Compactflash recommondations

[puckhead193]

I want another card for when i got to China. Since I have an 8 MP camera i and something big so i was thinking of 1GB cause i have a 1 GB card already.
Whats up with microdrives? are they any good?
Also i notice them have speeds. The more speed the faster it write to the card? I think i currently have a lexar professional 80x 1 GB card. Will this do.
Incase it helps I have a nikon Coolpix 8800...
Also since i'm posting. How should I shoot?
obc. i'm gonna shoot at the highest resolution bit i can chance image quality?
it gives me:
Raw
hi
extra
fine
normal
basic

Do these settings really make a difference.

[Wes Jordan]

RAW give you the best ability after the shoot to edit anc correct. You can easily change color balance without losing quality as well as set a white balance. it has been said that you can get get about two stops more light out of the picture with RAW. RAW files are large however, and shot-to shot times can slow drastically, but many feel it is worth it. The post processing time may also take longer as it takes special software to view and edit the files.

If you decide to shoot RAW, you may be interested in buying an Extreme III card from Scandisk. I have a 2 gig version and I think it is fantastic. I cannot atest to the speed difference between the Ulta II and Extreme III, but I only paid about $120 for my card from Adorama. I'm sure B&H would have similar prices as well as other stores.

[balamw]

It has been said that you can get get about two stops more light out of the picture with RAW. RAW files are large however, and shot-to shot times can slow drastically, but many feel it is worth it.
That would make sense since most cameras with RAW give you 36 bit color information instead of 24 bit, and that's two factors of two per color. ;)

puckhead. Get the fastest card you can find/afford. Then as Wes implies, use the highest quality mode you can to support your desired shot-to-shot time. Personally, I find RAW excellent for shots which I can take time composing, otherwise I leave my camera in "Fine" mode to be able to catch he kids in action on the fly.

Ultimately, the higher the image quality stored on the card, the more postprocessing you can do to it, and the larger a print you can make.

B

[Grimace]

Transcend makes a great 8GB flash card for cheap (given $/GB) -- they also make a 4GB card. 120x -- gotta love it.

[Wes Jordan]

I know this is a little off topic, but with my 20d I noticed that sometimes th buffer doesn't fill to the stated 23 JPEG files. I know that possibly some files are larger than others, but I find I usually get 21, sometimes 16. Should I be concerned? Is there some option I have selected that would cause it to write more info to the buffer? I have no idea....should I just accept this as normal?

[bousozoku]

I definitely recommend the SanDisk Ultra II and Extreme III cards but you have to have a camera which writes quickly enough to really push them to their limits and a Nikon Coolpix 8800 doesn't require a lot of speed. The Ultra II would probably be plenty but the Extreme III would be overkill for that camera.

[iGary]

I definitely recommend the SanDisk Ultra II and Extreme III cards but you have to have a camera which writes quickly enough to really push them to their limits and a Nikon Coolpix 8800 doesn't require a lot of speed. The Ultra II would probably be plenty but the Extreme III would be overkill for that camera.

I agree totally. :)

[Grimace]

I'll probably get flamed for saying this, but I wouldn't mess with Microdrives. They are cheaper per GB than Flash, but they also are far more delicate. I know a lot of people who have hundreds of shots wiped out because the drive gets dropped or banged around.

[recap of my big find: 8GB flash card for $309 at Datamem.com -- search for Transcend. ]

[bousozoku]

I'll probably get flamed for saying this, but I wouldn't mess with Microdrives. They are cheaper per GB than Flash, but they also are far more delicate. I know a lot of people who have hundreds of shots wiped out because the drive gets dropped or banged around.

[recap of my big find: 8GB flash card for $309 at Datamem.com -- search for Transcend. ]

You're right. Microdrives are great for cameras that don't move. If someone leaves a camera on a tripod that almost never moves, a microdrive will be just fine.

[Chip NoVaMac]

You're right. Microdrives are great for cameras that don't move. If someone leaves a camera on a tripod that almost never moves, a microdrive will be just fine.

