Memory Cards and the Canon 40D

The specs on the Canon 40D say it uses Compact Flash I and II memory cards. Is

there any advantage to buying SanDisk Extreme III or Lexar Professional 133x

cards?

 

Also, I read somewhere that the 40D has trouble reading 4GB and higher cards

from all manufacturers. Is that true? Is there any reason not to buy an 8GB card?

 

Many thanks.

I use an 8gb in my 40d all the time, almost exclusivity. The camera is new but I've got about 1200 shots from it using the 8gb card. Just make sure you format it in the camera.

No it's not true. You won't have any problems with using 4 or 8 GB cards. I think it's better to use more and smaller cards. If one breaks down you still have some pictures. At least that's what I do. I have several 2 GB cards. I can put 100 pictures on each so if something happens it's 100 pictures lost not e.g. 400.

 

I don't know about speed. It's hard for me to make the buffer full even when using RAW images (I prefer to "catch" the right moment instead of shooting 6 fps all the time). I use SanDisk Ultra II cards and they seem fine. Maybe there's someone on forum who had compared them. It would be interesing to know what's the difference when using burst.

Dave,

 

I think you are making a little confusion for yourself.

 

Compactflash I and II are format differences within the compactflash specification. Since your camera uses both, don't worry about it.

 

The III and 133x are speed/marketing terms that denote cards that operate faster than other cards. The advantage with these faster cards is that if your camera is feeding data quickly, as in a rapid succession of shots, these cards won't create a bottleneck themselves, compared to a slower card. Generally speaking, these cards write data faster than other cards, but you only need that if a) your camera can fling the data that fast, and b) you shoot in a fashion that requires flinging data around that fast. You probably can go with cheaper cards unless you have specialized needs.

 

The only reason against buying an 8gb card is that there is more data to lose if something goes wrong with the card, or more likely, you lose the card. Otherwise, you should be fine with one.

I use 8 and 16 G cards and in over 20 000 actuations had just one problem with the card in my 40D - when I didn't push it all the way in and got Err99. As for speed, since 40D does not support UDMA cards (such as Sandisk Extreme IV) the happy medium seems to be Sandisk Extreme III or equivalent: cheap and fast enough for reading and writing in the 40D and future cameras. Take looksee at http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/camera_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-9257 for more info.

I have a cheap Ridata 8GB card in my 40D. So far so good. I have yet to encounter any problems with it.

 

I'm not sure about the write speeds of the different cards, but I would think that they would help the camera clear the buffer faster when shooting continuously in RAW. What I am sure of is that you can transfer your files to your computer faster with these high-speed cards.

I use the Sandisk Ultra II cards in my 40 D with no problems. They are great. I have two 2 gig cards and one 4 gig card. I agree with the logic of not having all your eggs in the same basket.

I use the sandisk extreme III 16GB (2008 version) card in my 40D, works great.

 

According to the site, noted above, its the fastest 16GB card.

 

As far as reliablility, I've never had a memory card error out on me, solid state storage is very reliable, I wouldn't hesitate to use a large capacity card.

I have yet to fill the 8gb card. I only filled a 2gb card once. I admit, I don't get out as mush as I would like, to the places I'd like to go. But I like knowing the card can handle 500+ pix.

 

Keeping them in one basket does concern me somewhat, but I do dump the files off as often as possible.

I also use the Ridata on both my 30d and 1dm2 and i havent had any problems, many reviews claim that the lightning series x233 does not write at that speed, it only reads at that speed but i have yet to have any issues. i got my cards from mwave.com and the 8gb lightning series x233 is only $35.

 

on my 1dm2 i did notice that the regular SD reads faster than the SDHC, i have both a ridata x233 2gb SD and a 4gb SDHC and the SDHC is slow as hell.