# The beauty of CF cards.



## Ozarker (Feb 12, 2016)

I've been learning a little more each day. Yesterday the skies opened up and the angels began to sing. 

I've been disappointed in the buffer on the 5D3 as it seemed very shallow and slow to write files to the cards.

I don't make money from my hobby. So I thought I would see the difference it makes to remove the SD card and shoot with just the CF card.

The results? WOW!!!! I can hold the shutter button down for what seems like an eternity. In fact, I never hit a point that required me to stop shooting and wait for the camera to catch up. That was shooting in the largest RAW file size the camera makes! I never hit the red light that tells one to wait on the camera to finish writing.

It didn't speed up the framerate, of course, but it did instill a huge amount of confidence in the camera as my primary for shooting sports and birds.

This is a great discovery for me personally. Now I see why the 1DX Mark II has that CFast slot.

The next iterations of the 7D (Mark II) and the 70D (Mark II) would really benefit from at least a CF card or better yet... CFAST


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## neuroanatomist (Feb 12, 2016)

There are faster SD cards...but your 5DIII can't use the extra speed. My 1D X does fine at 12 fps writing RAW to both CF.


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## Valvebounce (Feb 12, 2016)

Hi CanonFanBoy. 
I'm really quite surprised that you haven't picked up on that before, it has been mentioned here quite frequently, including the debate on whether it does or does not make a difference. I think a part of the problem is what class of SD card you are using and whether it has had a low level format recently. 
As for the 7D, the original had a CF and the 7D II has CF and SD, I doubt canon will go back to CF on the XXD range, up to the 50D they had CF, 60D has SD ??? :'( unless of course it is like AFMA which wasn't (40D) was (50D) wasn't (60D) is 70D! ;D

Cheers, Graham.


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## Ozarker (Feb 12, 2016)

Valvebounce said:


> Hi CanonFanBoy.
> I'm really quite surprised that you haven't picked up on that before, it has been mentioned here quite frequently, including the debate on whether it does or does not make a difference. I think a part of the problem is what class of SD card you are using and whether it has had a low level format recently.
> As for the 7D, the original had a CF and the 7D II has CF and SD, I doubt canon will go back to CF on the XXD range, up to the 50D they had CF, 60D has SD ??? :'( unless of course it is like AFMA which wasn't (40D) was (50D) wasn't (60D) is 70D! ;D
> 
> Cheers, Graham.



Don't be too surprised at my slow absorption of the knowledge found here on the forum. I've had some cognitive problems of late related to blood clots. 

This new revelation (for me) has me thinking about selling my 70D and 400 f/5.6L to switch to the 7D Mark II.

However, a !DX Mark II is 3 years down the road for me.

For those who doubt it makes a difference, I most certainly does. My SD Card is the SanDisk Extreme Pro and class 10. I'll only be shooting with the CF card from now on. Amazing.


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## Ryan708 (Feb 12, 2016)

Out of curiosity, Had you done a "Low Level" format to the SD card prior? My cameras only have the SD card option, but I am curious if I should upgrade to a newer SDXC card with 95+ Mb/Sec write speed...


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## Deleted member 91053 (Feb 12, 2016)

Please correct me if I am wrong but I believe the problem with the 5D3 and SD cards is SD card slot in the camera. From what I read it is of an older slower format so it cannot take advantage of the faster cards currently available. I don't have a 5D3, but in my 7D2 the SD card (Sandisk Extreme Pro 95 MB/s) gives up only a little to my CF card (Lexar 1000X) so I can only assume there is a newer/better SD card slot in the 7D2.
Pity they didn't fit it in the 5D3!


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## pwp (Feb 12, 2016)

Canonfanboy you could consider only pulling out the SD in situations where you really need the deeper buffer. I'd always been CF only but a recent Lexar x1066 CF failure (with possible loss of a client) made me switch to SD/CF. 

It's annoying in the extreme that Canon has put mixed card slots in EOS bodies, including the just released 1DX II. The one and only twin CF was the 1DX. 