Keep in mind that Microdrives have been used in the iPod mini, and these IMO are on the move.

IMO Microdrives have a value for some users. For my $ I would rather go solid state.

[Grimace]

Keep in mind that Microdrives have been used in the iPod mini, and these IMO are on the move.


iPod Minis were the most replaced iPod model (other than 40GB models.) :D

[Chip NoVaMac]

iPod Minis were the most replaced iPod model (other than 40GB models.) :D


Never saw it our store level. I also have a 4gb Microdrive that still goes strong.

[Clix Pix]

RAW files are large however, and shot-to shot times can slow drastically, but many feel it is worth it.

The CP 8800 already has agonizingly slow shot-to-shot and read-to-card times; I'd think the LAST thing someone would want to do with that camera is shoot in RAW unless they're shooting static subjects that don't move and if they have a lot of time to spend during the shooting session.

The CP 8800 has a wonderful lens on it and can produce some outstanding macros but for me it was an exercise in frustration every time I tried to shoot with it. That was what propelled me into getting the D70 last year. Maybe that was Nikon's intent all along.... LOL!

[puckhead193]

yea i have mixed feelings about the camera. It takes really good static pictures but try doing sports/motion forget about it...
Should have gone the DSLR route, maybe in a year or 2 i'll upgrade..

[bousozoku]

Keep in mind that Microdrives have been used in the iPod mini, and these IMO are on the move.

IMO Microdrives have a value for some users. For my $ I would rather go solid state.

Yes, and from what I've heard of the frequency of repairs on them, I wouldn't use one at all. Those 1.8 inch Toshiba drives in the standard iPods are frail enough.

Microdrives are great for studio work.

[virividox]

microdrives a tad slow and cant take the same abuse as solid state media

either flash or sd

lexar and sandisk both give good waranties and offer image recovery software (if you need it) free with the pro lines

[-hh]

I want another card for when i got to China. Since I have an 8 MP camera i and something big so i was thinking of 1GB cause i have a 1 GB card already.

You're thinking of taking only 2GB total?

FWIW, had you been shooting film, how many rolls would you have planned to take on this trip? (10 - 20 - 30 - 40 - more?)


Also i notice them have speeds. The more speed the faster it write to the card? I think i currently have a lexar professional 80x 1 GB card. Will this do.

The I/O speed of Flash Media has two places where it bottlenecks.

The first is when you take the picture...this can factor into how many shots in a row (quick succession) your system may be able to take. How often you need to take a burst depends a lot on your subjects ... ie, wildlife action needs it, but landscapes don't :)

The second bottleneck is when you're downloading the card onto your computer - - with slow cards, it can be a looooooooong wait (10+ minutes) while you're sitting there impatiently waiting for the results.

My personal rule of thumb is to definitely not get "standard" speed. While the Extreme, 80x or newer still 120x cards are obviously better, I'd get at least an "Ultra II" speed rating or equivalent (40x). You can find this speed sold today at under $50 per 1GB.


How should I shoot? ... i'm gonna shoot at the highest resolution bit i can chance image quality?
it gives me:
Raw...

RAW will give you the maximum image potential. The problem is that it eats up storage like mad. IIRC, on my 20D (also 8MP), when I save each shot as RAW+JPG, it eats up around 13MB per image, which means that I only get around 75 photo's per 1GB card - - - that's the equivalent of 2 rolls of 35mm film!

With 2GB in CF cards, I'd expect that you'll be carrying only enough for 150 shots before you need to download your cards. How many photos you'll shoot in China is up to you, as well as what you plan to do when your cards get filled.

YMMV, but with film, I've been able to shoot over 300 images/day when on vacation (Alaska). Translating that into a GB equivalent with an 8MP RAW consumption rate, it means I would have used 4GB per day.

What all this means is that depending on how much you expect to shoot, how long your trip is and if you're planning on carrying a laptop with you, you might want to consider some storage alternatives, such as a pair of Hyperdrive HD80's (http://www.hyperdrive.com/shop/information.php?info_id=7).

