type I's. I suppose I may consider buying a couple of CF's before the trip, even though the chances of a card failure are pretty slim.


----------



## CanineCandidsByL (Apr 10, 2012)

You should also know that the performance of the adapters is fairly poor. Unfortunately the one I have (Delkin) is a type 2, so can't compare the 5d3 direct SD performance against an SD inside an adapter, however I suspect the one in the adapter would be roughly 30 to 50% slower based on the same in a 7d.


----------



## briansquibb (Apr 10, 2012)

Are you not taking a laptop/tablet? If so just make sure you have a reader and store the contents each day.


----------



## Cali_PH (Apr 10, 2012)

CanineCandidsByL said:


> You should also know that the performance of the adapters is fairly poor. Unfortunately the one I have (Delkin) is a type 2, so can't compare the 5d3 direct SD performance against an SD inside an adapter, however I suspect the one in the adapter would be roughly 30 to 50% slower based on the same in a 7d.



Ah, I was wondering if that was the case. But 30-50% is much worse than I would have expected. Thank you.



briansquibb said:


> Are you not taking a laptop/tablet? If so just make sure you have a reader and store the contents each day.



I'm taking a laptop, but that doesn't help in the scenario where a card fails while I'm out shooting. Hopefully the Sandisk recovery software would get my pictures back, but I've never used it, or seen much commentary on it. I'd hate to lose a day's worth of shots. And before anyone asks, no, I'm not planning on taking a laptop on my hikes 

For a bit more detail, I'm heading out on some of the 'grand circle' in Utah/Arizona, and many days I'll be out before dawn, back after sunset, and will probably have hundreds of shots a day between downloads. Murphy's law tells me this will be a perfect time to have a card fail on me ;D


----------



## Mt Spokane Photography (Apr 10, 2012)

There doesn't seem to be any big sales going on right now, I bought a 64GB Samdisk SDXC Class 10 for $87 from Amazon last week.

Adorama consistently has a fair price on memory.

Lexar 64GB 60 mb/sec $180 http://www.adorama.com/ILXCF40064GN.html

Thats large enough to take a lot of Raw images, so you won't have to change it out during the day. Sandisk has a similar one that might cost $20 more.

You can likely sell it if you don't want to keep it.


----------



## briansquibb (Apr 10, 2012)

I have only used cf cards and never have 1 fail

Do sd cards fail when in use? - ie if you leave it in the camera and download using the EOS utility I would not expect it to fail.


----------



## CanineCandidsByL (Apr 10, 2012)

briansquibb said:


> I have only used cf cards and never have 1 fail
> 
> Do sd cards fail when in use? - ie if you leave it in the camera and download using the EOS utility I would not expect it to fail.



They can fail in use...I'm not sure if leaving in the camera would make it more/less likely to fail. On the one hand, there is less handling and exposure to the environment, on the other hand there is less opportunity to inspect the card's contacts for corrosion or other build up.

I'd probably pull the card out once every 1 to 3 months to inspect and clean to get the best of both worlds. And I'd probably replace it every year or two as the memory will wear with use, although it should last far longer than most of us would use them.


----------

