I have an 8gb Sandisk Extreme 3 that freezes my 5d when shooting video. The write indicator bars fills up and the camera freezes. I have to pop out the battery and I lose the current take. It is a little frustrating and happens at random times. Any suggestions for correcting this? I have two slower cards that don't have this issue.

It appears your card crashes, quits writing, the 5D2 fills up its buffer waiting for the card, and then the 5D2 gets locked up waiting for a write operation to finish. It must not have a time-out for giving up on the card.

It sounds like a bad CF card. Just replace it.

Cheers

Nigel

I'm using a Transcend 32GB 133x I bought for around $70. Thought I'd try it out because the cost was reasonable and I could always use CF card for my other cameras if it choked on the 5DmkII.

I have used this card for a couple days of casual family shots (and lots of video) and it worked flawlessly -- didn't even register any buffer bars. None!

I think the UDMA cards are really nice, but they're not essential.

p.s. The above member who was complaining about a Sandisk ExtremeIII CF card causing problems -- I'm not an electronics engineer, but it sounds like a defective card to me. I have an ExtremeIII 16GB card and it works fine, never had any problems.

I have an 8gb Sandisk Extreme 3 that freezes my 5d. The write indicator bars fill up and the camera freezes. I have to pop out the battery and I lose the current take. It is a little frustrating and happens at random times. Any suggestions for correcting this? I have two slower cards that don't have this issue.

I have 3 of these cards and they've not shown this symptom at all

Here's a good review of high end CF cards. Personally, the most interesting thing to me is the Addonics ADSACFW SATA CF reader listed on page 9 of the article.

Roundup: CompactFlash Cards For Professionals : Compact Flash Powerhouses Reviewed - Review Tom's Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/compactflash-card-memory,2166.html)

Frankly, none of the cards look bad. I'm more interested in reliability and cost per MB than the last 10% of performance.

Thanks for posting that link! But I didn't see the HoodMan RAW 300x UDMA card in there.

I've been using a $60 133x Kingston 32gig card without problems. Now that's a price/size/performance tradeoff I can live with!

Have you tried shooting stills in RAW format with the 133x cards, shooting as rapidly as possible? I have a 16GB Transcend 300x card which will has allowed me to shoot 21 RAW (with no embedded JPG) shots before the buffer filled and the camera slowed down. I also have a 4GB 133x card which only gave me about 17 shots before the camera slowed down. Neither card has any trouble with video, however.

Julian

I always like Ron Galbraith's website.
Rob Galbraith DPI: Canon EOS 5D Mark II (http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/camera_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-9784)

And what's the minimum speed the 5D2 needs for video again?

Minimum required CF speed is the subject of debate at this thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/canon-eos-5d-mk-ii-hd/145934-cf-speed.html

I've used Ultra IIs (10mb/sec) and Extreme IIIs (30mb/sec) and both were sufficient for both photo and video.

I've used Ultra IIs (10mb/sec) and Extreme IIIs (30mb/sec) and both were sufficient for both photo and video.Some Extreme III 8GB cards experience a camera lock-up were you have to take out the battery in order to reset the camera. I no longer use Extreme III for shooting video.

I bought Kingston 133x 32GB and 16GB cards for a 5 hour three-camera shoot and didn't have one lockup or buffer overrun. The only problem is transferring the files to the hard drive is taking about three and a half hours for the 16GB and seven for the 32GB cards.

I did a video test the other evening on the 5DM2 using a 16GB KIngston Elite Pro 133x CF card. The card was formatted in the camera and had little or no material on it.

To my surprise and disappointment I found that in the approx 1 minute fast moving sequence there were at least two areas where the image froze for three frames.

I repeated the experiment yesterday and had no such problems.

At first I thought it was just a bizarre but worrying quirk of the 5DM2/Kingston combo, but later I read a FAQ somewhere which said that the camera will drop frames when the aperture is changed on AF lenses.

Yesterday's OK result was done with the camera in Av mode with the kit lens - 24 - 105mm, but I can't remember what the mode was for the problem sequence (using the same lens).

I'm guessing that the dropped frames are related to whatever mode setting I was using with the kit lens.

Can anyone confirm this behaviour and set my mind at ease?

Thanks.

Dropping frames is likely because your exposure wasn't locked. Read up on this. There are a ton of posts on the subject.

And the Kingston 133x card does have issues, but it's with interrupting video with a still capture, and expecting it to continue filming the video (which it doesn't on mine). It works fine with the 266x card.

Thanks Steve. Whew! that's a relief to know it's a 'feature' and not a bug or a faulty card.

