# Fastest card for 5DM3 - do you still buffer out?



## RGF (Mar 23, 2013)

I normally use Sandisk Extreme Pro CF cards in my 5D M3 and then several people told me that they don't fill the buffer using a 1000x CF card. I tried the Lexar 1000x card and the buffer still fills up. I seem to get a few more shots before the buffer fills with the Lexar 1000x.

Has anyone tried other cards that are fast enough so that they buffer never fills?

Thanks


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 23, 2013)

Not using Raw. You can shoot jpeg all day long with a fast card.
Take what you read with a grain of salt.


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## Dnd (Mar 24, 2013)

Lexar 1000x CF cards made a big difference for me too on my 5DIII
Buffer still maxes out but and I only shoot raw.. I have been able to get quite a bit more in a burst when shooting sports.. Definitely helped out..


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## jdramirez (Mar 24, 2013)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Not using Raw. You can shoot jpeg all day long with a fast card.
> Take what you read with a grain of salt.



I have a 60D, but that's what I found. Highest quality jpegs won't even come close to filling up the buffer and slowing down performance, but if I go with low quality jpegs and high quality raw files... I get maybe 6 or 7 shots before it slows. Kinda sucks.


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## fugu82 (Mar 24, 2013)

I found that a lot depends on what you do with the SD card. I use the 1000X Lexar, too, but take my SD out completely for the fastest bursts. Writing to the SD slows everything down dramatically.


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## bycostello (Mar 24, 2013)

what are you shooting that needs such a burst rate?


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## TrumpetPower! (Mar 24, 2013)

Granted, I don't do a lot of action shooting...but, with one caveat, with the Sandisk Extreme 60 MB/s cards I'm using, for all practical purposes, even shooting RAW, the buffer is unlimited. I mean, sure, if I just held down the button for forever, it'd eventually slow to a couple frames per second, but it's just not going to fill up in any reasonable type of burst shooting. And I hate to think of the editing nightmare to deal with that many photos!

That caveat is, of course, that I'm just referring to the CF card. As soon as the camera writes to the SD card, it turns to molasses in January.

So, if performance is a concern, I'd recommend either leaving the SD card out entirely or leaving it in but only in "auto-switch card" mode, and then just to keep from getting a "card full" error message. As soon as you fill up the CF card (or come close to filling it up, pace permitting), swap in your next CF card, and just use the SD for emergency overflow.

Cheers,

b&


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## rpt (Mar 24, 2013)

TrumpetPower! said:


> Granted, I don't do a lot of action shooting...but, with one caveat, with the Sandisk Extreme 60 MB/s cards I'm using, for all practical purposes, even shooting RAW, the buffer is unlimited. I mean, sure, if I just held down the button for forever, it'd eventually slow to a couple frames per second, but it's just not going to fill up in any reasonable type of burst shooting. And I hate to think of the editing nightmare to deal with that many photos!
> 
> That caveat is, of course, that I'm just referring to the CF card. As soon as the camera writes to the SD card, it turns to molasses in January.
> 
> ...


+1000

I have set the camera only to shoot RAW to the CF card. I do not write to the SD card. Even my 45MB/s 64GB card gives me decent speed. The only time it was slow was when I was shooting the Flamingos as they flew. Well in all fairness I held the shutter button down for a while 

I do need to get a faster card. So may be some time soon.


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## RGF (Mar 24, 2013)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Not using Raw. You can shoot jpeg all day long with a fast card.
> Take what you read with a grain of salt.



99.44% of my images are raw.


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## RGF (Mar 24, 2013)

fugu82 said:


> I found that a lot depends on what you do with the SD card. I use the 1000X Lexar, too, but take my SD out completely for the fastest bursts. Writing to the SD slows everything down dramatically.



I use the SD card as an over flow. If I catch it in time, I will change the CF card when it nearly full. However if I go over a bit (20-50 shots), then I replace the CF card and transfer the images from the SD card to the CF card.

Perhaps a bit of extra work, but that way (1) I am always using the high spend CF, and (2) I have a super sized over flow buffer. 

I notice that if I write to the SD card, the camera is really slow.


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## RGF (Mar 24, 2013)

bycostello said:


> what are you shooting that needs such a burst rate?



wildlife. wolves fighting, on a kill, a whale breeching including the splash afterwards, birds in flight, ...


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## RGF (Mar 24, 2013)

TrumpetPower! said:


> So, if performance is a concern, I'd recommend either leaving the SD card out entirely or leaving it in but only in "auto-switch card" mode, and then just to keep from getting a "card full" error message. As soon as you fill up the CF card (or come close to filling it up, pace permitting), swap in your next CF card, and just use the SD for emergency overflow.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> b&



I use the SD card as overflow, always writing (except when I miss it) to the CF card, never set to write to the SD card.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 24, 2013)

I'm waiting for a low level format to complete on my 64GB Lexar 1000X (It takes about a hour).

