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Thread: SD vs CF

  1. #1
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    SD vs CF

    I know there was a post on here at some stage but I can't find it. So, what are the differences/advantages/disadvantages between CF and SD cards?

    I just got a 1D mk IV and previously just used SD in my last camera. Now that I have the opportunity, I'd love to get the best card possible. I was looking at the extreme pro line that sandisk has, in particular the 95mb/s cards, of which they have SD and CF, both vastly different In price. Is it worthwhile going for the more expensive CF? If so, WHY?

    Any advice would be much appreciated!

    And yes I plan on shooting sports at 10fps full RAW...

    Thanks.
    Will S.

  2. #2
    Senior Member clemmb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by wildstraw View Post
    I know there was a post on here at some stage but I can't find it. So, what are the differences/advantages/disadvantages between CF and SD cards?

    I just got a 1D mk IV and previously just used SD in my last camera. Now that I have the opportunity, I'd love to get the best card possible. I was looking at the extreme pro line that sandisk has, in particular the 95mb/s cards, of which they have SD and CF, both vastly different In price. Is it worthwhile going for the more expensive CF? If so, WHY?

    Any advice would be much appreciated!

    And yes I plan on shooting sports at 10fps full RAW...

    Thanks.
    I have a 1DmkIIn. My cards are not that fast. This limits the number of pix per run @ 8.5fps but not much of a problem for me. I also use the two cards when shooting a wedding. I am saving same on both cards. Had one fail half way through a wedding recently. So glad I had two cards collecting raw
    Mark

  3. #3
    Super Moderator Kayaker72's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by wildstraw View Post

    And yes I plan on shooting sports at 10fps full RAW...

    Thanks.
    I'll start with the obvious. If that is what you want to do, the more expensive cards are worth it. Using an average file size of 22 MP at 10 fps, you will be generating data at 220 MB/sec. You will, at best, be writing to the cards at 90 MB/sec. So, the faster cards (Lexar 1000x or Sandisk extreme pro) will let you shoot longer before you fill up your buffer.

    On the difference between between SD cards and CF cards. My understanding is that CF cards have long been considered the superior card for years but that SD cards have either closed that gap or are close to closing the gap. SD cards have a huge advantage in that they are small and are more commonly used. So, due to some economies of scale, more are produced, the fixed production costs are spread over larger volumes, SD cards are cheaper per MB.

    These are now probably dated, but here are two links from 2010 talking about actual write rates of SD and CF cards on a Canon 1DIV:
    http://www.slashgear.com/sdhc-flash-...rk-iv-2082467/
    http://www.slashgear.com/high-perfor...rk-iv-1577718/

    Brant

  4. #4
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    Yeah, thanks Brant.

    I was mainly just wondering the difference between a 90mb/s SD card, and a 90mb/s CF card, both sandisk, and both the extreme pro. I am struggling to understand why the CF's are so much more expensive if they are only capable of the same speed. But it may come down to the supply and demand which you speak of. Might end up going for the CF (I already have 1 fairly fast SD) simply coz it'll mean I can put both CF and SD in at the same time and either backup to one or shoot to one after the other.

    Thanks for your input anyway.
    Will S.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Kombi's Avatar
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    Check you camera manual. I believe I read different write speeds from the camera to the CF and SD cards. Faster write to the CF

    http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/cam...cid=6007-10549

    Based on his tests for the SanDisk Extreme Pro 16GB cards, the CF card averages 52.9MB/S write and the SD 19.4MB/s

    Note: I do not have a 1D and cannot provide first hand experience.
    Last edited by Kombi; 04-18-2013 at 07:14 PM.

  6. #6
    Wildstraw, I believe the CF will be prefered in your camera. If you even put an SD card in along with the CF to make backup images at the same time or something, it will reduce your FPS. Using a high quality high capacity SD to mirror your CF for wedding shoot = intelligent. It will in fact slow down the FPS if shooting sports though.

    I don't shoot like that, so I occasionally put a microSD into an SD adapter, put it in the camera and write low res Jpeg and write full size raw to the CF. I can pull the microSD and pop it into my Galaxy Note II and dropbox the images immediately, or do twitterbookspace, etc. So you would be taking images before post and uploading them immediately. This, so you can keep up with the instaphones and tweetpages of the era, but with 1D quality images from a pro photographer.

    If enough people do this, besides always looking busy fumbling with a microSD card in between shooting, we'll outdo those iphone and point and shoot jockeys and show them how its really done. On that topic, the panorammic apps are really downplaying a lot of my work and they are nowhere near the quality of my 65,000 pixel width high res (cant even be created in jpeg due to size) panoramics. /endrant

    Android was originally developed for point and shoot cameras, not for mobile phones, fyi. I'm researching a way to use wifi enabled SD cards along with my Androids wifi capabilities and 4G to do streaming to remote server of a photoshoot, not with the Canon attachment though.

  7. #7
    Senior Member Rocco's Avatar
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    Re: SD vs CF

    The main difference between the two are the amount of pins making the data connection. More connections in the cf card means more data being transferred at once.

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