This is one of the downsides that I've seen to digital - - how are you going to manage what do you do when you're "away from home" (the computer you're going to download to) for an extended period of time?


Because CF cards are reusuable, it is easy to get by with just 1 or 2 of them when kicking around at home. But the problem is when you don't have the home desktop, Digital Wallet, Laptop (or time out of your vacation to go search out a store who will burn them to CD for you, etc) to get the data off your cards so that you can reuse them: this determines how many GB you need to get through the demand, and it just becomes one more thing you have to plan for.

FWIW, I'm getting organized for my first trip to Africa, and I'll be taking an 8MP 20D and shoot in RAW+JPEG. I figure that to be reasonably safe, I'll want to have 4-6GB worth of cards for it in order to be able to get through each day, maybe more, and due to weight restrictions, I'll be carrying a pair of HD80's (for redundency) instead of a laptop. If there's an opportunity to burn to CD's en route, I'll do that too, so as to have another backup copy. The cost of buying two HD80's and a couple more GB of cards is cheap compared to the rest of the trip, so its worth doing.


-hh

[ChrisA]

Today 1GB is the almost a smaller card. 2GB are afordable

Microdrives are being passed up by flash memory. Now that flash can do 4GB there is less need for a micro drive.

Speed: You can't by a slow CF card anymore. "50X" is about the lowest I've seen so this is almost a non-issue only a very fast DSLR isgoing to over drive a 50X card.

The biggist bottle nect is if the data has to go through a USB 1.0 interface. You can't
do much if the camera is UBS1 but you can make sure all the hubs and readers are
USB2 (Note that ther Apple keyboard port is USB1.)

Those setting fine, raw, ... allow you to trade image details for file size. CF cards are cheap now. Go for big files and big CF cards.

The best advice is to buy several cards. Don't keep all photos on one card. Better to have a set of 1GB cards then one big 8GB card. Less is lost if a crad fails. Swapping out a CF card every two days is not that much of a hassel. Also do NOT take new untested equipment with you. Shot with watever you buy for a few weeks near home. Go through a few cycles of shoot, download, erase card, shoot...... Find problems NOW when they matter less and are easier to fix.

[Chip NoVaMac]

RAW give you the best ability after the shoot to edit anc correct. You can easily change color balance without losing quality as well as set a white balance. it has been said that you can get get about two stops more light out of the picture with RAW. RAW files are large however, and shot-to shot times can slow drastically, but many feel it is worth it. The post processing time may also take longer as it takes special software to view and edit the files.

If you decide to shoot RAW, you may be interested in buying an Extreme III card from Scandisk. I have a 2 gig version and I think it is fantastic. I cannot atest to the speed difference between the Ulta II and Extreme III, but I only paid about $120 for my card from Adorama. I'm sure B&H would have similar prices as well as other stores.

Good advice, though if the camera allows for it, I use RAW+JPEG mode.

According to the Time & Sizes page over on DPR (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikoncp8800/page11.asp), there does not appear to be any advantage of faster cards. Also note that RAW allows for only 81 images on a 1gb card, verses 129 in the Extra Fine JPEG mode. That being said, many users are just as happy shooting in JPEG mode. They have little desire to spend lots of time "fixing up" their images.

IMO the only reason to spend money on a high speed card is to be better set on a future camera purchase.

Today 1GB is the almost a smaller card. 2GB are afordable

Microdrives are being passed up by flash memory. Now that flash can do 4GB there is less need for a micro drive.Those setting fine, raw, ... allow you to trade image details for file size. CF cards are cheap now. Go for big files and big CF cards.

You are right. At the shop I work at the Sandisk Ultra II 4gb CF cards are only $199.99 now. For that same price you can get a 6gb MicroDrive.

The best advice is to buy several cards. Don't keep all photos on one card. Better to have a set of 1GB cards then one big 8GB card. Less is lost if a crad fails. Swapping out a CF card every two days is not that much of a hassel. Also do NOT take new untested equipment with you. Shot with watever you buy for a few weeks near home. Go through a few cycles of shoot, download, erase card, shoot...... Find problems NOW when they matter less and are easier to fix.

