Cf extreme III in Rebel xti?

[neil_doocy]

does a compactFlash extreme III work in a Rebel xti?

[denny_wells]

Mine does.

[colinsouthern]

Yes, although the camera won't be able to take full advantage of it's speed.

[neil_doocy]

it's not going to be slower or anything like that... i mean it'll work... i don't really care about speed... i get that my camera is good but not a professional camera so it won't be amazing. but it'll be like the speed of the CF II ?

[markonestudios]

I use CF Extreme IIIs as well as Ultra II in my XTi. All work just fine. I'm not sure you'd even notice a speed difference between the two unless you're going for high burst rates. But even then, the limiter might be the XTi's processor rather than the CF card's speed...

[Spearhead]

<i>i don't really care about speed</i><p>Most people don't, but the card manufacturers don't make as much profit on the lower speed cards, so they do a lot of marketing to get people to spend more on high speed cards. For anything but professional pj and sports, a standard speed card will do fine and probably be half the price. The big value of faster cards like the Extreme III is enriching the manufacturer's profit. If you own a lot of Sandisk stock, buy the Extreme III, otherwise, buy a standard speed card from any vendor and save yourself some money.

[colinsouthern]

"buy a standard speed card from any vendor and save yourself some money"

 

I'd strongly suggest sticking with authentic cards from reputable manufacturers, purchased through reputable dealers (B&H, Amazon etc) - over 90% of name brand cards sold on the likes of eBay these days are fakes - there are numerous reports of customers having no end of problem with them (myself included).

[markonestudios]

I agree! Stick to namebrands. I once borrowed a couple of Lexars while in a fix and both times I had trouble (they were corrupting files). So I've stuck to Sandisk and intend to do so. Maybe the Lexars had been misused by the owner. In any case, I've had zero faults or trouble with Sandisk. I'd never buy them on the 'bay though. Always from a reputable shop. As with much else, cheap is often expensive...

[colinsouthern]

"So I've stuck to Sandisk and intend to do so. "

 

That's my plan of attack too - works for me as well - not a single problem to date.

[Spearhead]

Sandisk buys their chips from the same factories as other companies. There are bogus cards on eBay and occasionally in retail, but they almost always have the Sandisk name. I use mostly Kingston cards, but have also used Lexar, PNY, Micron, PQI and Transcend, all without a failure. Given that the fakes are all labeled Sandisk, you actually have a better change of not getting a bogus card if you buy from another vendor. Sandisk's reputation attests to the quality of their marketing team.

[fanta]

With CF now quite cheap I don't see why one should go to people with no reputation on eBay. How much do you actually save, in US, compared to say Adorama and B&H? I don't see those retailers selling bogus cards, their reputation is their main asset.

 

When I switched from Ultra II to Extreme III, I had measured a slight increase in the frame rate after the initial burst, that is after the camera buffer memory is full. I actually had to time it to find out.

[colinsouthern]

"There are bogus cards on eBay and occasionally in retail, but they almost always have the Sandisk name."

 

Kingston & Sony fakes are also very prevalent (although admittedly Sony doesn't make CF cards).

 

Ironically if you google for Kingston + fake you get more hits than Sandisk + fake.

 

"Sandisk buys their chips from the same factories as other companies."

 

That's not my understanding - I'd like to see some authoritive information confirming this.

[gaetano catelli]

i timed a 4GB Extreme III vs a 4GB Ultra II in both my Canon 20D and 5D.

 

the Extreme III was way faster (like 30% or so) in both cameras, allowing for comparably longer bursts.

 

in shooting weddings, i've found that i don't have to be pressing the shutter continuously to run out of buffer in a fast moving situation.

[colinsouthern]

"the Extreme III was way faster (like 30% or so) in both cameras, allowing for comparably longer bursts."

 

Interesting - do you happen to know what the bankwidth of the Ultra II is supposed to be?

 

I did some testing with my 1D3 to see if the Extreme IV would make any difference compared to the Extreme III - at the end of the day the 1D3 would only write at 15MB/s - so wouldn't even max out an extreme III (rated at 20 MB/s). I would have though that the 1D3 would have transferred a LOT faster than a 20D - and I didn't think that the Ultra II was THAT slow - so I'm a bit puzzled by the results you got.

[gaetano catelli]

here's what Sandisk says about the Ultra II -- http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(1061)-SanDisk_Ultra_II_CompactFlash.aspx

 

here's what they say about the Extreme III --

http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(1027)-SanDisk_Extreme_III_CompactFlash.aspx

 

btw, fwiw, i have a 5D and 20D, not a 1DIII.

[gaetano catelli]

ok, i see your point now.

 

well, if my Canons could handle 15 Mbps, and the Ultra II maxes out at 9 or 10 Mbps (as seems to be the case according to Sandisk's own website), then there's no mystery here.

[colinsouthern]

That's the interesting part - I didn't think that a 20D would do 9 or 10 MB/s - I would have guessed at 6 or 7 tops (only a guess though) - I wouldn't have thought that there'd be any difference between the Ultra II & Extreme III with at least the 20D (and probably the 5D as well).

[Spearhead]

<i>That's not my understanding - I'd like to see some authoritive information confirming this.</i><P>It's common knowledge, do a search on silicon foundries for flash memory. Sandisk chips are mostly made by Toshiba, who also make at least some of the Kingston chips.

[altugo]

Yes, you can use Extreme III and Extreme IV with Rebel XTI. I've two SanDisk CF cards, 2 GB Extreme IV (40 MB/sec) and 4 GB Extreme III (20 MB/sec). And you can feel the difference between Extreme IV and III. I tested. In the burst mode and card operations such as multiple erase and format you can simply feel the difference. I highly recommend Extreme IV if you are not low on budget. It's the most powerfull and relaible card that I ever used.