CF Card speed

[M_Six]

Anyone here got the skinny on CF card speed? Do the higher speed (90MB/s) cards make that much of a difference? Is the difference in writing or just in transferring images to the computer? I need to stock up on some CF cards before we start traveling this summer and Adorama has a sale going on this week. I'm just debating on whether or not to go with the 90MB/s cards or just go with the 60MB/s cards. I don't shoot video or high speed continuous stills, so I'm thinking I won't notice a marginally slower write speed.

[HDNitehawk]

More than you ever wanted to know, but here are the most recent threads;

http://community.the-digital-picture...ead.php?t=5294

http://community.the-digital-picture...ead.php?t=5970

The first thread several of us did quit a bit of testing, on the second thread John posted a spread sheet which shows his results. His results are fairly typical.

While you might see one or two more frames in a 20 second burst from the 90mbs, the improvement is small.

The speed only matters with the cameras ability to recover from a burst, and of course it downloads faster.

[HDNitehawk]

Another thought, if you have the new 5D III with its faster processer, it very well may perform even better than the bodies tested.

[M_Six]

Thanks for the links. Seems like there is no sense in spending the extra bucks on the high speed stuff for what I do. The difference between 60MB/s and 90MB/s on the 7D is just a few extra images on a 20 second burst shot. I never do that anyway. And I've never had an issue with the speed of card dumps to my PC, so no gain there either.

Thanks again. Now I wait until the 60MB/s cards go on sale Wednesday.

[HDNitehawk]

In four years of shooting DSLR’s I have only seen it matter one time, and when it did matter it was the camera’s fault more than if I had a faster card. I had been trying to get close to a pair of eagles and the closest shot I had gotten was a hundred yards away. The pair had a baby and an Osprey came to close, they went after the Osprey and there was a battle that lasted about a minute. At the end one flew directly toward me and offered a perfect fly by then overhead shot. Through the whole battle the “BUSY” light was on more than I shot.

I was using the 5D II, with the 1D IV it recovers fast enough I have never noticed the problem. For me I keep the fastest card I can in the camera. You never know when it will mater, and those kinds of chances only happen once in a very great while. For that matter I may never see another Bald Eagle vs Osprey