-pw


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## dolina (Feb 12, 2016)

When you want to improve your CF slot's buffer then buy yourself a Sandisk Extreme Pro *160MB*/s card or a Lexar *1066x* card that are either 32GB-64GB or larger. It will outperform any SD card.

I think the inclusion of SD cards has to do with sheer popularity of the, slow, standard.

On BH there are less than 81 SDXC, 93 SDHC, 2 SD, 40 micro SDXC, and 57 micro SDHC SKUs on sale.

CF cards by comparison only have less than 71 SKUs.

The UHS-II standard of SD cards is supposed to allow for transfers of up 2,080x that would surpass the spec limit of 1,113x of UDMA 7 CF cards. By comparison CFast and XQD are limited to 4,000x and 6,666x respectively.

Sadly only a handful of cameras support it and none of them are Canon.

Another way to look at it is that there are less than 15 SLR bodies that use CF cards, less than 41 SLR bodies that uses SD.

Mirrorless has less than 60 bodies with SD and less than 3 bodies that uses micro SD.

I expect Canon, Nikon and Sigma abandoning CF cards by as late as 2020 in favor of CFast or XQD cards. Hopefully by then all camera brands will standardize their SD slots to UHS-II.

I really wished that the successor to CF cards was only one rather than two standards namely CFast or XQD. With the current decline of dedicated still cameras does not help in maximizing economies of scale that would result in cheaper cards, slots and readers.


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## tcmatthews (Feb 12, 2016)

The sad thing is it did not have to be that way. The faster SD write standard had been out for a while before Canon released the Canon 5D III. The cards were rare but they existed. It was my main complaint beside the cost. My Sony A7II does take advantage of the faster SD cards. And the difference was noticeable compared the 6D I sold. 

The 5Ds/5Dsr and 7DII do not have this issue.


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## dolina (Feb 12, 2016)

tcmatthews said:


> The sad thing is it did not have to be that way. The faster SD write standard had been out for a while before Canon released the Canon 5D III. The cards were rare but they existed. It was my main complaint beside the cost. My Sony A7II does take advantage of the faster SD cards. And the difference was noticeable compared the 6D I sold.
> 
> The 5Ds/5Dsr and 7DII do not have this issue.



All the bodies mentioned do not support UHS-II at 2,080x. They are limited to UHS-I at 693x, at best.


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## tcmatthews (Feb 13, 2016)

dolina said:


> tcmatthews said:
> 
> 
> > The sad thing is it did not have to be that way. The faster SD write standard had been out for a while before Canon released the Canon 5D III. The cards were rare but they existed. It was my main complaint beside the cost. My Sony A7II does take advantage of the faster SD cards. And the difference was noticeable compared the 6D I sold.
> ...



I know but the 5D III can not even reach full UHS-I.


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## dolina (Feb 13, 2016)

tcmatthews said:


> I know but the 5D III can not even reach full UHS-I.


To think UHS-I was spec'd in 2009. 

Let us hope that the 5D Mark IV will be CFast + UHS-II SD.


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## SeppOz (Feb 13, 2016)

Rob Galbraith measured the speeds see ....
http://www.robgalbraith.com/camera_wb_multi_page7de5.html?cid=6007-12452
SD card speeds are limited to about 20MB/s


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## [email protected] (Feb 13, 2016)

I believe there was a firmware update for the 5d3 that prevented the SD card slot from slowing down the CF card when an SD card was in the camera. I did not experience this myself. I bought a 5D3 only last year, and it came functioning in this correct way. But I read that early copies of the camera had both slots limited to the slowest card, even when the camera was not set to copy files to both slots. If true, perhaps the original poster had an old copy and could benefit from upgrading the firmware. He didn't mention what mode he was shooting in when he experienced the slowness.


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## Busted Knuckles (Feb 13, 2016)

I do raw to CF and jpg to the SD - buffer is plenty deep for my needs. SD slot is slower. Not sure what the write speed on the Extreme Pro is - class 10 is really not all that fast if that is what the write speed is limited to (HD H264 speeds)


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## dolina (Feb 13, 2016)

SeppOz said:


> Rob Galbraith measured the speeds see ....
> http://www.robgalbraith.com/camera_wb_multi_page7de5.html?cid=6007-12452
> SD card speeds are limited to about 20MB/s



Data transfer speeds before UHS-I was limited to less than 25MB/s.