Very strong advice there. About multiple memory cards - one would never go out with just one roll of film. One would always have s second one on hand, just in case.

I have had some memory card issues in the past (solid state) where I was only getting half the storage. Getting a new card solved the problem.

[Mr. G4]

Keep in mind that Microdrives have been used in the iPod mini, and these IMO are on the move.

IMO Microdrives have a value for some users. For my $ I would rather go solid state.

There is a big different between read and write.
I don't think you can corrupt data by reading it.

[jayb2000]

I have used SanDisk CF for 5 years in different cameras and have yet to have one crap out.
Now, I only shoot about 1500 pictures per year (currently Nikon CoolPix 5400), but this is with traveling, beach photos, etc.

I will stick with them. I am getting a 2gig Ultra II now, going on vacation for 8 days with no computer, so I wanted extra space. And I hope to get a D50/70/?? in about a year, so I wanted something with some decent size.

I would get the camera sooner, but trying to process photos on a G3 iMac is just painful :-), gotta get that MacBook first.

[ikonq]

I'm not huge on actual CF cards themselves, as i survive on the 512mb one i have in my dads EOS350D.

That said, Think about a 60GB iPod + iPod Camera Connector. It works out that 60GB of CF memory would cost about AUD$9000+ (from what i worked out using 512 cards :P), whereas the iPod and the camera connector clocks just under AUD$650.

I use it and have had no problem with RAW files, other than that i cannot preview them on the iPod. They transfer fine though. You can sometimes tell your camera to take a RAW and a low res jpeg (for previewing on ipod) at the same time...

[Grimace]

I'm not huge on actual CF cards themselves, as i survive on the 512mb one i have in my dads EOS350D.

That said, Think about a 60GB iPod + iPod Camera Connector. It works out that 60GB of CF memory would cost about AUD$9000+ (from what i worked out using 512 cards :P), whereas the iPod and the camera connector clocks just under AUD$650.


But, you go through half of your camera's battery and most of your iPod's battery in the process...:rolleyes:

[puckhead193]

I got a 2GB sandisk extreme III, (they didn't have the II) this was the only way to go. I got GB. i'm bringing my powerbook so if i need more i'll have that to result in. (i'll bring some CD-R/DVD-R to back up) How come when the camera is in full auto it says it will take about 257 pictures. but when i change to M,A,S or P i get like 85. Why is that? :confused:

[Grimace]

I got a 2GB sandisk extreme III, (they didn't have the II) this was the only way to go. I got GB. i'm bringing my powerbook so if i need more i'll have that to result in. (i'll bring some CD-R/DVD-R to back up) How come when the camera is in full auto it says it will take about 257 pictures. but when i change to M,A,S or P i get like 85. Why is that? :confused:

The resolution for those modes is probably a LOT higher -- maybe RAW; it appears to be 3x the resolution of the "full auto" mode.

Can you clarify which camera, what size CF card, and the resolution you are using?

[puckhead193]

Can you clarify which camera, what size CF card, and the resolution you are using?
8 MP (3264x2448)
Imagine quality - HI
Nikon cool pix 8800
sandisk extreme III 2GB (formated from the camera menu)

Do you think if i lower the imagine quality to normal or a lower then HI, will i loose a lot of the quality. I plan on doing some minor touch ups in PSE, red eye, healing brush/acne, brightness etc and plan to make an iphoto book. I also plan on doing some panoramas...and printing out around 4x6/8x10 or maybe the next size up

[balamw]

At least on my Canon S45 and G1 the resolution/size and picture quality are saved individually for each mode, so "P" could be Large & SuperFine while full auto could be medium and "fine".

Personally, I find ~3 MP "good enough" for 4x6 to 5x7 prints with some touch ups. Anything more is gravy and allows for enlargements and or significant cropping. So for the panoramas you probably want a higher res, ut most of the time you could stay at one of the medium resolutions.

