CF Cards Reliability Question?

[weepete]

Hi all,

Just trolling the web looking to dredge up some info on decent CF cards to see what kinda layout I'm gonna have to hand over for a couple of extra cards. Just wondering is there much difference in reliability between Lexar, Sandisk and Kingston?

I'm looking at 8 or 16GB cards with a write speed of 60MB/S (400x) or faster.

Just having a quick look and I could get a 16GB 148MB/sec Lexar Pro for less than a 8GB 60MB/sec Sandisk Extreme and just wondering if it would be a good saving or if I'm better off paying a little more?

 

[jaomul]

Pick your speed and size, any of those 4 brands have good reputation, some supply software retrieval and have good warranty. I have SanDisk and they seem good but I've had Kingston and lexar as well, never any isdues

 

[Overread]

Far as I know those top brands are good. YES you will read of failed cards; just like if you look up any hard-disk make you will find example of dead hard-disks.

Digital data storage is always risky which is why backups are so important. However any of the top names will do - most I think use Sandisk; they seem to be the most popular. Remember to check the specs, most like to make a big noise about the read speed of a card (since its nearly always faster) but the write speed is the one you want to check (because that is how fast the camera can write to the card which affects your fps rate - note also your camera will have a write limit so make sure your cards are equal to that - any faster is always good for future proofing but won't give you any gain)

 

[weepete]

Thanks chaps. I found some interesting info on the lexar cards that might be of use


Lexar Professional 1000x UDMA Compact Flash :
150MB/s minimum guaranteed read
16GB - 95MB/s minimum guaranteed write
32GB and above - 145MB/s minimum write
(when paired with a UDMA 7 enabled device)

Lexar Professional 800x UDMA Compact Flash:
120MB/s minimum guaranteed read
8GB-32GB 45MB/s minimum write
64GB - 128GB 75MB/s minimum write
(when paired with a UDMA 7 enabled device)

Lexar Professional 600x UDMA Compact Flash:
600x (90MB/s) guaranteed minimum sustained write speed
(when paired with a UDMA 6 enabled device)

Lexar Professional 400X UDMA Compact Flash:
400x (60MB/s) guaranteed minimum sustained Read speed. Write up to 45MB/s

Lexar Professional 300x, UDMA Compact Flash:
300x (45MB/s) guaranteed minimum sustained write speed

Lexar Professional 233x UDMA Compact Flash:
minimum sustained write speeds of (233x) 35MB per second when paired with a UDMA-enabled device

Lexar Professional 133x UDMA Compact Flash:
Some of the earlier versions of these cards also came with Write Acceleration (WA) but these are no longer provided.

Lexar Platinum II/Premium 200X Compact Flash :
200x
30MB/s

Looks like the sandisk cards generally have a faster write speed which would explain the price difference.

 

[jaomul]

Cameras have limits to how fast they can write also. There isn't an point in spending double on a very fast card if the camera can't utilise it. Usually your manual has a card that they done there fps test with buffer test etc.

Transcend also make good cards and are reasonable price to buy

 

[paigew]

I have sandisk extreme cards. Never had any issues with them [emoji4]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[KmH]

Thanks chaps. I found some interesting info on the lexar cards that might be of use


Lexar Professional 1000x UDMA Compact Flash :
150MB/s minimum guaranteed read
16GB - 95MB/s minimum guaranteed write
32GB and above - 145MB/s minimum write
(when paired with a UDMA 7 enabled device)

Lexar Professional 800x UDMA Compact Flash:
120MB/s minimum guaranteed read
8GB-32GB 45MB/s minimum write
64GB - 128GB 75MB/s minimum write
(when paired with a UDMA 7 enabled device)

Lexar Professional 600x UDMA Compact Flash:
600x (90MB/s) guaranteed minimum sustained write speed
(when paired with a UDMA 6 enabled device)

Lexar Professional 400X UDMA Compact Flash:
400x (60MB/s) guaranteed minimum sustained Read speed. Write up to 45MB/s

Lexar Professional 300x, UDMA Compact Flash:
300x (45MB/s) guaranteed minimum sustained write speed

Lexar Professional 233x UDMA Compact Flash:
minimum sustained write speeds of (233x) 35MB per second when paired with a UDMA-enabled device

Lexar Professional 133x UDMA Compact Flash:
Some of the earlier versions of these cards also came with Write Acceleration (WA) but these are no longer provided.