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## drmikeinpdx (Feb 13, 2016)

I stopped using the SD card shortly after I got my 5D3 due to the slowing problem. It would be nice to use it as a backup to the CF card. Perhaps I should try that again and see if one of the software updates fixed the problem.

Fortunately, I have had no problems using Lexar 1066 CF cards. No data loss, no slowing. I've never had to replace one. Life is good.


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## Pookie (Feb 13, 2016)

The only time I ever use the SD slot is for Eye-fi small image transfer to an iPad or laptop for pseudo-tethered shooting with clients. I have a few corporate clients that request files immediately afterwards and I will ask for SD card from them if this is required. Other than those situs it is never used.


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## pwp (Feb 13, 2016)

dolina said:


> Let us hope that the 5D Mark IV will be CFast + UHS-II SD.


I hope not. No more mixed card set ups. They're a darn nuicence. Nikon solved this nicely with their latest release offering either twin CF or twin XQD (is that what they're called?) cards. For a fee your choice is reversible at a later date. Thoughtful and clever. Historically mixed card set ups will be seen as a transitionary unfortunate blip.

-pw


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## J.R. (Feb 13, 2016)

pwp said:


> dolina said:
> 
> 
> > Let us hope that the 5D Mark IV will be CFast + UHS-II SD.
> ...



I couldn't agree more. Mixed card set-ups don't work for me either. 

The only reason I've used SD cards in my cameras is that they offer the benefit of quick transfer of images to a computer - especially when shooting for friends and family who demand the photos then and there. Other times when I'm traveling with minimal gear and the CF card reader is just another thing I want to avoid carrying.


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## kaihp (Feb 13, 2016)

dolina said:


> SeppOz said:
> 
> 
> > Rob Galbraith measured the speeds see ....
> ...



To add to dolina's comment: Rob stopped updating his pages back in July 2012. You shouldn't be using his pages as a reference for up-to-date memory card speeds, but pages like http://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/


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## Zv (Feb 13, 2016)

kaihp said:


> dolina said:
> 
> 
> > SeppOz said:
> ...



Thanks for the link! How did I not know about cameramemoryspeed?


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## dolina (Feb 13, 2016)

pwp said:


> dolina said:
> 
> 
> > Let us hope that the 5D Mark IV will be CFast + UHS-II SD.
> ...


With Nikon's D500 they went with XQD + UHS-II SD.  I do agree, the SD card is just nuisance. Only reason I would use it is for the eyeFI.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Feb 13, 2016)

dolina said:


> With Nikon's D500 they went with XQD + UHS-II SD.  I do agree, the SD card is just nuisance. Only reason I would use it is for the eyeFI.



And Now, there is a certified eye-Fi CF holder that works, so you do not need a SD slot for eye-fi. I have a non certified holder and it works for some cameras, but not my old 5D Classic where I wanted to use it. I find myself using eye-fi in my 5D MK III slot to send jpgs to my pc as I shoot. I go thru those, and only bother with raws for images I want to keep permanently.


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## dolina (Feb 13, 2016)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> And Now, there is a certified eye-Fi CF holder that works, so you do not need a SD slot for eye-fi. I have a non certified holder and it works for some cameras, but not my old 5D Classic where I wanted to use it. I find myself using eye-fi in my 5D MK III slot to send jpgs to my pc as I shoot. I go thru those, and only bother with raws for images I want to keep permanently.


Good to know but too little too late. CF is being phased out and new bodies have built-in WiFi already.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Feb 14, 2016)

dolina said:


> Mt Spokane Photography said:
> 
> 
> > And Now, there is a certified eye-Fi CF holder that works, so you do not need a SD slot for eye-fi. I have a non certified holder and it works for some cameras, but not my old 5D Classic where I wanted to use it. I find myself using eye-fi in my 5D MK III slot to send jpgs to my pc as I shoot. I go thru those, and only bother with raws for images I want to keep permanently.
> ...



