Hi there,
Shopping for a CF card, and just wanting to confirm that with the XF100, any card faster than 60MB/s is a waste of money.
thanks,
Malcolm

It depends. Is it required for recording? Nope.

Is is appreciated when you are offloading onto the computer? Absolutely!

Ahh... I hadn't thought of that.
Thanks very much Chris.
M.

I use a Lexar USB UDMA card reader. Once I get a chance to compare file transfer speeds between my 5Dmii's slower Sandisk 16GB card and new 64GB, 90MB/sec cards for my new XF105, I'll try to remember to post if it makes a substantial difference.

For recording, write speed is 50Mbit/s, so 60MByte/s is well above that. For reading to you computer, assuming USB2.0 speed, you have max 480Mbit/s that's about 48MByte/s. Again 60MByte/s is above that. Only if you have USB3.0 can you get faster transfer speeds.

Now that's just according to the specs and not based on any testing I have done. But, yes, above 60MB/s seems overkill. If you use Lexar CF that's labelled as 400x. SanDisk labels by MB/s.

BR, Erik

Make sure you have mega bits and mega bytes sorted out. I do not think they have 60 mega bytes per second CF cards. This is the speed of internal IDE hard drives. If they do they will be way overkill for recording in-camera.

I have been using 133x CF cards (very affordable) with my Nano which can record 100 megabits with no issues.

Yes, the cards are capable of that speed. The UDMA6 Sandisks I just got are rated at 90MB/sec where they define a MB as 1,000,000 bytes.

However, as noted already, the host device may be the limiting factor. Using a USB 2.0 Lexar card reader, I observed that transferring MXF files to my system was at about the same 25-30MB/sec that I get with my older, slower CF cards.

Not sure why USB3 readers are taking so long to get to market, but I hope it won't be long until I use a card reader that will be much faster. Looks like Delkin is releasing a USB3 reader presently, and there are Express Card readers out there claiming much faster transfers. These should be much faster and make transferring files a less onerous task. A slower, less expensive CF card is fine if you're using USB2, but if you want best performance in the coming months, a faster card wouldn't be a bad investment.

Canon has a list of cards that they know will work with the XF series:

Canon Professional Network - CF card compatibility for Canon?s XF-series camcorders (http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/education/technical/cf_card_compatibility.do)

Some will work but you won't be able to use the slow motion mode. Canon also just released a firmware update that fixes some card compatibility issues:

Canon U.S.A. : Support & Drivers : XF100 (http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/professional/professional_camcorders/high_definition_camcorders/xf100?pageKeyCode=prdAdvDetail&docId=0901e024802da078)

Pat

After looking at that chart please disregard my post. It seems 300x is the minimum they are stating for all modes. That is quite a bit faster than just the 50 mbps bitrate.

To be on the safe side I wouldn't buy any card that wasn't on Canon's list of blessed cards. We have some SANdisk Extreme 32GB cards which work flawlessly.

I use these, not on Canon's list, Lexar® Professional 400x CompactFlash® (CF) Card,

Lexar® Professional 400x CompactFlash® (CF) Card | Lexar (http://www.lexar.com/products/lexar-professional-400x-compactflash-cf-card?category=213)

They specify 60MB/s, standard is that uppercase B means Byte and lower case b means bits. So, yes 60MB/s. Lexar does note that they use "metric" nomenclature for storage capacity so M=10^6 and not 2^20.

I've tried slow and it works. I don't really get why slow require faster cards, but then I don't really get why I would record in slow either - I'll just slow the footage to my liking in post, more flexible and I can record sound.

So the transcend 400x cards probably will work with the xf100, recording at 50Mpbs? The card is supposed to be "Write_60 MB/sec (Max)"

Amazon.com: Transcend 400X - 64 GB Compact Flash Memory Card TS64GCF400 (Blue): Electronics

I've tried slow and it works. I don't really get why slow require faster cards, but then I don't really get why I would record in slow either - I'll just slow the footage to my liking in post, more flexible and I can record sound.Proper slow motion footage is recorded at a higher than regular frame rate so that when played back at normal rate it is slowed down. For the XF100/105 that's up to 60fps at 1280x720 @50Mbps. This is the way that slo-mo has always been done in film it's literally overcranking pulling the film through the gate at a higher rate. Slowing down regular speed footage in post will end up blurry unless you use something like Twixtor.

So the transcend 400x cards probably will work with the xf100, recording at 50Mpbs? The card is supposed to be "Write_60 MB/sec (Max)The Transcend 600X is on the list but cannot be recorded to fast enough for slow motion. If a model from a mainstream brand is not on that list then I think there is probably a good reason. It's a pity that Canon don't publish the list of those cards & brands that failed their test. As it's known that not all cards will work it makes sense to only buy those that are certified.

Thank you Nigel. So even if I don't plan on using the slowmo function, the transcend 400x card probably won't record at 50Mbps on the xf100?

Thank you Nigel. So even if I don't plan on using the slowmo function, the transcend 400x card probably won't record at 50Mbps on the xf100?Who knows? Maybe Canon do but why spend money on a card that may or may not be reliable when there are others that are guaranteed to work?

Hehe, because the Transcend 400x 32gb and 64gb cards are cheaper, and I am cheap. :)

I'm getting Deja Vu here, and thinking back to the days when we were encouraged to buy DV CAM tapes instead of cheap and cheerful DV tapes, and later on HDV tapes when normal ones worked just fine. I already own several high spec Transcend cards and find it hard to believe these will not work fine for slomo.

Has anyone tried the Transcend UDMA cards for high frame rate work?

All I've got to say before finishing my morning coffee is that if a person gets a card not on Canon's approved list and then has problems, do report so other people have the benefit of your real-world experience but DON'T complain!

So will the camcorder give you a message that says something like "card not accepted?"

Or will it still record, but the footage recorded will be messed up?

On the JVC HM100, if a card isn't class 6, it gives a rejection message right when you insert it.

Actually the Lexar cards are reasonably priced. Both the x300 and x600 versions appear to be recommended. No mention of the X400 ones though.

Who knows? Maybe Canon do but why spend money on a card that may or may not be reliable when there are others that are guaranteed to work?



I use this card with my 5D MARK II and it works great , I was hoping that this card was going to work on my new XF100 as well but I think it is better not to risk it and buy a recomended card from the CANON LIST

The latest firmware update for the Xf100/105 & XF300/305 Version 1.0.1.0 provides:-

Firmware Version 1.0.1.0 incorporates the following:
Support has been added for slow-motion shooting with the following Lexar CF cards –
1. Lexar Professional x600 16GB (LCF16GBCRBJP600)
2. Lexar Professional x600 8GB (LCF8GBCRBJP600)
3. Lexar Professional x300 16GB (LCF16GBCRBJP300)
4. Lexar Professional x300 8GB (LCF8GBERBJP300)
5. Lexar Professional x300 4GB (LCF4GBCRBJP300)

Canon - XF305, XF300, XF105, XF100 Firmware Update Version 1.0.1.0 (http://www.canon.com.au/en-au/Support-Services/Support-News/Firmware-Updates/XF305-XF300-XF105-XF100-Firmware-Update-V1010)