Best match between card and camera

[Wessex Wildlife]

I want to optimise the performance of my Canon 5D and Canon 7D cameras by putting the best size and speed cards into them. I know that camera processors work best with certain specifications of cards (when buying a card in the local branch of London Camera Exchange, they always consult a table). Is there a resource I can access where I can find out what card specification is best suited to my cameras?

[Manfred M]

This information should be listed in your camera manual. Use the fastest cards your camera can write to. Smaller capacity cards will write faster than larger ones at the same speed as addressing will be faster. Lexar and Sandisk are two brands I would highly recommend as being reliable and being conservatively speced.

All that being said, this will be dependent on your shooting style. Your camera will buffer a certain number of shots (dependent on the file settings you are using) and will then write to the card. If you shoot the way I do (single shots with significant intervals (measured in seconds) between two exposures, this will never be an issue. If you are someone who shoots long bursts other factors can come into play (which is why some of the sports shooter I know shoot jpeg only).

[Donald]

I never get hung up too much (read: not at all) on tables and charts.

I've never used Lexar, but I'm sure they're up to the performance of Sandisk. I use top flight Sandisk in my 5DS and 7DMkII.

I don't shoot a lot of frames and very rarely do burst-shooting. A 64Gb in the 5DS (the Raws are VERY big) and 32Gb in the 7D more than meets my normal needs + a couple of spares in the bag just in case I go crazy one day.

At first you think, 'OMG that's expensive', but then you come round to thinking it's one aspect of your hobby where you want the very best quality in the hope of minimising the risk of failure.

So, as for 'optimising your performance', I think you're splitting hairs if you get in to a debate about which card(s) to use. I don't know if I've got the optimal cards in or not. I don't care. Get a card in there and get out shooting.

[DanK]

There is no best match. What makes most sense depends on what you shoot.

I only buy high-quality cards because I want to minimize the risk of failures. All of mine have been Sandisk, but there are other good brands as well. I would just avoid the cheaper, less well regarded brands.

Size doesn't matter at all until you bump up against the capacity of the card. In my 7D, I currently have an 8 GB 45 MBS Sandisk card that I pulled out of an old 50D when I sold it. 45 MBS is slow by current standards. If I did sports and did lots of long bursts, I would want something faster, but for my uses--I mostly use the camera for macro, which is fast sequences of shots but not usually bursts--it has never slowed me down. It gives me 275 shots, which has never been too few. If I had to replace it, I would probably buy a 16 GB to have more cushion, given that 16 GB cards are now very cheap. One that is about as fast--50 MBS--currently costs about $18 in the US. To triple the speed doubles the cost. If I shot long bursts, I would buy the faster one.

In my 5DIII, I have a 32 GB 90 MPS Sandisk CF, which is no longer available, and an 80 MBS Sandisk SD card. I generally save to both for safety have never hit the pair's speed limit. Either one gives me 1015 raw images, so if I saved to them sequentially, I would have over 2000 images. I doubt I have ever hit 200 before uploading, backing up, and reformatting the card. Currently, at US prices, you can get that size CF with a write speed of 85 MPS for $35 and 150 MBS for $50.

But a key point is that if you don't exceed either the speed rating or the capacity of these cards, the camera's performance will not be affected by your choice at all.

Video is another matter. I shoot no video with my cameras, so I don't know what that calls for.

[rpcrowe]

I have a large collection of CF cards but, the only ones that I use on a regular basis are Lexar Professional 300X and 400X UDMA cards.

Until I began shooting with a 7D camera, I never noticed the difference between CF cards. However, with the increased file size of the 7D over the 40D which I had previously been shooting (18 mp vs 10 mp) I noticed that after shooting a burst in RAW, the red "writing" light kept on well after shooting if I used an older CF Card. The 300x and 400x UDMA capable allowed a far faster write time.