Wait until you try it. Unless they have made big strides, its a pain compared to eye-fi. Hopefully the 1DX II is a new generation of Wi-Fi.


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## Ozarker (Feb 14, 2016)

Really is quite amazing.

Using a SanDisk Extreme Pro 160mb/s 64GB 65 UDMA 7Card I got the following results each at continuous shooting of 2 mins on a 5D Mark II:

Largest Raw File: 339 Shots
Smallest Raw File: 255 Shots
Smallest JPEG: 182 Shots

The results are counter intuitive to me. I would thin less shots on the larger files than the small files. Very strange. At no point during the test did the buffer fill up. For a guy that like to shoot birds this is great news to me.

I format my card after each shooting session.


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## Ozarker (Feb 14, 2016)

Ryan708 said:


> Out of curiosity, Had you done a "Low Level" format to the SD card prior? My cameras only have the SD card option, but I am curious if I should upgrade to a newer SDXC card with 95+ Mb/Sec write speed...



I format my cards after every session once the photos are on my computer. Is that what you mean? I'm not sure whether or not that is what I should be doing, but it is what I do. Thanks for asking.


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## Ozarker (Feb 14, 2016)

pwp said:


> Canonfanboy you could consider only pulling out the SD in situations where you really need the deeper buffer. I'd always been CF only but a recent Lexar x1066 CF failure (with possible loss of a client) made me switch to SD/CF.
> 
> It's annoying in the extreme that Canon has put mixed card slots in EOS bodies, including the just released 1DX II. The one and only twin CF was the 1DX.
> 
> -pw



I think that is exactly what I'll be doing. I don't have any paying clients, but when shotting portraits I can switch to dual cards.

However, when birding or shooting a football game I'll just use the CF card.

The burst speed of the otherwise fantastic 5D III is just too slow to also be waiting on the buffer slowing things down due to the SD card.

I've absolutely loved my 70D, but I am seriously thinking of selling it and my EF 400mm f/5.6L to help finance a 7D mark II. I could use the CF card, 10FPS, and apparently bottomless buffer if I leave the SD card out.

Also, the layout would be very similar to my 5D Mark III. That would be very nice. I'm guessing Ebay would be the best route for that. Surely selling those two items would get me close to having the money for a 7D Mark II. My EX 2 Mark II would cover the 400MM.

What do y'all think? KEH is out of the question.

It is just amazing what leaving that SD card out does for the camera.


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## Valvebounce (Feb 14, 2016)

Hi CanonFanBoy. 
First the shot count, I believe that would be down to extra processing involved in down sampling the pixel count for the reduced size raw and JPEG. 
Re the format, quick format only marks the card as empty, a full format wipes the card clean. (Writes zeros to each address?)




CanonFanBoy said:


> Really is quite amazing.
> 
> Using a SanDisk Extreme Pro 160mb/s 64GB 65 UDMA 7Card I got the following results each at continuous shooting of 2 mins on a 5D Mark II:
> 
> ...



Second, the 7DII doesn't seem to suffer the same with the SD card, not that I have shot 10 fps until it stopped, but bursts plenty enough for a sports shoot don't leave it buffering. Possibly the result of having dual Digic 6 processors. 
I would not get rid of the 400 expecting to rely on the 70-200 + 2x, I think you would miss the resolution of the 400 bare and not being able to go to 800 would be my concern, but then I often feel focal length limited, if you rarely get that long you may be ok with it for the odd occasion. 

Cheers, Graham. 



CanonFanBoy said:


> I think that is exactly what I'll be doing. I don't have any paying clients, but when shotting portraits I can switch to dual cards.
> 
> However, when birding or shooting a football game I'll just use the CF card.
> 
> ...


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## kaihp (Feb 14, 2016)

Valvebounce said:


> Re the format, quick format only marks the card as empty, a full format wipes the card clean. (Writes zeros to each address?)



Flash erase restores bitcells to ones, not zeros. Yeah, not intuitive.


