Canon 1d MK II -- Card Speed Question

[Tomnomnom]

Hey Everyone!

So excited, I just received my 1d MK II from Adorama with the 50mm 1.4 and 380ex yesterday. For my budget, this is basically exactly what I was looking for. The day after I ordered it I was recruited to work for my university's Red Bull U team as a photographer, so this camera is definitely going to be put to really good use! Funny how things work out.

Anyway, since my last set-up was taken, I lost my compact flash along with it. So, I need some a new memory solution. Being brand new to the MK II I really don't know what is needed so I can take full advantage of it's possibilities. So, I'm hoping you guys can help me out.

1) Would you go with SD or CF for the MK II? I've tried checking it out on my own but a lot of the discussions are fairly unhelpful. I've heard that CF cards are generally more reliable, is this true? Any idea if one has any upper hand in regards to this camera's performance specifically?

2) What class would you guys recommend? I plan on using the 8.5 fps RAW shooting capability, as I will be covering many action sports events for Red Bull, and I want to make sure the card I get is fast enough. Now, I know faster is always better, but for someone on my budget I'm looking for something that will suffice without being too fast/expensive for my needs.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I want to start shooting!

 

[Formatted]

I don't imagine they want you shooting RAW, because at a busy event you could end up with a 1000 raw images and no one with the time to process them all!

Get your self a couple of CF cards and a SD card when you want to shoot raw write RAW to the SD and jpeg to the CF.

 

[Tomnomnom]

That's a good point, didn't think of that. I'll definitely keep that in mind.

However, my concern is more with what class of memory I should be looking at IF I chose to make use of that capability. I don't want to be hindered by a slow memory card!

 

[gsgary]

Get the fastest cards you can afford, if you are using the flash for most shots you 380ex will slow you down not your cards, i only use 2gb cards in my 1D's

 

[Offhand]

Stick with CF.

I use SanDisk Ultras for my 5D of the 4 and 8 gig variety. I prefer having a dozen cards as opposed to fewer giant sized cards. Faster and safer. The Ultra is the 30mb/sec card, not to be confused with the Ultra II, which is an older card. SanDisk should just stick with the same names. You can try using an Extreme card but I don't think the 1D MkII can make use of UDMA so the Ultra would probably be fast enough and half the price.