EOS 10D and 4Gb SanDisk Ultra II - very slow?

[john clark]

Hi everyone.

 

I bought a 4Gb SanDisk Ultra II CF card for my 10D earlier this year, and I've found that it is increasingly slow

as it fills up - is this normal? I know the 10D predates 4Gb cards but I did my research and everything seems

largely okay with the use of this card other than the following two odd things:

 

(1) Occasionally the 10D will crash when writing the first image (Raw or Jpg) after first turn-on. It re-starts

and then is fine for the remainder of the shoot, though the first image is corrupt and therefore lost.

 

(2) It takes forever to empty the buffer to this card, much longer than I recall with previous (smaller) cards -

I know the 10D is no flying machine but it's so slow as to actually be a problem - say, 20 seconds to write a

short burst of images, during which time the camera is un-usable.

 

Maybe I'm noticing these things now due to changes in shooting style (doubtful) or perhaps there is a problem

with the use of larger cards as they fill up, but it's a bit of a concern.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts (other than the obvious 'buy a newer body', which is my medium-term plan anyway)?

 

Thanks,

 

John

[rainer_t]

Look at this thread ...

 

http://www.photo.net/canon-eos-digital-camera-forum/00MoAM

 

... my observation was made on a 300D ... but the 10D and the 300D are very much alike regarding their internal software.

 

As for the slower speed using 4GB cards compared to 1GB or 2GB cards. The obvious thing is, that for 4GB cards FAT32 must be used, whereas for 1GB and 2GB cards FAT16 can be used (and the camera would format those cards as FAT16). In my eyes, the FAT32 implementation in the 300D and 10D isn't overly performant. Formatting and writting to the card takes longer. I have not observed, that it is progressively longer the more data is on the card, but it is definitely longer than with smaller cards.

 

The 30D has a smaller buffer than the 10D (to my knowledge). I can take 4 raw-files in a row, and then the

camera will need about 20 seconds to store the images. It doesn't become usable before at least the first image is stored (which takes about 5 seconds). With the 4GB card, the time increases from 20 seconds to nearly 30 seconds (and the 5 seconds to about 8 seconds).

 

So, I normally don't use larger cards than 2GB ... but I have on 4GB that I use on vacations.

[J.W. Wall]

FWIW, I've noticed the same thing. I have two 4GB cards for my 10D. I bought one on eBay and it is so slow that it barely works. I've stopped using it. I bought the other at a big box retailer and it works fine -- just a little slower that a 2GB card and increasingly slower as it gets under about 100 images to go (in RAW mode).

[J.W. Wall]

Apparently my changes to the above message didn't take, sorry. Must have hit the wrong button. The card that barely works is a Sandisk Ultra II. The card that works well is a Lexar Platinum II 80x. In any case, the write speed on a 10D is no speed demon compared to more recent Canon DSLRs.

[ian_mccloghrie]

I had a similar experience with my old 300D. I had a 1G ultra-2 that I'd had for years, I bought a 4G and it was much

slower. I wasn't sure if it is was the size or if I'd accidentally bought a fake "ultra II" that was actually some super cheap

card with a fake label on it. A few months later I upgraded to a 50D, and the 4GB card is no slower on the 50D than the

1GB card, suggesting that the problem really does lie with the filesystem drivers in the 300D (and, presumably, 10D as

well).

[john clark]

Thanks, guys. I'll hang onto the card when I get the new camera, and go back to my 1Gb cards in the meantime...

[provo]

I did read an article about fake Sandisk memory cards. I can't find the reference now, but if you Google for it, you will find references to the fake cards. You could also check on the Sandisk website. It would seem as though most of the fakes are being sold through eBay, so be careful when purchasing online. Good luck with your card.

[john clark]

Just to update: it's not a fake card (or, if it is, it's a VERY good fake - including all the packaging, etc.) and wasn't bought via Ebay. Still dog slow though :-(

[larsag]

<p>Same problem here with that 4Gb Sandisk Ultra II and D10. The camera stopped writing data to it eventually.<br>

Replaced the card with a 2Gb 80X Lexar. Problem gone. And yes, the 10D was really slow especially in RAW mode.<br>

I usually keep it in continous drive mode to get som speed from it. But writing to card seems to go on forever after shooting a few frames. And play back speed is nowhere near like another oldie but goodie that I use; the Nikon D70. But I guess the comparison is a bit unfair; the 20D was much faster I gather. <br>

Lars</p>