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## Valvebounce (Feb 15, 2016)

Hi Kaihp. 
Oh well 50/50 chance I would get it wrong! ;D

Cheers, Graham. 



kaihp said:


> Valvebounce said:
> 
> 
> > Re the format, quick format only marks the card as empty, a full format wipes the card clean. (Writes zeros to each address?)
> ...


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## Ozarker (Feb 19, 2016)

pwp said:


> Canonfanboy you could consider only pulling out the SD in situations where you really need the deeper buffer. I'd always been CF only but a recent Lexar x1066 CF failure (with possible loss of a client) made me switch to SD/CF.
> 
> It's annoying in the extreme that Canon has put mixed card slots in EOS bodies, including the just released 1DX II. The one and only twin CF was the 1DX.
> 
> -pw



I took your advice and removed the SD card. The buffer is now much deeper and framerate seems faster. Thanks!


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## Ozarker (Feb 19, 2016)

Ryan708 said:


> Out of curiosity, Had you done a "Low Level" format to the SD card prior? My cameras only have the SD card option, but I am curious if I should upgrade to a newer SDXC card with 95+ Mb/Sec write speed...



Yes. After uploading files to my computer I alway format the card.


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## mjg79 (Feb 19, 2016)

Hi I'm new here and newly back to the Canon fold. I hope I'll be able to contribute to this great forum.

To cut a long story short I have ordered a new 5DS. I am very excited about it but have to figure out what to do with memory cards and wondered if anyone here has any practical experience with those giant files.

I have been with Sony for the last few years so all the modern fast cards I have are SD cards. My compact flash cards are all quite old now and I am sure much slower than my current SD cards.

Can anyone who has shot the 5DS/R give their impressions on the SD vs CF situation for the 50mp files? I have read the test sites that have found that the latest CF cards are getting a write speed of around 90-100 MB/s with the latest SD cards managing about 70. My question is, how do those numbers translate into real world experience? Is it worth going for CF cards? I am an all-round photographer, fast bursts aren't that important to me but I also don't want to make the camera unpleasant to use.

And even within the CF card or SD card camp I note quite different numbers for example between sandisk "extreme" SD cards and "extreme pro" SD cards (and the same with both types of CF cards). The pro ones are a great deal more expensive though so before I start spending serious money I would love to know if anyone here can chip in with their experience. In particular, would using something like an "Extreme" 90MB/s SDXC card be a real problem leaving me wishing I had spent the money on a faster CF card? Or are those differences not very important in the real world?

Also I notice there are some SD cards coming onto the market with MB/s figures far in excess of what CF cards advertise. I understand that the 5DS won't be able to make use of their speed but I have the feeling that such cards might be a better bet for the future as I have no idea how much longer Canon will continue with CF cards - I suppose the 5D IV whenever it comes out will give us the best clue. I can't see SD cards going anywhere for a while though so I feel they might be a better bet... yet reading the forum here many seem much happier with their fast CF cards. It leaves me wondering if it's the sort of situation with USB vs Thunderbolt where USB has high official figures but in practice doesn't work quite that fast and Thunderbolt will be faster for external drives etc - is there some inherent advantage to CF cards that I am missing I wonder?


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## ajfotofilmagem (Feb 20, 2016)

mjg79 said:


> Hi I'm new here and newly back to the Canon fold. I hope I'll be able to contribute to this great forum.
> 
> To cut a long story short I have ordered a new 5DS. I am very excited about it but have to figure out what to do with memory cards and wondered if anyone here has any practical experience with those giant files.
> 
> ...


Speed specifications published by the manufacturers of SD cards, refer to the reading speed only. The write speed is usually much slower and sustained continuous recording speed is even slower.

A typical SD-HC Sandisk Ultra 80MB / s can be read up to 80MB / s, recorded up to 60MB / s, but the guaranteed minimum sustained speed for continuous recording is 10MB / s.

To get closer to the maximum recording speed (available for short periods) 60MB / s do format the card by activating the "low level format".

With a card as described above, you ~ and can do short bursts until the camera's buffer is full, and the frame rate decreases.