I have had some issues with a 133X CF in that it occasionally causes the 5d to 'freeze up" when I am reviewing clips. The only work around is to shut off and remove/reinsert internal battery. The DV files seem intact but its a hassle once the camera is mounted to the tripod.

I am using that exact card (two as a matter of fact) and do not have any such issues. I am using the Nikon lenses, however, which avoid the aperture issue with the Canon lenses.

Okay, I love my EX1, but I'm complimenting it with the 5D Mark II (I also shoot stills and have the original 5D). I need it for an ultra-lightweight option on multi-day backpacking trips and ease of using GND filters.

What are the best CF cards to get? I'd prefer specifics rather than 16GB or 32GB, I'd like to hear things more like, "Kingston 32 GB Elite Pro", or "SanDisk 16GB Extreme III 30mb/s (or 45mb/s)", etc. I'm not sure the speed requirements and how each card mfg compares.

Shooting landscape stills I never cared about speed because most landscapes stay relatlively still (I had to chase mountain once during an earthquake, but that's about it). Any specific advice would be appreciated as I'm ordering the Mark II as soon as I find out which cards to get. Super gracias.

I just purchased a 5D MII (been lurking here for a very long time - I'm an avid HD video and still photo amateur with some reasonable disposable income for toys).

I bought a bunch of the Kingston CompactFlash Elite Pro Memory Cards (8Gb, 16Gb and 32Gb - tested the 8gb first before buying a bunch). They are rated at 133x speed rating and I have had no issues with the Video recording with any of them. They are not as fast as the "SanDisk Extreme III" but IMO, the difference between the two brands has more to do with how fast and how many stills you want to take in continuous mode.

I also tried the "Jobo Secure Digital/MultiMedia to Compact Flash Type II Adapter" along with some real cheap (<$10) SD cards (SanDisk 4GB Secure Digital Card) and had terrible luck with video on the 5DMII (at best I could get 1-5 second clips before the buffer overload stops the video capture). I have not tried any better SD cards so I am not sure if it's the SD cards or the adapter.

So for my memory card collection I have a bunch of Kingston Elite Pro cards (133x) for video and a bunch of cheap Sandisk SD cards to use for stills (via the Jobo adapter). So far I am happy with this collection.

Hope this helps . . .

I Use SanDisk 16Gb Extreme III and IV, I have two of each and have had no problems.

Avey

My wife & I each have a few TRANSCEND 16 Go 133x cards & have never had any problems.

I have 2 16's and 2 8's of the Kingston 133x, and no problems.

I have Sandisk Extreme III 8GB and 16GB cards - working without a hitch on both 3 weeks of travelling shooting stills, and hour-long interviews (with changes and restarts of course). I was tempted to get some 32GB cards last week but decided on more 16's - just in case a card dies at some stage.
peter berg

I'll second the Transcend 133x . I have a 32GB Transcend 133x and it works great and the price was hard to beat. They seem to have somehow gone up in price since I bought mine, though. The great thing about these is that although they are MLC (cheap) they have more than plenty of write speed for 40Mbps (5MBps) video and a read speed that is significantly higher which helps offloading. robgalbraith clocked these cards as writing at ~12MBps in a 5DMK2 and reading at >40MBps in fast card readers. I would highly recommend checking his charts ( Rob Galbraith DPI: Canon EOS 5D Mark II (http://robgalbraith.com/bins/camera_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-9784) ) before you buy any CF card. Make sure that the card is listed as having at least 6MBps writes in a 5DMK2, since 40Megabit/sec translates to 5MegaByte/sec. I looked there and found that the 32GB transcend 133x seemed to be the most reasonably priced large capacity CF card that had enough writes speed for video and unusually fast read speeds for offloading.

Thank you VERY much for the responses, they are greatly appreciated! I went into my B&H cart to buy the Mark II (I put it in there yesterday) and now it's saying it's backordered again. Hopefully they'll have another batch in the next couple of days. Thanks again.

I use both a 16GB and 32GB Kingston Elite Pro 133x compact flash cards ($35 and $70) , and they work great with the 5D Mark II.

I bought three 16gb Transcend cards. One failed on a job, first time I used it. Half the files were corrupt.

Since then I swtiched to Sandisk Extreme III and have had no problems.

Has anybody used the Hoodman RAW CF cards? (UDMA RAW CompactFlash-Hoodman Corporation (http://hoodmanusa.com/products.asp?dept=1007))

Spec-wise, they look nice.

