bang for buck CFs

[Heath Bennett]

is $475 a reasonable price for a 4GB Ultra 2 CF? The seller is on ebay and pickup is welcome in Syd. It seems for this price to be good bang for buck. Any suggestions on value for money CF cards welcome.

[mudder]

G'day,

Dunno if it's cheap or not, but I'd be tempted to get 2x2G cards only because I'd be nervous with only one card if anything went wrong with it... I couldn't afford more of 'em

[Heath Bennett]

I see your point, it would be suicide to trust one card! I have enough as backups, but it seems it is hard to have too much CFs

[Aussie Dave]

I'd be the same as Mudder on this.

I'd much prefer several 1 or 2Gb CF cards as opposed to one 4Gb card.

Not only that, imagine filling it with around 750 NEF's and waiting for that many to transfer to the PC....then processing 750. What a nightmare.

Unless you need to be able to hold that many shots all at once, is there a need for a 4Gb card ??

I can't say I've run out of room on my 1Gb card as yet for a single day's shooting...though I'm sure others would have different stories

[mudder]

I see your point, it would be suicide to trust one card! I have enough as backups, but it seems it is hard to have too much CFs

Sounds like PSD lust building to me...

Edited....

Unless you need to be able to hold that many shots all at once, is there a need for a 4Gb card ??

I can't say I've run out of room on my 1Gb card as yet for a single day's shooting...though I'm sure others would have different stories

Yep, I've filled both cards in less than a day on a shoot, proably more so of it's a long shoot with animals but I've filled 2x1G on landscapes once...

[jethro]

2GB is slow to format and the old rule states that if its to much its dangerous especially when camera cards are involved. i would hate to lose 2gb of NEFS

[atencati]

For those stateside, I just picked up a Kingston 2gb 50x write speed for $99 at Fry's. Best deal I've found yet.

A

[gstark]

For those stateside, I just picked up a Kingston 2gb 50x write speed for $99 at Fry's. Best deal I've found yet.

A

Good deal; well done.

[sirhc55]

I would say that 2Gb cards would be the absolute minimum if using a D2X

[Heath Bennett]

Agreed. Double your file sizes everyone!

[genji]

is $475 a reasonable price for a 4GB Ultra 2 CF? The seller is on ebay and pickup is welcome in Syd. It seems for this price to be good bang for buck. Any suggestions on value for money CF cards welcome.

what brand r they, if its reputable brand with lifetime warranty, its a steal! FYI the cheapest in melb i found for sandisk ultra 2, 4 gig is $599.

[birddog114]

Transcend 2Gb card/ 80x is $230.00
Hurry, limited stock.

[Nnnnsic]

For those stateside, I just picked up a Kingston 2gb 50x write speed for $99 at Fry's. Best deal I've found yet.

Goddamnit. Lol.

[huynhie]

Transcend 2Gb card/ 80x is $230.00
Hurry, limited stock.

Reminds me of those Fox Studios sales

[birddog114]

Transcend 2Gb card/ 80x is $230.00
Hurry, limited stock.

Reminds me of those Fox Studios sales

Of course, They're hot

[MCWB]

Reminds me of those Fox Studios sales

Without the bras from four bucks, four bucks, four bucks and Harry Potter from TEN CENTS!! Craaaaaazy!!!

[Nnnnsic]

As opposed to:

NIKE! ADIDAS! REEBOK! BRAS AND UNDIES FROM TWO DOLLARS!

We have:

NIKKOR! ASTONE! REALLY BIG TRIPODS AND CAMERAS FROM ONLY TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS!

[wendellt]

Hi Heath

i like smaller CF cards like 1 gig or 512mb because if you loose your precious CF card your dumped
Don't put all your eggs in 1 basket

it happened to me in St Paul de Vance in france, i lost a 1gig CF card and all my precious photos

so now i shot on as many cards as possible.

[Nnnnsic]

A 512mb would be virtually nothing for NEF's on a D2x, though Wendell.

[wendellt]

A 512mb would be virtually nothing for NEF's on a D2x, though Wendell.

when i was using my colpix 8700 512 could capture an eternity

[Nnnnsic]

when i was using my colpix 8700 512 could capture an eternity

"Eternity" sounds about right for the length of time it takes to save a NEF on the 8700.

[Yamahauler]

I'm reading of folks wanting a 2x card. With the D70 xfering at 12 mps and the X80 chips xfering at 12.5, I don't think getting anything less that an x80 would be logical, IMHO.

[ElRonno]

I'm looking at the SanDisk Extreme III (20MB/s).

The D70 is not the problem with it's buffer and I'm not shooting continuously anyway.

But the transfer speed to my computer IS important! I don't want to wait forever to transfer a Gig of data from the card to my PC.

[gstark]

I'm reading of folks wanting a 2x card. With the D70 xfering at 12 mps and the X80 chips xfering at 12.5, I don't think getting anything less that an x80 would be logical, IMHO.

Right ...

There are two issues to consider. Nothing else matters.

Issue 1 is the way the card interacts with the camera. The D70 is optimised for cards that are 40x or thereabouts. That's as fast as the camera can feed data to the card, and anything much faster than this is a waste of your money.

I use cards that 45x, and they permit me to work at the maximum speed that the camera works at; faster cards are of no use in this situation because it's the camera that is performining at its limit.


Issue 2 is the transfer rate between the card and your PC. If you use the camera cable, then you're stuck with the god-awful transfer speed that the camera is saddled with, and no matter what speed your card is rated at, making a cuop of coffee while waiting for the transfer to complete will be a good idea.

Likewise if you're using a CF reader with a USB1.1 connection. The bottleneck is your connection, and faster cards mean nothing to a slow connection.

If your CF reader is USB 2, then the access speed of your card does have real meaning, and you will see performance differences between 40x Vs 80x cards ....

Except that a 1G 40x card takes maybe 30 or 45 seconds to unload to a pc, and an 80x card might take about half that time; what can you do actually do in those extra 20 or seconds? Not a whole lot, I'd contend.

Bottom line, for a D70, is that 40-45x cards represent an ideal compromise ....