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## dolina (Feb 20, 2016)

mjg79 said:


> Hi I'm new here and newly back to the Canon fold. I hope I'll be able to contribute to this great forum.
> 
> To cut a long story short I have ordered a new 5DS. I am very excited about it but have to figure out what to do with memory cards and wondered if anyone here has any practical experience with those giant files.
> 
> ...


I find cf card write speeds on the 5ds r really slow even with 1066x and 160MB/s cards. I could image how frustrating it will be even with a uhs-i bus SD cards.


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## mjg79 (Feb 20, 2016)

Thank you dolina and ajfotofilmagem for your replies. I can see this is an area that merits some more study and perhaps expense. I've never owned a camera with a resolution above 24mp before so have never paid that much attention to it.

This was the website I was quoting figures from:

http://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/canon-5ds/sd-cf-card-comparison/

It seems quite comprehensive and might help some others here. I have a 32gb Sandisk Extreme SD card that says 80MB/s but I see how those figures are massaged. But I will give it a try on the 5DS and see if it bothers me and if it's worth spending more on some faster CF cards.

Probably the most confusing to me of the results given by that site was that the Sandisk Extreme CF cards 120MB/s proved slower than the Sandisk Extreme SD 80MB/s card. I had seen some quite good prices on that particular CF card and was considering buying a couple of big capacity ones but - at least according to that site - it isn't as fast as the "equivalent" SD card.

With the Extreme Pro types the CF card is faster than the SD card so I might just bite the bullet and spend some more to get it.


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## dolina (Feb 21, 2016)

mjg79 said:


> Thank you dolina and ajfotofilmagem for your replies. I can see this is an area that merits some more study and perhaps expense. I've never owned a camera with a resolution above 24mp before so have never paid that much attention to it.
> 
> This was the website I was quoting figures from:
> 
> ...


In the past, just like you, I would give much thought and read the whole article.

Today, when visiting the site I just scroll down to the bottom and just pick whichever card it recommends excluding the KOMPUTERBay.

For CF cards the fastest are those Sandisk 160MB/s and Lexar 1066x. While SD cards the Lexar 2000x are to have. These two brands are the only game in town. All others are too expensive or slow as they do not have the economies of scale to lower the price as much as Sandisk and Lexar.

You are in luck. Sandisk and Lexar lowered their prices this month.

I have whittled down my 10 year spanning twenty-five piece collection to one 128GB 1066x card per body. I had so many cards that most of the time I misplace them. Even found one with photos from 2010. >_<

When prices for 256GB 1066x fall near $100 I will sell all my 128GB 1066x cards for them.


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## expatinasia (Feb 21, 2016)

dolina said:


> When prices for 256GB 1066x fall near $100 I will sell all my 128GB 1066x cards for them.



When prices are that low, CF cards will no longer be all that important. In fact, people may have already started talking about the 1DX Mark III by then.

Plus, if you are using a Canon camera with a CF card in it, then it is unlikely to shoot 4K which means that there is very little reason to have a 256GB card in the camera anyway.

It is hard to fill 64GB on a normal day and even harder to fill 128GB in a day even when shooting an all day-sports event.

I delete all pictures from my cards daily. I use 2x 64GB 1066X (Lexar) and have no need for 128GB, and definitely not 256GB and I shoot video too. That will only change when I start to shoot 4K video.


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## dolina (Feb 21, 2016)

expatinasia said:


> When prices are that low, CF cards will no longer be all that important. In fact, people may have already started talking about the 1DX Mark III by then.
> 
> Plus, if you are using a Canon camera with a CF card in it, then it is unlikely to shoot 4K which means that there is very little reason to have a 256GB card in the camera anyway.
> 
> ...



I often take week-long trips for wildlife photos and prefer not to bring the added weight of a notebook with me or bring extra cards that I may probably misplace for 6 years.

I predict prices to be that low by 2019. By then CF cards will be phased out from Canon's 2019 lineup in favor of CFast. 

It is really difficult to find CF cards from where I live so I am able to sell them at the value I got them for from BH. There is a certain threshold where in pricing is acceptable and I have pegged it at nearly $100. 

Diagram below better explains my market.