Lexar Platinum II/Premium 200X Compact Flash :
200x
30MB/s

Looks like the sandisk cards generally have a faster write speed which would explain the price difference.

Where did you find this information?

Flash memory - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
NAND flash memory cards are much faster at reading than writing so it is the maximum read speed that is commonly advertised.

 

[Derrel]

For actual TESTED results from CF card and SD cards, go to the robgalbraith.com site, and at the top left, check out the link to the database. The Lexar 1000x card is **amazingly** better than middle of the pack CF cards are. With that being said, I have some Sandisk 2-GB Ultra and Extremes that are going on 10 years old, still writing great. Currently using a bunch of 8 gig Sandisk CF cards I bought on Black Friday 2009.

 

[Gary A.]

I shoot mainly with Fuji. Fuji's can use fast cards. For me, for how I shoot and what I shoot, every bit of speed helps. I use SanDisk Extreme Pro 95 MB/s and SanDisk Extreme Pro II 280 MB/s (only the XT1 can utilize the II). Never had a problem with SanDisk, even though many of them have gone through a washer/dryer cycle a few times. I did have a problem with Lexar once. I called them up and they just sorta laughed me off. A very bad experience ... so I have chosen never to use Lexar again.

 

[weepete]

Thanks chaps. I found some interesting info on the lexar cards that might be of use


Lexar Professional 1000x UDMA Compact Flash :
150MB/s minimum guaranteed read
16GB - 95MB/s minimum guaranteed write
32GB and above - 145MB/s minimum write
(when paired with a UDMA 7 enabled device)

Lexar Professional 800x UDMA Compact Flash:
120MB/s minimum guaranteed read
8GB-32GB 45MB/s minimum write
64GB - 128GB 75MB/s minimum write
(when paired with a UDMA 7 enabled device)

Lexar Professional 600x UDMA Compact Flash:
600x (90MB/s) guaranteed minimum sustained write speed
(when paired with a UDMA 6 enabled device)

Lexar Professional 400X UDMA Compact Flash:
400x (60MB/s) guaranteed minimum sustained Read speed. Write up to 45MB/s

Lexar Professional 300x, UDMA Compact Flash:
300x (45MB/s) guaranteed minimum sustained write speed

Lexar Professional 233x UDMA Compact Flash:
minimum sustained write speeds of (233x) 35MB per second when paired with a UDMA-enabled device

Lexar Professional 133x UDMA Compact Flash:
Some of the earlier versions of these cards also came with Write Acceleration (WA) but these are no longer provided.

Lexar Platinum II/Premium 200X Compact Flash :
200x
30MB/s

Looks like the sandisk cards generally have a faster write speed which would explain the price difference.

Where did you find this information?

Flash memory - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
NAND flash memory cards are much faster at reading than writing so it is the maximum read speed that is commonly advertised.

It was on a post in the magic lantern forums taken from a post on the german amazon.de

Here's the link RAW REC - LEXAR CARDs - W R SPEED

 

[weepete]

Thanks guys. I've currently got a 8GB Sandisk Extreme 60MB/sec CF card that I use with my 7D which seems to work quite well. I used to have a 4GB kingston card that was much slower and I did notice the difference.

Saying that it looks like another 60MB/sec or 90MB/sec will be fast enough at a good price point fir my purposes.

 

[KmH]

It was on a post in the magic lantern forums taken from a post on the german amazon.de

Lexar's Professional 1000x UDMA Compact Flash memory card support web page only quotes a minimum guaranteed, sustained 'read' transfer speed of 150 MB/s.
http://www.lexar.com/files/product/datasheet/DS_LCFxxxCRBNA1000_RevB.pdf

They do say that card has been tested and guaranteed for professional video capture streams at up to 20MB/s and in a footnote that write speeds are lower, but don't say how much slower.

 

[Dave442]

I've been using some Lexar Pro 300x 16 GB CF cards for over 5 years and no problem. Last year added a couple Lexar Pro 800x CF cards (I didn't go for the higher cost 1000X as I'm not doing video). I would go with either Lexar Pro or Sandisk Extreme for CF.