B

[virividox]

i recommend the sandisk or lexar pro lines. not the latest but the last generation. so the the Ultra II (forgot the equivalent of lexar)

but if you do get the Ultra III comes with free recovery software if ever ur flash card should bite the dust (rare)

[ChrisBrightwell]

But, you go through half of your camera's battery and most of your iPod's battery in the process...:rolleyes:... So do it before you go to bed. Set both batteries to charge overnight and quit worrying about it.

Here's what I'm taking to Rome tomorrow:
- Canon Digital Rebel XT (EOS 350D) w/ two batteries
- 1x SanDisk "baseline" 2GB CF Card (seen here (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000DD7PE.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg))
- 2x SanDisk "baseline" 512MB CF Card (seen here (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00006B9QF.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg))
- 60GB 5G iPod
- iPod Camera Connector

I'll be shooting RAW+JPG (roughly 15MB per image, at most) on the 2GB CF as my "default" configuration. That lets me view the JPG images on the iPod I'm still on the road and tweak the RAW images in Aperture when I get home.

If I find a decent 'net cafe nearby, I may dump from the iPod to a CD-R or DVD-R every few days as a backup. I carried a PowerBook to Greece a few years ago and it was a pain in the ass.

I'll shoot 70-100 photos per day, if my behavior on past vacations is any indication. 100 photos/per for 16 days ... that's 1600 photos. If each of those weight in at 15MB, I'll have 23GB of photos on my iPod ... I better make sure there's enough room on there before I leave. I should probably reformat it to FAT32, as well.

I thought about carrying a white/grey balance card or an ExpoDisc or something, but I think I'll leave it at home (er ... at the store) and worry about color correction in post. Aperture should let me do batch adjustments to color balance or whatever.

[jelloshotsrule]

... I better make sure there's enough room on there before I leave. I should probably reformat it to FAT32, as well.


what does the fat32 affect? thanks

[ChrisBrightwell]

what does the fat32 affect? thanksIt lets me go to a 'net cafe and plug the iPod into any machine. From there, I can copy the files off of the iPod and burn them to CD-R or DVD-R.

A Mac-formatted (HFS+) iPod won't be readable on a Windows machine.

[virividox]

i say bring the expodisc with u, its small and its better than fixing ur wb during pp (whch can be a pain)

[taytho]

i love my sandisk ultra II 2 gig card. LOVE IT

[ChrisBrightwell]

i say bring the expodisc with uI'd have to buy one, which I'd rather not do.

I read an article today on Pringles' plastic lids working well for white balance. I may try that. :)

[virividox]

okay, try the pringles cap then but, trust me u wont be disappointed with the expodisc, just get the 77mm, version so it fits all ur lenses (u can hold it over the smaller lenses)

and its a 1 time investment

[ChrisBrightwell]

I may buy an ExpoDisc when I get home. :) One of the reasons I'm shooting RAW in Rome is so I can adjust things like color balance reatively easily and with as little quality loss as possible.

[jelloshotsrule]

It lets me go to a 'net cafe and plug the iPod into any machine. From there, I can copy the files off of the iPod and burn them to CD-R or DVD-R.

A Mac-formatted (HFS+) iPod won't be readable on a Windows machine.

ahh yes, duh. was thinking it had something to do with max file sizes, partitions, etc... sometimes the obvious answer is the right one. hah. thanks

[puckhead193]

anyone think the fine, extra, normal, etc imiage quality will be affected a lot?

[ChrisBrightwell]

anyone think the fine, extra, normal, etc imiage quality will be affected a lot?Unless you're shooting pictures solely for the 'net, I'd say to use the highest quality you can, regardless of which resolution you settle on.

[ChrisBrightwell]

Here's what I'm taking to Rome tomorrow:
- Canon Digital Rebel XT (EOS 350D) w/ two batteries
- 1x SanDisk "baseline" 2GB CF Card (seen here (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000DD7PE.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg))
- 2x SanDisk "baseline" 512MB CF Card (seen here (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00006B9QF.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg))
- 60GB 5G iPod
- iPod Camera Connector... Just a quick followup: This setup worked wonderfully on my vacation. :)

I'll have some samples soon to share w/ anyone interested.