I would say less than 3% of camera owners using CF cards will upgrade to a 2019 cameras that use CFast cards. People who buy my cards tend to be the "late majority" and laggards.

I expect that by 2030 is when CF cards will be phased out but I could be wrong. If you check BH the 2GB-limited SD card is still being sold at $5.

My one wish is that all pro gear used one CF card replacement. Splitting it between XQD and CFast just makes it more expensive to buy.

It would be better if there was one singular memory card form factor and standard to leverage economies of scale but this is not possible.


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## Maiaibing (Feb 27, 2016)

dolina said:


> Today, when visiting the site I just scroll down to the bottom and just pick whichever card it recommends excluding the KOMPUTERBay.
> 
> For CF cards the fastest are those Sandisk 160MB/s and Lexar 1066x. While SD cards the Lexar 2000x are to have. These two brands are the only game in town. All others are too expensive or slow as they do not have the economies of scale to lower the price as much as Sandisk and Lexar.



Use a Komputerbay 1066x 256GB CF card and a PNY 256GB cheap but reasonably fast SDXC Class 10 card.

In real life shooting I can do 18-19 full RAW on the CF card and 14-15 full RAW on my 256 GB Class 10 SDXC card. This is the in fact same shooting speed that I get with the currently fastest 128 GB Sandisk SDXC card (that I also have). 

Don't think it gets much better than that. Also not sure I have ever shot that many frames at once in my life (except when testing).

With 512 GB "on board" I never ever expect to run dry during a day's shooting.


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## Don Haines (Feb 27, 2016)

dolina said:


> I often take week-long trips for wildlife photos and prefer not to bring the added weight of a notebook with me or bring extra cards that I may probably misplace for 6 years.



+1

Carry 4 or 5 spare batteries, head out for a week (or more), shoot lots of stills and a few video clips, and that 128G card is full and the spare card is getting close....


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## dolina (Feb 28, 2016)

Don Haines said:


> +1
> 
> Carry 4 or 5 spare batteries, head out for a week (or more), shoot lots of stills and a few video clips, and that 128G card is full and the spare card is getting close....



I guess I'm not that odd after all. 



Maiaibing said:


> Use a Komputerbay 1066x 256GB CF card and a PNY 256GB cheap but reasonably fast SDXC Class 10 card.
> 
> In real life shooting I can do 18-19 full RAW on the CF card and 14-15 full RAW on my 256 GB Class 10 SDXC card. This is the in fact same shooting speed that I get with the currently fastest 128 GB Sandisk SDXC card (that I also have).
> 
> ...


I am happy that Komputerbay and PNY works out for you.

At $93/card the Komputerbay 128GB 1066x is a steal.


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## expatinasia (Feb 28, 2016)

dolina said:


> I would say less than 3% of camera owners using CF cards will upgrade to a 2019 cameras that use CFast cards. People who buy my cards tend to be the "late majority" and laggards.
> 
> I expect that by 2030 is when CF cards will be phased out but I could be wrong. If you check BH the 2GB-limited SD card is still being sold at $5.



I must say, you do make some rather obvious statements and at other times rather bizarre predictions, and you make those predictions sound as if you know what you are talking about - as if you are an analyst, which I do not think you are!

None of that is really important though, just my observation.

Notebooks are so light and small these days, I would much prefer to have a back up somewhere, and if that is not possible I would use 64GB 1066X cards instead of 128GB.


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## dolina (Feb 28, 2016)

Woah, tone it down a bit. Who made you grumpy this Sunday?

I am not saying what you are doing is wrong but I am just sharing a different workflow to your conventional one.

Or are you mad that I am able to sell my old cards at a price people are willing to buy them for?

CF cards are nearing end of life as a format standard and not a lot of people know this.

If anyone has cards that are smaller than 64GB it may be time to sell em before they become worthless as betamax tapes.

Today, Canon sells 4 bodies and Nikon sells 3 bodies with CF slots. I expect this to be reduced to 3 Canon bodies and 2 Nikon bodies by the end of the year.

CFast and XQD will replace CF and I really wish they just consolidated it to a single replacement to leverage economies of scale.


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