16G CF Cards on the Nikon D300?

<p>Thank you guys in advance for your opinion and help. I am about to replace my memory card in my Nikon D300. Right now I do have the SanDisk Extreme IV 4gb ( the old one - I do not remember what the speed is ) but I would like to replace it with the SanDisk Extreme Pro 16 GB ( which write at the speed of 90 mbps and it is also UDMA compatible ) but I do not know if this card will be accepted by my camera. I don't think I do need that much of memory capacity but they do not build it in 8 GB, only 16, 32 and 64. There is another, the SanDisk Extreme IV 8 GB UDMA which write at the speed of 60 mbps but I do not know the difference between those two. Could you please let me know what your experience is and which should be the one I should get ? I already know the Extreme PRO is more expensive ( around $225.00 ) and that is not a problem. Thanks for all your help and have a happy shooting. </p>

<p>Check the Nikon website for firmware updates that allow the camera to work with the newer CF cards. I know that a firmware upgrade was available for the D700.</p>

 

<p>Those firmware upgrade from last January (2010) are for the D3X, D3, D700, and D300S only, nothing for the D300. Part of the January upgrade is for compatibility with 32G CF cards: <a href="http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00VQYU">http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00VQYU</a></p>

<p>In any case, the D300 is already compatible with 16G CF cards anyway. If what you really need is 8G, I would just get an Extreme IV 8G card. Anything faster will unlikely give you any real speed advantage on the D300. I remember back in 2005, I paid some $200 for a 2G CF card. Prices have dropped so much that it is kind of crazy to spend that much nowadays. You are literally throwing your money away and the rapid price drop will no doubt continue.</p>

<p>The in-camera performance gain with the newer SanDisk Extreme Pro CF cards over the older SanDisk Extreme IV is about 15-20% (and hence nowehere near the 100% gain expected from doubling the speed); the main gain comes from faster transfer speeds to the computer using appropriate card readers. Most likely though newly introduced cameras will take advantage of the faster speed of these new cards.<br /> http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-10043-10255</p>

<p>Unless you need that speed advantage, I agree with Shun - there is a lot of money to be saved by buying the Extreme IV.</p>

<p>probably the higher speed is most advantageous for video -- which the D300 doesn't have anyway. unless you find yourself frequently filling the buffer and missing shots, there's really no point in paying a premium for extremely extreme CF cards.</p>

<p>Side note:</p>

<p>16 Gb may not be a good choice for a different reason.<br>

Putting all your eggs (photos) in one basket places you at some risk (i.e) card crash..It can and does happen.<br>

Since the D-300 is not a dual card camera, it might be prudent to use a couple 8's or even 4Gb cards and rotate them in and out.</p>

<p>I have used the D3S. If anything, the D3S needs those faster card less because of its much deeper memory buffer, which really affects how many consecutive images you can shoot. In sports and wildlife photography, there are usually some pauses of action for the camera to empty its buffer onto the CF card; those pauses are long enough anyway so that faster cards have no real advantage. I would much rather have a deep buffer than a faster card.</p>

<p>OK Shun, got it. I agree with you. I will buy the Extreme IV 8 GB. I do believe this card speed is 60 mbps and that is more than enough and enough capacity as well. The price between this one and the Extreme Pro, is more than $100.00. Better keep that money for something else. Thank you guys for your help. </p>

<p>I don't own a D300 yet, (I'm presently shooting with a Canon G10), but I do know this; if the camera is not UDMA compatible, even though the card may function, you will not gain the extra speed that UDMA provides.</p>

All Nikon DSLRs that use CF memory cards are UDMA-compatible since they introduced the D3 and D300 in August 2007. That is, everything in the D3 family, D700, and the D300 family are UDMA compatible.

<P>

 

When I tested the D300 two years ago, I shot a sequence of 12-bit RAW files and time the camera when it wrote those files onto the CF cards. With an Extreme III, it takes about 1.5 seconds to write each file. With an Extreme IV, which is UDMA compatible, it is about 1 second.

 

<P>

In other words, if you have a sequence of 10 RAW files, it'll take 10 seconds to write them all on an Extreme IV and about 15 seconds with an Extreme III. Therefore, if you have a 20-second pause, either way the camera will finish writing those files before you need to shoot again.

 

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When I bought a 16G CF cards last year, I opted for an Extreme III for that reason.

<p>Thank you for that. Since I have been considering the D300s, I was wondering about UDMA.</p>

<p>A word of caution. Nikon apparently has a long-standing compatibility issue with Sandisk cards, and their website and manuals do not tell the full story. My newly purchased D3x's card overflow function was disabled with sandisk extreme III cards last fall (I even replaced the body at Nikon's recommendation with a new one, same problem). The support folks at the Amazon vendor who sold me the cards pointed me to an online discussion of the problem, it was accompanied by that error message which the January firmware update was intended to fix. Thing is, Extreme IIIs were listed right in my manual as tested and compatible. Nikon techs said nothing about this to me when I called, but obviously they knew about it as Nikon was working on a firmware update at the time. I did return those cards as well.</p>

<p>Regardless of the update, however, my buddy has had problems on and off for years with the same error message in his D70s and Sandisk CF cards. That's enough for me to know, I'll be staying with Lexar and other brands for the foreseeable future. I initially preferred Sandisk since they invented the CF card, but I can't abide these sorts of problems. Just wanted to be clear I have no particular agenda in pushing one brand over another.</p>

<p>I have various Sandisk and Lexar CF cards, including several Extreme III and IV Sandisk. I have use all of those cards on the D100, D2X, D200, D300, D300S, D700, D3, D3X, and D3S. I have never had any problems other than one Lexar that was DOA and one Sandisk 4G that eventually went dead after a year.</p>

<p>Given how common Nikon DSLRs are, any major CF manufacturers would certainly test products against Nikon cameras.</p>

<p>Maurice,<br>

Maybe a bit late... anyway. It sounds a bit like you have 1 CF card? If so, be sure to get at least 2. Like written above about eggs and baskets. They do not break down a lot, but I see no reason to risk that event.<br>

I use 2 "old" Extreme IV cards (40 or 45 MB/s) and a number of Extreme III cards. My experience is quite equal to what Shun describes, and so the advantage of the Extreme IV (let alone the way faster cards that are now available) only come into play for really long bursts.... Since the Extreme IIIs are a lot cheaper, you may want to get one of those instead. The current generation Extreme III is rated for 30 Mb/s, plenty fast for most occassions, and warranty is equally long.</p>

<p>Sure Wouter, we will do that. I will keep the one I got ( Extreme IV 4 GB - do not know what the writing speed is to be honest) but I want to buy the one that is known as : SanDisk Extreme 60 mbps UDMA. According to what I did read in the net, the price in Amazon is about $70.00 and that is not bad at all. I just want something that allow me to write faster when I am shooting in high speed. I do have the MB-D10 attached to my camera and when I am shooting in CH, the memory that I have does not keep up to the burst. Also I am looking for a bit more storage capacity but your opinion will be taken in consideration and I really appreciated it. Thank you so much.</p>