CFII or Microdrive for EOS20D

IanC_UK · 01-04-2005, 22:44

Having picked up my nice shiny new 20D this afternoon, i obviously had to try it out

but found my weedy 64mb cf cards are just a waste of space now ! lol they were good enough for my Nikon 995, and can stay with it !

My question being, i know Sandisk Ultra II CF cards are blinding fast, but am i better off with them or a microdrive with its larger storage ? (Now up to 6gb from Hitachi)

Decisions decisions, i appear to be keen to destroy my bank balance this month ! lol

Thanks in advance for nice shiny words of wisdom

***Steve*** · 01-04-2005, 23:05

The general opinion is that the 20D is at its fastest when used with Sandisk Ultra II cards although there are currently many other suitable cards available that will work very well indeed. In use it is not worth buying the Ultra III as in terms of speed on the 20D there is very little improvement. Try to buy something with a speed of 40X or faster but be aware of buying Lexar Pro which write at 80X as there have been a few complaints of the write acceleration technology causing issues with the 20D. There have also been reports from people not having any issues with Lexar and the 20D, so it could be the luck of the draw?

As to size, I would recommend 2Gb as that is a nice balance between usable storage space verses speed. The larger the storage size the slower the card but with the 20D having a large sensor and saving quite large files anything less could cause you to require frequent card changes. Also consider that a micro drive is made from moving parts so is not only more susceptible to failure from damage or bad knocks but will also draw more power to spin up the parts.

One last thing, CF cards and Microdrives do fail from time to time. If you have invested in a 4 or 6gb card and have filled it on an important shoot then it should fail you are going to loose a lot of valuable photos, if you are using 2 or three 2GB cards while its still not good at least you are only losing a few pictures rather than them all.

Hope that helps?

IanC_UK · 01-04-2005, 23:08

Perfick Steve !

I was erring towards Sandisk ultraII anyway, but that swings it !

I work with Computers and know what a pain in the a**e hard drives can be ! lol

***Steve*** · 01-04-2005, 23:11

NP glad to help but don’t discount other makes either as some of the lads here have got some great deals and are totally happy with their purchases. Have a look in the suppliers and shopping forum for the threads on CF cards and you will soon see what I mean.

IanC_UK · 01-04-2005, 23:17

Yeah just found one thanks to the supplier forum, 40* CF 2gb £95.99 ! not bad at all ! considering jessops want that for a 1gb card ! lol

http://www.blankdiscshop.co.uk/acata...al_Media_.html

I am glad IanW pointed me here !

silkstone · 02-04-2005, 14:51

To add to what has already been said... I don't believe in putting too many eggs in one basket, so I go for 1GB cards - there's no great economy of scale at the moment - but 2GB would be fine. Some card readers have a 2GB limit.

I've found Sandisk Ultra II to be fine, and also Transcend. Microdrives are more fragile than solid-state CF, consume more battery power and also tend to get rather warm. Unless you need >2GB on one card, I don't really see the point. :wink:

digitalfailure · 02-04-2005, 20:39

I posted a link to the blankdisc shop the other week after I found and bought one of their Integral i PRO cards

I opted for the 2.0gb card which was delivered in a couple of days for under 100 quid!
jessops wanted 175 for their 2.gb card which only had a 20x write speed iirc.

I used the card yesterday for the first time in anger while at a friends wedding, I managed to use a mere 1.3gb !!!!

At no time did the 20D lock out on me, even when doing a couple of 5 frame bursts during the confetti storm 8)

Well worth the money

IanC_UK · 02-04-2005, 20:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by digitalfailure

I posted a link to the blankdisc shop the other week after I found and bought one of their Integral i PRO cards

I opted for the 2.0gb card which was delivered in a couple of days for under 100 quid!
jessops wanted 175 for their 2.gb card which only had a 20x write speed iirc.

I used the card yesterday for the first time in anger while at a friends wedding, I managed to use a mere 1.3gb !!!!

At no time did the 20D lock out on me, even when doing a couple of 5 frame bursts during the confetti storm 8)

Well worth the money

Yeah it was your post that pointed me to blankdisk !

Hmmm, now i definitely need to order one !

i found out today if i run my 20d in raw mode i can get 3 or 4 pics max on the 64mb cards, whereas i could get 88 from the nikon ! mind it is only 3.34 megapixel and didnt do raw ! lol so at the moment i am having to run at low res, or keep changing cards !

I saw Jessops prices while in there, and was not going to pay that for a memory card, specially knowing i could get so much cheaper almost anywhere else ! Even pc world are cheaper i think ! lol

IanC_UK · 02-04-2005, 23:41

I just found this while mooching the interweb ! lol

http://www.mx2.co.uk/acatalog/MX2_co...Cards_253.html

They have the Integral 2gb for £95.99 and free postage ! or they have 512mb for £30.99 delivered !

and another one ! lol

http://www.flash-memory.co.uk/pp/Dea...ash_Cards.html

£95.49 delivered for the integral 2gb card !

Have never used them so cant say if they are any good or not, but free postage at that price cant be all bad ! lol

Steep · 03-04-2005, 11:46

The only thing I've found about MX2 is their appalling stock level, the number of times I've seen a good deal and ordered it from them only to be told 2 days later that it's out of stock!

IanC_UK · 03-04-2005, 11:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steep

The only thing I've found about MX2 is their appalling stock level, the number of times I've seen a good deal and ordered it from them only to be told 2 days later that it's out of stock!

Thats worth knowing ! thanks Steep !

digitalfailure · 03-04-2005, 16:32

I've had that from MX2 in the past, but on the whole they've been quite reliable.

I managed to order my card from SVP while they had a postage offer on, it came to £98 and a few P delivered.
Packaging was a little OVER protective, infact I could have got 100 of them in the box they sent :eek:

IanC_UK · 03-04-2005, 21:50

I placed an order from flashmemory today for an integral 2gb cf card, will keep you posted re delivery etc !

Was £95.49 including delivery.

***Steve*** · 03-04-2005, 22:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by IanC_UK

I placed an order from flashmemory today for an integral 2gb cf card, will keep you posted re delivery etc !

Was £95.49 including delivery.

Cool, let us know how you get on with it when it arrives. Switch you 20D into continuous drive and see how many shots you can get before you get buffer lockout

IanC_UK · 03-04-2005, 23:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve

Quote:

Originally Posted by IanC_UK

I placed an order from flashmemory today for an integral 2gb cf card, will keep you posted re delivery etc !

Was £95.49 including delivery.

Cool, let us know how you get on with it when it arrives. Switch you 20D into continuous drive and see how many shots you can get before you get buffer lockout

Ok, wheres the manual ! lol

Right with the sandisk 512mb cheapo thing i bought today so i could actually take pics with it ! lol

In sport mode, continous shot, it will take 30 pics before buffer throws its toys out the pram !

Will do the same trick with the Integral when it gets here !