30D

[haleyme]

I just bought the Canon 30D. I am looking at the Sandisk 8g extreme VI compact flash card on amazon. its 160.00. what do you think? good deal? anything i should know about the card, or the camera?

thanks guys

 

[Digital Matt]

I personally would buy smaller cards, like 2gig cards. As the old adage says, don't put all your eggs in one basket.

 

[Big Mike]

Sandisk Extreme cards are pretty good...I have a couple and they are great. Sandisk Ultra II cards are also pretty good...and usually a good price as well.

As Matt said, 8GB is a lot of photo...and if you ever lost the card or it became damaged...that would be a lot of photos to loose. On the other hand, having a large card means less switching of cards or having to worry about a bunch of cards.

If you are OK with the idea of having all those photos on one card...then go for it.

 

[hudsonp]

also keep in mind that just because the card is 133x, the camera will not write that fast. i don't remember the number off hand, but i THINK the Canon's write at a max of 60x - but you will be able to pull the images to your computer faster with a faster card.

 

[S2K1]

The Extreme III card keeps up with my 30D at 5fps shooting RAW+JPEG, so an Extreme IV isn't necessary. And also keep in mind, the Extreme IV reads and writes at 40MB/sec and most USB readers write at 20MB/sec even though it has a burst rate of 480MB/sec. Basically you need a firewire reader to fully utilize the downloading capability of the card. A couple 2GB Extreme III's is what I'd recommend.

 

[Big Mike]

My local Costco has 4 Gig, Ultra II CF cards for $74 CDN.

 

[lifeafter2am]

The Extreme III card keeps up with my 30D at 5fps shooting RAW+JPEG, so an Extreme IV isn't necessary. And also keep in mind, the Extreme IV reads and writes at 40MB/sec and most USB readers write at 20MB/sec even though it has a burst rate of 480MB/sec. Basically you need a firewire reader to fully utilize the downloading capability of the card. A couple 2GB Extreme III's is what I'd recommend.

You say it keeps up, what does that mean? How many shots do you get before you get a slowdown in FPS? I usually switch to JPEG when shooting sports because otherwise I can't get the number of shots I need.

 

[Iron Flatline]

A four-gig card can be backed up to a single DVD. Something worth doing after a good day out shooting.

 

[Jon, The Elder]

Haleyme..... As mentioned, SanDisk is the leading brand, not so much because of price, but more importantly, they are reliable.

You have a very large buffer in your 30D so read/write speed should never be a problem.

From the 'ultra ll' series on up you are in fine shape.

Even though I mentioned reliability, the 8Gb size card should only be considered if you NEED it due to shooting requirements. That is a lot of potential data loss. Accidents do happen, like losing or physically damaging the card.

My wife and I shoot together and we have found having 3-4 2Gb cards each comes in handy if we need to loan each other a card during sessions.

Swapping a card is less than 10 seconds work and easy to do. Buy a card safe that holds 2 or 4 cards and slide it into your pocket.

Having the largest card in the crowd doesn't count.

 

[lifeafter2am]

Lifeafter..... As mentioned, SanDisk is the leading brand, not so much because of price, but more importantly, they are reliable.

You have a very large buffer in your 30D so read/write speed should never be a problem.

I didn't say anything about Sandisk or anything, I am not the orginal poster. The buffer will only hold 9 shots RAW @ 5/FPS, not nearly enough; hence why I switch to JPEG and get closer to 30.

 

[S2K1]

You say it keeps up, what does that mean? How many shots do you get before you get a slowdown in FPS? I usually switch to JPEG when shooting sports because otherwise I can't get the number of shots I need.

The camera buffer only allows 9 frames in RAW+JPEG before it stops, but it keeps up by writing to the card fast enough that I'm not hindered when I need to take another shot.

 

[haleyme]

Wow, I didn't expect so much activity. So, the majority of what I am getting here is, forget about the 8g, its unnesscary. A few 2g would be better.

 

[haleyme]

I never thought about having EVERYTHING on one card. I can see how that could be potentially dangerous. I don't know. I think now I am leaning towards a couple 2 gigs.
I do weddings and I don't want to be worrying about having full memory at the wrong times, which I am sure many of you have to deal with. I don't know.

 

[Digital Matt]

It takes less than 5 seconds to change out a card. As long as you keep your eye on your shot counter, you're fine. You can swap out cards before you are totally out of space. I have a neck strap that holds two cards, which I keep formatted, ready to go.

 

[lifeafter2am]

It takes less than 5 seconds to change out a card. As long as you keep your eye on your shot counter, you're fine. You can swap out cards before you are totally out of space. I have a neck strap that holds two cards, which I keep formatted, ready to go.

I agree, usually when I am shooting and I am getting low, I change ASAP. Don't wait until you run out of space.

Where did you get that camera strap?? Sounds cool!