Note: I have used a UDMA capable card with the Canon 40D. Since that camera was not optimized for UDMA technology, the write time from camera to card was no different. However, when downloading the card to my computer, using a UDMA capable card reader, the download time was significantly shorter than if I used a slower, non-UDMA card.

I have not made tests to determine the increased capability of the faster UDMA cards in my 7D cameras but, they are noticeably quicker to write files from camera to card.

[Greg Lehey]

Is there a resource I can access where I can find out what card specification is best suited to my cameras?

Basically you should use as fast a card as your camera can write to. Faster cards will work just as well, but not better, and they'll cost more. I looked at this a couple of months ago: see http://www.lemis.com/grog/diary-nov2...0151129-010649 . Note that card manufacturers love to stress read speed, but what you're looking for is write speed, which can be much slower. The best information I found was at http://www.cameramemoryspeed.com//

Greg

[Dave Humphries]

Hi David,

The only other thing I'd add to this is that apart from choosing a recognised good brand is to be sure to buy from a recognised good vendor (or what you get might look like the real thing, but actually be a fake).

I therefore do not buy such things from e-Bat (or similar), nor resellers on Amazon, my experience with Amazon UK supplying directly themselves, is better (and where I usually go, being UK based like yourself).

I have found prices for buying 'over the counter' are usually way more expensive, although I've not visited the store you mention.

Greg's Camera Memory Speed link looks good - although I'd not seen it before, it suggests that the card I happened to choose for my D7100 is one of the top ones for the D7200.

I'm another exclusively Sandisk (SD) customer, so I've no reason to look further.

Cheers, Dave

[Manfred M]

One other thing to remember, so far as I know, only three of the flash memory card suppliers make their own memory, the rest of the suppliers buy the flash memory on the open market and may contract out the card manufacturing work.

These are:

1. Lexar - owned by memory maker Micron;

2. Sandisk - the third largest flash memory producer in the world. They were recently bought by hard drive maker Western Digital; and

3. Toshiba - while they are listed as a supplier in my camera manuals, I have not seen any Toshiba memory cards for sale in North America.

[DanK]

Basically you should use as fast a card as your camera can write to. Faster cards will work just as well, but not better, and they'll cost more. I looked at this a couple of months ago: see http://www.lemis.com/grog/diary-nov2...0151129-010649 . Note that card manufacturers love to stress read speed, but what you're looking for is write speed, which can be much slower. The best information I found was at http://www.cameramemoryspeed.com//

Greg

Very helpful. I had forgotten to check write as well as read speed before posting earlier. I agree that write speed is what one should be concerned about, if speed is an issue.

[Manfred M]

Very helpful. I had forgotten to check write as well as read speed before posting earlier. I agree that write speed is what one should be concerned about, if speed is an issue.

I don't know Dan. Downloading 32GB of data after a day's shooting with a slow card is extremely frustrating.

The way I shoot, this is much more important than the write speed.

[DanK]

I don't know Dan. Downloading 32GB of data after a day's shooting with a slow card is extremely frustrating.

The way I shoot, this is much more important than the write speed.

I never come close to filling a card in a day's shooting. My 5DIII raw files are roughly 28MB. So, a very busy day, or a shoot with a lot of stacking, might yield 5 or 6 GB. Still, I take your point. I sometimes get frustrated waiting for a download. On the other hand, it never costs me a shot. Write speed could in theory cost a person a shot--not for my kind of shooting, but for some.

[rpcrowe]

I don't know Dan. Downloading 32GB of data after a day's shooting with a slow card is extremely frustrating.

The way I shoot, this is much more important than the write speed.

You bet Manfred!!! My general workflow is to download my CF cards each evening and to copy the RAW files to a pair of physically small but, large capacity external hard drives. After a full day of shooting and traveling around on vacation, I am usually pretty exhausted at night and any time saved is extra sleep time...

[Greg Lehey]

I don't know Dan. Downloading 32GB of data after a day's shooting with a slow card is extremely frustrating.