As well as their Firewire 800/400 reader (RAW FireWire 800/400 CF Reader-Hoodman Corporation (http://hoodmanusa.com/prodinfo.asp?number=RAW-FW8))

If shooting video is important to you and you don't want your camera to freeze and loose an 8 minute shot, I would highly avoid the SanDisk Extreme III 8GB CF cards. They have been reported to freeze the camera. Read this thread for more detail 5D Mark II Freezes / Locks up / Buffer Problem SOLVED (http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=167750) and http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/canon-eos-5d-mk-ii-hd/146685-high-end-cf-cards-compared.html and DVXuser.com -- The online community for filmmaking - View Single Post - Interview Shots from a Corporate Project (http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showpost.php?p=1603401&postcount=91).

I have now shot over 700GB of video with three cameras using the Kingston Elite Pro 133x 32GB CF cards and have not had one freeze or lock-up. We are shooting 14 minute takes each time. I would never trust the SanDisk Extreme III 8GB cards for this.

The SanDisk Ultra II 4GB card never experienced a lock up by the way. Only Extreme III 8GB.

Good luck!

Just wondering if anybody has tried using the Transcend Industrial CompactFlash Cards, they are meant to have a wider temperature operating range. I have had no problems with the Transcend 133x and 300x but with high summer temperatures here I thought I may give the Industrial version a try. What do you think?

Bob

I bought 3 Extreme III 16g cards when I ordered my 5dmk2 on its announcement day. When the camera came all was well with the cards and camera. Just before a trip in January I tried some Qmemory (16gb) cards I was using with my 40d and older 5d in the new mk2. They worked fine, and the Sandisk 16gb worked fine also, until....... I formated the Qmemory in the MK2.

At that point the sandisk cards stopped working on the mk2. They worked on all the other 2 cameras and were formattable(?) under win XP and OS x. Canon had no explanation for the behavior. Sandisk, very helpful BTW, expressed me 3 new extreme III 16 gb cards. They didn't work on the mk2, but worked everywhere else. After the trip I sent the camera to canon for repair, as suggested by Canon Tech people. I included a sandisk card and a Qmemory card.

Canon said the inner mechanism was replaced and the sandisk cards now function as they should. I'm afraid to use the Qmemory again on the 5dmk2 for fear of losing the use of my 6 sandisk cards until I sent the camera out for repair again.

Does anyone else use Qmemory cards on their 5dmk2?

Jim

Buck I also use the 32GB Transcend 133x cards and have had no problem. You don't need fast cards for video, although obviously the faster the card, the faster download speeds to your computer, and the faster you can shoot RAW stills rapid fire.

So, I have 16GB Extreme IV UDMA cards for my rapid RAW shooting, and I use 32GB Transcend 133x cards for video recording.

The SanDisk Ultra II 4GB card never experienced a lock up by the way. Only Extreme III 8GB.

I've got one Extreme III 8Gb and 6 Ultra II 4Gb - never had any problems with any of them, shot nearly 300Gb so far (mostly on the Extreme III).

I have two Transcend 133X 16GB cards... They're great. Haven't had a problem yet.

I've used SanDisk Ultra II 4GB cards from Costco for years with a 5D and now the Mark II. I've never had a problem with still capture or now video. While less convenient, it's nice that if I do lose a card (more likely that I physically lose it as almost happened on a recent shoot), I'm not missing as much data. Transfer rates are fine. My opinion is some of the ultra high speed more expensive cards are overkill at least for my use.

What would be an ideal combo of CF cards and the 5DMKII for:

1. Shooting RAW + JPEG in bursts
2. Shooting Video + Still Capture
3. Shooting Video only

I guess I would probably just need the fastest cards out there?
I don't know how much #2 I will actually do but would like to have the ability.
I also don't plan to machine gun shoot, but I don't know what the 5DMKII is capable of with RAW + JPEG bursts?

I am also trying to spend as least as I can but yet get as much GB storage as I can.
I think I need one CF card for the photo scenarios and one CF card for the video scenarios.
Which ones should I consider for each? It sounds like the 133x cards are good for video only but not if I want to shoot RAW and RAW + JPEG burst as well as taking a still while shooting video?

Has anyone used or tried the Pretec cards?
http://www.ptiglobalusa.com/hisphicacfca.html

Tom from Timescapes.org pointed me towards these, says they are great!

I guess I would probably just need the fastest cards out there?
I don't know how much #2 I will actually do but would like to have the ability.
I also don't plan to machine gun shoot, but I don't know what the 5DMKII is capable of with RAW + JPEG bursts?


