Slow buffering.

[TonyUSA]

What is the main cause for slow buffering?
This was at a swim meet. Continue shooting about 6-10 frame then buffering slow down.
Canon 5d III
70-200 f/2.8
Sandisk Extreme Pro 16GB, 160MB/s UDMA7 (CF), RAW
Sandisk Extreme Pro 32GG, 95MB/s, SDHC, L

Thank you,

 

[astroNikon]

The image files when you hit the release go into a high speed memory buffer
Then it goes through a SLOW pipeline to the memory card. So getting super fast cards don't do anything as they have to fall back to slower speeds.

Things just back up in the memory buffer

 

[TonyUSA]

Than you. Any other options to fix this or get better camera?

 

[bratkinson]

What is the main cause for slow buffering?

In my opinion...burst mode. I have a 5D3 myself with comparable Sandisk cards shooting both RAW to the CF card and JPEGs to the SD card and never had a 'slow down'. I'm not a sports photographer, so getting x frames per second is not an issue. Other than sports, I can't think of a reason to use burst mode.

Perhaps my distaste for burst mode goes back to my film days. Although I drooled at the chance to add a motor drive to my camera, I figured that motor drives were created by Kodak to make us use more film.

I know...I'm sounding like an old geezer troll that I am...

 

[Derrel]

Maybe too much data being generated, like RAW + JPEG? Or shooting JPEG-only? Or shooting JPEG + Nopise Reduction + Vignette Removal,etc? Or shooting sRAW or mRAW, which are really "processed but not RAW-raw data" files? Or directing the RAWS to a slower card, and the JPEGs to the faster card?

I dunno...perhaps not enough information on your part, like what mode you are shooting in, or if you have Noise Reduction enabled, or some other "extras" enabled in the Custom Function menu.

What do official review/test sites have to say about the camera's buffer depth and buffer clearing times? Sites like ImagingResource used to have pretty accurate and complete buffer write/buffer frame count test results, for SPECIFIC cards. Sometimes a particxular card is MUCH,MUCH faster thatn another card of the same or similar specifications: this fact was proven hundreds of times on the old Robgalbraith.com CF card datatbase.

Check Rob's official test results for the 5D-III from 2012. Rob Galbraith DPI: Canon EOS 5D Mark III

With a Lexar Professional 1,000x 32GB CF card, the burst is 75 frames!
SanDisk Extreme Pro 128 GB card, the burst is 64 frames.
SanDIsk Extreme Pro 16GB card, the burst is 56 frames.

Lexar Professional 400x 64GB card, the burst is 49 frames.
SanDisk Extreme Pro 95 MB/s 16-GB card, the burst is only 22 frames
SanDisk Standard 8 GB card, the burst is a mere 10 frames.
*******
Consider too that there are MANY,MANY counterfeit CF cards that have been sold by dealers all over the web, and in stores too! Maybe you have a fake card?

 

[weepete]

Make sure you have all in camera processing turned off. The worst culprits are normally long exposure noise reduction and high ISO noise reduction. As Derrel point's out you'll have to wade through the custom functions and other settings to turn anything suspect off.

 

[goooner]

Some good info here, remember as well, the speed you quoted on your cards are probably read speeds, they can differ immensely from the write speed.

 

[table1349]

Canon 5D MkIII = Single DIGIC 5+ Image Processor
Canon 7D MkII - Dual DIGIC 6 Image Processors

Like the difference between a two barrel and 4 barrel carburetor.

 

[TonyUSA]

Thank you very much guys. I will look into your suggestions.

 

[FotosbyMike]

The above is true, but there is also this little known thing about the Canon 5D3 SD slot. It is very slow and will never be able to match high speed card speeds. So I would ran some of your own test, CF RAW only, CF RAW+JPG Large, JPG Med, JEG small until you find the optimal performance for your needs.

https://petapixel.com/2012/06/24/do...ur-canon-5d-mark-iii-if-you-care-about-speed/

 

[TCampbell]

On my 5D III I think I should shoot about 18 RAW images consecutively before the buffer filled up (it might have been 15 -- I haven't tested it in about 2 years). Anyway... if you shoot JPEG then (assuming you have a fast memory card) it's "unlimited" (the camera can create JPEGs and save them to the card faster than you can fill the buffer). It only becomes an issue if you shoot RAW and use burst heavily (long burst sequences) and the camera doesn't get a chance to write to the memory card and/or you're using a card with a slower write speed. For optimal performance you'd use a fast CF card, don't use the SD card (don't even have it in the camera as I'm told it's presence slows down the I/O bus transfer rate -- I haven't tested this myself but it's an easy test... just burst off as many shots (while counting) until you hear the camera slow down because it hit the limit of the buffer. Do this both with the SD card in the camera... and no SD card in the camera. If you get more frames without the SD card then it means the SD card is slowing down the transfer speed.

 

[TonyUSA]

Thank you. Will give it a try.