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Has anyone used these and if so what do they reckon ? Noticably faster, worth the extra cost ???

 ROFL, the autocensor strikes again.

I haven't used one of these, but given the D70's write speed, I really doubt it's worth the extra. Might get you a bit faster image transfer to PC, but not worth the money IMO.

Auto censor ?? Is that why boring found its way in eh ?

Well, they are faster - 133X as opposed to 80X.
But I doubt if you need the extra speed if you use a D70.
Maybe if you have a D2X!

You probably won't even get the speed if you're using anything less than a D2h/hs.

Yer, it'll have benefits on a D2X, but not on D70.

I have an _Extreme_ 3 card and a D2X and in all honesty I cannot really tell any difference with it and the Transcend Birdy sells except for the 2=3 times price.

I do not shoot alot of high speed action shots which would be where a benefit may be noticed.

The one area I can tell a difference is downloading to the pc but even this is nominal

I tested it on the D2x and the D2h with 8fps, it's still slower in writting than the Transcend 80x 2Gb/ 4Gb card.

The extra bit of dough, you may save in buying more cards with difference brands.

Lexar and Sandisk used to be fast cards in the old day but not now anymore.

Great news Birdy. Any difference in speed is minute in 'real-world birdie' testing. I have always found the cards you sold me (transcend 80x) to be very quick. I never have to wait for them.

Dpreview suggests that the D2x has the fastest buffer write with the Ultra III of any camera. But this is probably not 'real world', and the differences are small anyhow.

Heath Bennett wrote: Dpreview suggests that the D2x has the fastest buffer write with the Ultra III of any camera. But this is probably not 'real world', and the differences are small anyhow.

Lexar and Sandisk paid heap of $$$$$ for their marketing.
Transcend and other manufacturers do not approach DPR testing or eval their products and honestly, they don't need coz in the field, the photographers can tell the real truth of its performance.

Perhaps Lexar or Sandisk products are just rebadged from other brands as they purchased in bulk and OEM, but they marked up higher so they can pay for their expenses in marketing, same as Nikon Genuine battery vs OEM or non brand battery using in DSLR.

Just to be clear about the issue touched on already. A D70 at max speed writes no faster than a 40X card so anything above that has no benefit on a D70.

On the issue of manufacturer, my understanding is that Sandisk make the bulk of CF cards since they own the patents. PS This is an interesting read about their current patent litigation (it also infers Lexar make their own cards)

stubbsy wrote: On the issue of manufacturer, my understanding is that Sandisk make the bulk of CF cards since they own the patents. PS This is an interesting read about their current patent litigation (it also infers Lexar make their own cards)

Yes, Sandisk did make their own memory, but now they outsource in China, most of their packaging with the words: "Made in Taiwan" or " Made in China", and yes they're also OEM customer from few memory makers in SEA.

If you're shooting a lot of action stuff - high numbers of images in short succession, as you would with a D2X, then you might see some benefit from one of these cards at the very tail end of your shooting sequences.

Beyond that, everyone else has said it all. The D70 cannot use this speed - it's optimised for around 40x - and the extra speed will only be marginaly noticeable when you're transferring data to your PC using your USB2 or Firewire interface, and in fact you'll probably waste more time setting it up.

Why bother?

What's your need for the so-called extra speed?

Hey thanks for all your input guys - I didnt know about the 40x speed of the D70, so as you say, it would be a bit of a waste. Looks like an email to Birddog on the Transcend 80x 2 OR 4 Gb card then !!!