I'll check tomorrow to see how many raw shots I get on high speed shooting before the buffer fills and the slowdown begins.


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## jdramirez (Mar 24, 2013)

While we are on the subject... I have a Sandisk and a Lexar UHS SD card... so class 10, but basically 45 to 60 mbps... and I was shopping for CF cards the other day and I think the fastest I saw was 1000x in my budget range. 

So my question is how much faster is the cf card than the sd card? Is it the write speeds which makes the difference and not the reported read speeds?


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## Old Shooter (Mar 24, 2013)

jdramirez said:


> While we are on the subject... I have a Sandisk and a Lexar UHS SD card... so class 10, but basically 45 to 60 mbps... and I was shopping for CF cards the other day and I think the fastest I saw was 1000x in my budget range.
> 
> So my question is how much faster is the cf card than the sd card? Is it the write speeds which makes the difference and not the reported read speeds?



On the 5DM3 or just in general? On the 5DM3, the CF slot is the racehorse. The SD slot is not UHS-1 enabled, and seems to max out at about 25% of what the CF slot can do (with the fastest CF card = Lexar 1000X)...


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## jdramirez (Mar 24, 2013)

Old Shooter said:


> jdramirez said:
> 
> 
> > While we are on the subject... I have a Sandisk and a Lexar UHS SD card... so class 10, but basically 45 to 60 mbps... and I was shopping for CF cards the other day and I think the fastest I saw was 1000x in my budget range.
> ...



I knew the mkiii didn't do uhs... which ticks me off, but it's more fake anger. So a 4:1 ratio... ouch. I wish there was resale value to my SD cards... but they don't have much of a draw.


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## Old Shooter (Mar 24, 2013)

jdramirez said:


> Old Shooter said:
> 
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> > jdramirez said:
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Yeah, I will never understand why Canon did that to the SD slot... They have UHS-1 on a Rebel, for goodness sakes! If you write to both cards, for insurance, the SD will slow you down considerably...


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## RGF (Mar 24, 2013)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> I'm waiting for a low level format to complete on my 64GB Lexar 1000X (It takes about a hour).
> 
> I'll check tomorrow to see how many raw shots I get on high speed shooting before the buffer fills and the slowdown begins.




Low level format for a CF or SD card? How do you do a low level format on a CF card?


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## risc32 (Mar 24, 2013)

i guess you do it with your computer.

I posted this http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/camera_wb_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-12452 a long time ago, but here it is again. 

personally, i've been using a sandisk 64gb SD card since i got my mk3 and it's been fine for what i normally do, but i did just swap it out for a lexar 800X CF card and as rob's chart shows it's a world of difference.


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## LetTheRightLensIn (Mar 24, 2013)

RGF said:


> I normally use Sandisk Extreme Pro CF cards in my 5D M3 and then several people told me that they don't fill the buffer using a 1000x CF card. I tried the Lexar 1000x card and the buffer still fills up. I seem to get a few more shots before the buffer fills with the Lexar 1000x.
> 
> Has anyone tried other cards that are fast enough so that they buffer never fills?
> 
> Thanks



With RAW it eventually fills with any card, although Sandisk 1000x 32GB (I think some of the smaller sizes are slower?) it takes longer and, in real world usage, with this card I all but never buffer out (with other cards I would at times, especially for surfing and a long ride with lots of tricks and so on, although a super long barrel can maybe still hit it, but it's way better than before and for the most part no longer an issue).


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## LetTheRightLensIn (Mar 24, 2013)

Old Shooter said:


> jdramirez said:
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> > Old Shooter said:
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I've read that in this case it actually wasn't Canon crippling something but that their chip supplier for Digic, TI, simply didn't make the basic core for the digic with two full speed interfaces and if it had a fast CF interface then the SD slot had to be slow.


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## LetTheRightLensIn (Mar 24, 2013)

RGF said:


> I normally use Sandisk Extreme Pro CF cards in my 5D M3 and then several people told me that they don't fill the buffer using a 1000x CF card. I tried the Lexar 1000x card and the buffer still fills up. I seem to get a few more shots before the buffer fills with the Lexar 1000x.
> 
> Has anyone tried other cards that are fast enough so that they buffer never fills?
> 
> Thanks



You want to avoid RAW+JPG though as the buffer for that can still fill fast. JPGs go without filling up. RAWs go for a long time. RAW+JPG can hit the buffer pretty easily.


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## jdramirez (Mar 24, 2013)

LetTheRightLensIn said:


> RGF said:
> 
> 
> > I normally use Sandisk Extreme Pro CF cards in my 5D M3 and then several people told me that they don't fill the buffer using a 1000x CF card. I tried the Lexar 1000x card and the buffer still fills up. I seem to get a few more shots before the buffer fills with the Lexar 1000x.
> ...



I do highest quality raw + lowest quality Jpg... so not best of both worlds... but good enough.


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