You don't need super fast cards unless you're doing lots and lots of burst stills at full 3.9 fps

of course fast cards help with download as well as saving on camera...

video only really needs 20mps (I went with sandisk extreme iii with 30mps) just to be safe

You don't need super fast cards unless you're doing lots and lots of burst stills at full 3.9 fps

of course fast cards help with download as well as saving on camera...

video only really needs 20mps (I went with sandisk extreme iii with 30mps) just to be safe

So will a SanDisk Extreme III and/or IV card handle RAW+JPEG bursts, say if I was only doing 10-15 bursts at a time?

I know the III and IV will handle the video fine.

For bursts, I'd get the IV.

For video you need a bit over 40 mega bits per second. Most cards do closer to 20 mega bytes per second. That's four times faster than you need.

You might consider a 4GB SanDisk IV, and a 32GB slower card. You can also use the slower card for timelapse shooting of stills.

For bursts, I'd get the IV.

For video you need a bit over 40 mega bits per second. Most cards do closer to 20 mega bytes per second. That's four times faster than you need.

You might consider a 4GB SanDisk IV, and a 32GB slower card. You can also use the slower card for timelapse shooting of stills.

Thanks Jon. I think I'll probably get an 8 or 16 GB Extreme IV for stills/bursts, and the 32 GB Extreme III for video. However, I don't know how much of the bursts I really need, in which case I keep beating myself up with trying to make a decision on what cards to get.

I can get the RiData 8, 16 and 32 GB cards for $157 (all 3 together), that seems like a heckava deal.

Anyone suggest a fast CF Card reader for USB 2.0?
I supposed most any would do fine...

I have a Delkin Devices reader that is really nice on the PC. I just yank the cards out and Windows File Explorer sits there showing the previous files. I plug the card back in, hit F5 to refresh the view and I'm back to work. I've been doing this for seven months with SanDisk IV cards.

Unfortunately, my friend claims that his Delkin Devices reader crashes his Mac. Hopefully a new driver/patch will fix that soon.

Mine looks like this one, but says "Delkin Devices" on top rather than "eFilm."
Delkin Devices | eFilm Reader-38 Card Reader/Writer (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/550533-REG/Delkin_Devices_DDREADER_38_eFilm_Reader_38_Card_Reader_Writer.html)

Anyone suggest a fast CF Card reader for USB 2.0?
I supposed most any would do fine...To not quite answer your question as unloading the CF cards can take a significant time it's worth buying the best & fastest that you can. I have used a variety of USB devices but the Lexar Professional UDMA FireWire® 800 Reader (http://www.lexar.com/readers/pro_udma_reader.html) device is far & away the fastest CF reader that I have used. I would expect their Lexar Professional UDMA Dual-Slot USB Reader (http://www.lexar.com/readers/pro_udma_dualslot.html) to be as good as it gets for USB.

ordering 5d camera in a few days, am thinking of this card:
Transcend 32 GB, 133x High Speed, Compact Flash Memory Card.

anyone use this one, or, similar, have heard of a few issues with a different cards

ordering 5d camera in a few days, am thinking of this card:
Transcend 32 GB, 133x High Speed, Compact Flash Memory Card.

anyone use this one, or, similar, have heard of a few issues with a different cards

I bought four Transcend 133x 16GB cards when I bought my 5d. Two of them have died, one during a job which was extremely embarassing. I will not touch Transcend again.

I have since switched to Sandisk Extreme III and have encountered no problems.

I've been using a Transcend 16GB x300 card for stills and video since I bought my 4D mk II at Christmas. I've not experienced any problems whatsoever. I've read about problems with all brands and models, including the SanDisk extreme III and IV.

I have Kingston 133x 32GB, and when I transfer full card it takes more than 30 minutes for all files to transfer. I am using one of those All-in-One USB 2.0 card reader, similar to one Jon has shown above.

Though I have started using it recently only once did I see the side bar in 5D2, that also when I had Auto ISO and light was changing fast. Otherwise this Kingston card is working fine. I also have some Ultra II 4GB, but they fill up too fast.


What kind of time are you spending transferring a full 32GB Extreme III or IV card?

I just read that even though you can use a 32 gig card all you can get is a max of 4 gigs or 12 minutes because of the file system, what is everyone's experience with this issue

I just read that even though you can use a 32 gig card all you can get is a max of 4 gigs or 12 minutes because of the file system, what is everyone's experience with this issue

Yes, there's a 12 minute (approximate) limit-it is all over the documentation etc.