Now that my wallet is empty...

[schuylercat]

Hi all - the retread returns...

I just made payment on a Canon EOS 40D digital camera. It will ship within 4 days. I am like a little kid who finally got his bike, diong the Snoopy dance all over my office. I haven't bought a camera body of any substance in almost 15 years, give or take. I'm all freaky about it.

Included with my deal is a 2GB CF card, likely something pretty cheap.

So - I have a question for those who use ANY brand of camera that takes CF cards: there are "fast" cards out there, and there are "Extreme" cards, and I saw an "Extreme IV" card once that apparently defies physics, or at least costs like it does. I will be doing weddings and portraiture. Do I need thermonuclear, high-powered, lightspeed CF cards that can write data so fast the theory of relativity is challenged and the workd ceases to rotate? I just dropped a thousand bucks on a camera body, so I'd better get used to the fact that it's going to be hungry for accessories (just wait until I start whining about flashes...), but my budget will be pretty finite going forward.

Thoughts?

Cheers all,
Rick

 

[D-50]

I believe the faster the card the faster it will clear your buffer as well as transfer onto your computer. Im not a Canon shooter but that is a nice camera and im sure its buffer will allow you to shoot as much as you want without filling up. If you were shooting 10 frames per second your going to run into a buffer issue but i doubt when shoot a wedding or portrait your going to hit those speeds. As for transfering to a computer, although I would love my card to copy to my hard drive in one second I would rather save money and go fix myself a drink while I wait for my card to unload.
Bottom line unless your shooting fast action and need to shoot multiple frames per second do not worry to much about card speed.

I might be incorrect here though, I would wait for Big mike to chime in, trust his advice.

 

[Sideburns]

the camera is limited by the camera's ability to get shots from the buffer to the card.
While it is nice to have a fast card (it helps)...it is not the biggest factor.

GO by the quoted FPS/max shots in a row from the website...that's the most likely case.

Go to BHphotovideo.com
Their compact flash prices are the best I've seen. BestBuy and the rest rape the money from you for stuff like that. Twice the price even on sale.

 

[JIP]

just bought a new 1G 130x card at Ritz for $35 so I imagine you are not going to break the bank buying a fast card. You want the fastest card you can afford to be able to shoot faster especially if you plan to shoot weddings. Are you planning to hoot them professionally?.

 

[Iron Flatline]

Fast cards are nice in the camera, but they're even better once you get home. It is much faster pulling the files off a fast card. Now, you may not be a paparazzo trying to be first to upload a particular moment, but once you've sat at home waiting for a slow 2Gig card to unload, you start putting serious value on your personal time...

Get the faster card.

 

[Holy Ghosted]

especially when you are shooting in RAW and only getting 80-90 images per 2 Gigs if you need to clear a card @ the shoot on to your lap top it better be quick you are already losing shots. I up load cards on the way to the reception onto my lap top and external backup @ the same time. you would be surprised how much of a difference there is between extreme IV cards and just plain old cheap card when you have just 15 minutes.

 

[ShaCow]

i use a sandisk extreme iv 4gb.. its great.. and only cost me £35