So, do we have a consensus best CF choice for Z7 (16G or 32G)??? Brand? Best place to buy them? Costs?

Did you ever read the review I did in March? You may want to take a look at it.

As far as what's recommended, don't go the cheap route.

Transcend 32G are popular but have their moments. ~$160 or so
Sandisk Extreme III 16G are decent and average about $100 AMIR

The above are both 133x

You'll pay a premium for the Sony cards ($200-8G, $400-16G) and aren't available just yet.

Lexar 300x are decent but are only up to 8G.

Did you ever read the review I did in March? You may want to take a look at it.

Yes, but I thought maybe there were some updates by now. I have yet to purchase one, so I am probing for new information...I want to get one (maybe two) soon.

Thanks

Sandisk is unloading their ExtremeIII cards, both 20x and 30x, to make way for 266-300x cards which are supposed to be out this summer. Ridata has the lightning 233x cards, but these are reporting to have very slow speeds, despite the technical data.

I just recently used the RiData 233x 32gb CF cards and they don't seem to have a problem..

We are using both transcend 32gb 133x and the Ridata and they both seem to have no troubles..

So, do we have a consensus best CF choice for Z7 (16G or 32G)??? Brand? Best place to buy them? Costs?

I just recently used the Transcend 32G card for a two high school performances. I haven't gone through 100% of the footage yet, but from what footage I have looked at ... it's all good.

I am using two 16gb transcend cards based on the good advice here on this forum. They both work fine and I have viewed the results through the camera and they look great. I also have the free 8gb sony card which is 300x.

The down side is that I still currently cant get my i-mac and macbook pro on leopard 10.5.2 with final cut studio 6.0.3 to read anything from the CF card recorder.

I am using two 16gb transcend cards based on the good advice here on this forum. They both work fine and I have viewed the results through the camera and they look great. I also have the free 8gb sony card which is 300x.

The down side is that I still currently cant get my i-mac and macbook pro on leopard 10.5.2 with final cut studio 6.0.3 to read anything from the CF card recorder.

Gary I appologize if this has been suggested but I know on my mac I cannot have my firewire capture deck connected and also connect to the firewire capture device. Once I shut down the deck, the firewire cf card reader connects.

Bruce

Gary I appologize if this has been suggested but I know on my mac I cannot have my firewire capture deck connected and also connect to the firewire capture device. Once I shut down the deck, the firewire cf card reader connects.

Bruce

Thanks Bruce I have tried every combination and have even dis-connected everything and just had the CF unit on the firewire bus of the i-mac and the macbook pro.

The frustrating thing is that the CF unit mounts on the desktop and I can even see it within final cut pro in the + drop down menu of the log and transfer window. I an even click on it to assign it as custom path but it just will not see any files off the CF unit. I have tried switching it on before I run FCP, I have tried switching it on after running FCP I have tried preety much everything ad it still wont work. I am wondering if it could be faulty but because it mounts and I can see the files I suspect it is fine and there is just something in the plug in that isnt working properly with final cut pro.

A bigger frustration is that it has worked (once with my macbook) and I still have the four clips that I transfered on my hard drive but since I went to V6.0.3 on FCP it hasnt worked at all.

Its no prob at the moment as I can use the tape but I wish sony would hurry up and fix this.

Thanks Bruce I have tried every combination and have even dis-connected everything and just had the CF unit on the firewire bus of the i-mac and the macbook pro.

The frustrating thing is that the CF unit mounts on the desktop and I can even see it within final cut pro in the + drop down menu of the log and transfer window. I an even click on it to assign it as custom path but it just will not see any files off the CF unit. I have tried switching it on before I run FCP, I have tried switching it on after running FCP I have tried preety much everything ad it still wont work. I am wondering if it could be faulty but because it mounts and I can see the files I suspect it is fine and there is just something in the plug in that isnt working properly with final cut pro.

A bigger frustration is that it has worked (once with my macbook) and I still have the four clips that I transfered on my hard drive but since I went to V6.0.3 on FCP it hasnt worked at all.

Its no prob at the moment as I can use the tape but I wish sony would hurry up and fix this.

One more maybe dumb question, but do you have the latest plugin from sony?

Bruce

Yes Sony called me last week to tell me there was a new version so I am on plug in version 1.01-1.

Ok ... had the chance to completely edit two shows and not a single dropout with the 32G Transcend card. (Thank you!) Something finally went right.

are you using final cut or avid?

are you using final cut or avid?
If this question was for me then I am using final cut, I also downloaded mpeg streamclip and it sees the files on the CF fine so they are not corrupted. I can also play them and convert them but I feel this defeats the object of having non-linear recording.

are you capturing HDV to CF or standard def?

I posted a question on this site about importing standard and keeping timecode into avid.. have you guys tried that yet? i know hdv works keeping timecode but doesnt seem that the other format does.. maybe im missing something here?

So the consensus is that 32GB Transcend 133x cards are reliable enough for production use?

The price seems almost too good to be true, but if they are considered reliable then I'll go and buy one.

Just to add my two cents... While I haven`t used the 32 GB Transcend I have used various Transcend cards with my still camera and my Marantz 660 for years and never had a single one fail (opposed to my Lexar cards, for example). I bought one fauilty one off of ebay and Transcend replaced it a no costs, no questions asked. Guess what`s the dominant CF card brand in my wallet now...

That's a pretty good endorsement Matthias. I think I'll place my order.

I couldn't get a Transcend card shipped to me quick enough but then realized that FutureShop here in Canada had the Sony 133x 4GB CF cards on sale until tomorrow for $59.99 each. That's a 50% discount. I bought two. That will do for now (18 minutes each 4GB card)

300X 32GB UDMA Compact Flash CF Card SLC for EOS 400D - eBay Other Capacities, CompactFlash, Memory Cards, Cameras. (end time 23-Sep-08 15:00:29 AEST) (http://cgi.ebay.com.au/300X-32GB-UDMA-Compact-Flash-CF-Card-SLC-for-EOS-400D_W0QQitemZ280267677307QQihZ018QQcategoryZ161438QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD7VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1 638Q2em123)

Check out these cards, anyone used one of these branded cards before?
Cheers,
Jamie

300X 32GB UDMA Compact Flash CF Card SLC for EOS 400D - eBay Other Capacities, CompactFlash, Memory Cards, Cameras. (end time 23-Sep-08 15:00:29 AEST) (http://cgi.ebay.com.au/300X-32GB-UDMA-Compact-Flash-CF-Card-SLC-for-EOS-400D_W0QQitemZ280267677307QQihZ018QQcategoryZ161438QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD7VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1 638Q2em123)

Check out these cards, anyone used one of these branded cards before?
Cheers,
Jamie

They might work and all, but I would never trust anything other than those that are substantially placed within the market - to me it's just not worth the risk. Even despite the fact that most memory is made by just a few companies and then redistributed, I would never gamble on it, let alone buy anything like this on Ebay, either. Just my opinion!

I bought a 16GB OEM CF card on ebay for £30 a couple of months ago. It claimed to be 280X and I thought it was worth a punt for £30, just out of interest. Result: It works great - I did some speed tests with it when it arrived, and while it's not the claimed 280X, it's easily fast enough (I forget what the exact speed was, but it was over 200X), and I haven't had a single problem with it.