SD cards/speed

[iomatic]

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I don't know if this has been covered specifically before, if it has please point me to a thread/resource, and apologies.

 

I just ordered SanDisk Ultra II cards but now wondering if I shouldn't have gotten Extreme ones (the 2GB cards aren't on Leica's list). Does the card speed affect write speeds in these situations? I recall getting Extreme III for my 5D, and it makes very negligble difference (though probably more noticeably faster than standard cheapies or store-bought circa-2004 technology).

 

Thoughts on this?

 

Oh, and I've see smattering reports of unreliability, etc. Is there anything conclusive other than anecdotes (besides Leica's list?)

 

Thanks.

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[LJL]

Jack,

The card's speed has two critical places of impact. The first is how fast the camera processor is able to dump files to the card. This is gated by the camera, and is usually slower than most "faster" cards (i.e., 66x speeds and higher). The second place it matters is when you are trying to dump files from the card to your computer. With a good Firewire or USB2 Hi Speed card reader, you can get pretty impressive offload speeds to help reduce your workflow time a bit.

 

There seem to be a few (?growing) number of comments about SD card problems, and more specifically the SanDisk Extreme III 2GB. The SanDisk Ultra II cards are slower, but also seem less problematic from what folks have been reporting here and on other threads. Not sure that anybody has done any definitive test yet.

 

Finally, some of the problems folks are reporting could be related to the camera not getting enough power during sustained write sessions to the cards. This was being discussed a bit on several other threads, including one recent one where somebody was looking for file rescue help, as his files appeared to be there but were corrupted somehow and not readable.

 

Further, there has been some discussion about problems stemming from potentially "fake" versions of the SD cards that are being sold via eBay. I have no knowledge or experience to comment there, as all of my SanDisk cards are valid, as far as I can tell.

 

Not sure any of this helps you, or answers your questions directly.

 

LJ

[iomatic]

Yes, very much; thanks.

 

I have a FW800 reader that is blazing fast for CF cards, so I'm aware of the reading issue.

 

I'm just wondering if the write speeds are affected by the SanDisk Ultra II vs. Extreme III, somewhat of an issue for shooting, but not much. I've got a ExpressCard reader on order; we'll see how that fares.