Check that URL I posted also for read speeds. Are you getting the download speed that your current card claims? In many cases it's not the card that's the limiting factor. I have an Olympus E-M1 with a write speed of 33 MB/s or so. The card is a SanDisk Extreme 90 MB/s (read) card. But downloading via the USB cable gives me a speed of about 12 MB/s or so.

The site that I posted also has reviews of memory card readers (http://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/reviews/ and page down). It seems that USB 2.0 readers max out at round 35 MB/s, while USB 3.0 can go up to 500 MB/s (i.e. no longer the limiting factor).

Greg

[Manfred M]

Check that URL I posted also for read speeds. Are you getting the download speed that your current card claims? In many cases it's not the card that's the limiting factor. I have an Olympus E-M1 with a write speed of 33 MB/s or so. The card is a SanDisk Extreme 90 MB/s (read) card. But downloading via the USB cable gives me a speed of about 12 MB/s or so.

The site that I posted also has reviews of memory card readers (http://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/reviews/ and page down). It seems that USB 2.0 readers max out at round 35 MB/s, while USB 3.0 can go up to 500 MB/s (i.e. no longer the limiting factor).

Greg

Greg - in my case I use a USB 3 reader and port, so this is definitely a card read speed issue.

[george013]

Greg - in my case I use a USB 3 reader and port, so this is definitely a card read speed issue.

Before making your definitive conclusion there are more variables in this process. Until now my experiences with USB 3 are not that excellent. Beside that there are in this traject the reader, the cabel, very important, the pc, the OS.

George

[Manfred M]

Before making your definitive conclusion there are more variables in this process. Until now my experiences with USB 3 are not that excellent. Beside that there are in this traject the reader, the cabel, very important, the pc, the OS.

George

No George, I have checked all of this out. I use a high end Lexar card reader and a good quality cable. The issue is 100% card related. I have many different memory cards and the actual read speed is 100% related to rated speed of the cards. I never use my desktop USB 3.0 port if I have a lot of data to import, as it is an early USB 3.0 port and is much slower than the one on my newer laptops.

[Greg Lehey]

I have many different memory cards and the actual read speed is 100% related to rated speed of the cards.

Just to be sure I understand this: when you say "related", you mean "roughly equal", right? So if your card has a 40 MB/s read spec, you're getting at least 35 MB/s or so?

Greg

[Manfred M]

Just to be sure I understand this: when you say "related", you mean "roughly equal", right? So if your card has a 40 MB/s read spec, you're getting at least 35 MB/s or so?

Greg

I have not measured the actual read rate, but I my Lexar 32GB Professional 400x UDMA CF card takes significantly longer to download than the Lexar 64GB Professional 800x UDMA 7 CF. To do an accurate test I would have to load identical data on both cards and do some timings with various readers and computers. Some people would probably enjoy doing that, but I probably wouldn't.

Same issue with is seen with the various of SD cards I have.

[Greg Lehey]

To do an accurate test I would have to load identical data on both cards and do some timings with various readers and computers.

Yes, but I wasn't talking about an accurate test. If you regularly read in 32 GB of data, this would take about 15 minutes at 35 MB/s. And cards with 40 MB/s read speed are relatively slow nowadays. Does this tie in with the times you're seeing?

Greg

[Manfred M]

Yes, but I wasn't talking about an accurate test. If you regularly read in 32 GB of data, this would take about 15 minutes at 35 MB/s. And cards with 40 MB/s read speed are relatively slow nowadays. Does this tie in with the times you're seeing?

Greg

I very rarely fill a whole card and when at home I will download and run backups of the files and then erase the images. When traveling, I will download the shots daily, but will not erase the card and will fill the card before swapping it out. If I have a laptop along I will do daily downloads and do backups on external drives, so again, I will never download the entire card.

Nicely said, this means I have very rarely downloaded a full card, so have no idea as to how long this will take. I don't sit around waiting, watching the download.