20D/1D Mark II read/write speed limitations?

<p>I'm interested in buying new memory cards for two Canon 20Ds and 1 EOS 1D Mark II. The 20Ds are generally used for general purpose photos and the Mark II is used mainly for shooting various college sports. I've done a lot of research concerning different CF card speeds etc. but I was wondering if either of the cameras have any limiting read/write speed themselves. I know both don't have a capacity issue, but I don't want to buy an expensive fast card for slow cameras. After doing some research I couldn't find any certain measure of the read/write speed of a camera, but did find some qualitative measures (i.e.; "very fast" etc.). Does anyone know if there is some sort of measurement of the read/write speed of a camera and where to find them ? I believe I may be talking about the camera buffer, but I'm not sure. <br /><br />Thanks!</p>

<p>Jasna, it won't answer all your questions but, if you haven't done so already, check Rob Galbraith's database on card/camera performance:</strong><br /> http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007<br /> The 1DMkII is included, and I suspect the 30D data might be close to that of the 20D</p>

<p>Certainly the 133x cards are pretty inexpensive, and I wouldn't expect ANY performance benefit out of UDMA capable cards since the Canon units prior to the 50D didn't utilize the technology. (you notice that the 50Ds write speed is about 3x that of the 40D because of UDMA), of course nor did the 1dmk2. </p>

<p>In a nutshell, I'd grab up some good sized 133x cards and call it a day. @up to ~15mb/sec, They are faster than either of your models (1D2 or 20D or even 30D/40D) can write to them. If you end up going w/ off brands do be careful, as some memory controllers have write speeds lower than the '133x' label (even though they can read at 133x)... </p>

<p>The 20D doesn't need a very fast card. I use Ultra IIs and Extreme III and can't tell a difference except when downloading the card to my PC using a card reader.</p>

<p>The 20D tops out at about the equivalent of 40x performance (6 MB/s), but you need a faster-than-40x card to get that. Anything 80x or faster should give you the 20D's peak performance.</p>

 

<p>Sorry I can't help you with the 1D II, as I never owned one of those, but I'm sure Galbraith's database will answer that question (and the 20D results are in the archive there, too).</p>

<p>Awesome, thanks for the link Marcus! (and the other responses)</p>

<p>Also, one other question; what exactly does 133x mean? for example, how does 40x translate into 6 MB/s?</p>