Dear Friends,

This is topic comes up quite frequently, here are the currently recommended CompactFlash cards for both the Flash XDR and the nanoFlash.

1. SanDisk Extreme III (3) 32 GB CF cards for bit rates up to and including 160 Mbps.

2. SanDisk Extreme IV (4) 16 GB CF cards for bit rates up to and including 220 Mbps.

3. Delkin UDMA 16 GB CF cards for bit rates up to and including 220 Mbps.

4. Lexar 8/16 GB 300x CF cards for bit rates up to and including 220 Mbps.


Note: While we do not recommend purchasing the following cards they may be used.

1. Kingston 32 GB Elite Pro CF card.

If you have these Kingston cards, and they pass our "Format", then they are perfectly acceptable to use. The problem is that we have seen quite a few that will not pass our tests, and then can not be used in the Flash XDR or nanoFlash.

Please note, if these cards do not pass our tests, then they will fail in a Mac also when copying large files.

2. Transcend 32 GB CF card.

While these work fine in the Flash XDR and nanoFlash and in PC's, when inserted into a Mac with the Leopard Operating System, the cards may be destroyed.

Thus, for safety, we do not recommend that you use these cards with a Mac.


We recommend that you format all of your cards, just as soon as you receive them. This is a great test to ensure that they will work for you during your shoot.

Hi Dan,
Thanks for the information.
I have tried the Transcend 32GB at 720 60p I-Frame only 140 Mb/s and it didn't work well - got a few corrupted files.
Is it just my card or maybe this card doesn't really hold in such high bit rate.

Thanks,

Ofer

Dear Ofer,

Please send me a private email and we will debug this offline.

I will report back our results here.

Dear Friends,

While it would seem that all CompactFlash cards, in a given speed, should work the same, this is actually not true.

Also, it would seem that all cards, from one manufacturer, in the same series, should work the same, this is not true either.

For example, we have extensively tested the SanDisk Extreme III 32 GB cards.

But, we have not tested the SanDisk Extreme III 8 and 16 GB cards.

We are getting reports that the SanDisk Extreme III 8 GB cards are not working properly in our systems.

As soon as practical, we will purchase some of these 8 GB and 16 GB cards.

In the past, we have had to develop special code to work with certain cards. We may have to do this for these cards.

Hi Dan,

Would you consider making this thread "sticky"?

Thanks!

Billy

This is relevant to my interest. I just bought a z5/MRC1 combo and a pair of Kingston 32's to practice with. We are looking at 2nd rig of maybe a z1/MRC1 and will be purchasing 6-8 more cards soon.

Hi Dan,
Thanks for the information.
I have tried the Transcend 32GB at 720 60p I-Frame only 140 Mb/s and it didn't work well - got a few corrupted files.
Is it just my card or maybe this card doesn't really hold in such high bit rate.

Thanks,

Ofer

Hi Ofer-
The Transcend 32GB card only works for data-rates up to 100 Mbps.

Best-

Thanks Mike, got the Sandisk Extreme IV 16 GB so I should be fine....(-: