Still some confusion on the best CF Card for 5D

[Danny Winn]

I've read a lot of the threads on here about the best brands and sizes of CF cards that people should use with a 5D but with all that I'm still a little confused.

So is it officially ok to use a 32gb CF card without any problems? and if so which brand seems to be the most popular in price and performance?

Don't want to start another debate but I'm just trying to get some kind of consenses as some of these cards can get quite expensive.

Thanks;)

[Ken Diewert]

Hey Danny,

I've only ever used the Sandisk Extreme 3 which are rated at 30 MB/s and i've never had any problems. That's after shooting for 18 months, and with the most recent firmware upgrade as well. To me they've hit that sweet spot of: price (i shop for them when they're on sale), reliability, and performance.

[Danny Winn]

Originally Posted by Ken Diewert

Hey Danny,

I've only ever used the Sandisk Extreme 3 which are rated at 30 MB/s and i've never had any problems. That's after shooting for 18 months, and with the most recent firmware upgrade as well. To me they've hit that sweet spot of: price (i shop for them when they're on sale), reliability, and performance.

Hey thanks Ken, I meant the capacity of a 32GB CF card not the mb/second speed of the card. Some people are saying not to use a 32GB card for various reasons, so what capacity do you recomend?

(I accidently wrote 32mb in my post but I have since changed it to GB)

Thanks

[Charles Papert]

I personally think that it's better to have more cards of a lower capacity. Since the camera forces a cut every 12 minutes/4GB, it's not that big a deal to swap cards after 48 minutes of shooting. If the card happens to have gone bad and is corrupting clips, the sooner you find that out, the better. I'd hate to lose half of the day's work because of that. I have four 16GB cards and I have yet to get close to a situation where that has not been enough. I imagine in a scenario where one is unable to download during the day (run and gun doc style) you might need more, but I would be most comfortable with using a data store device and still downing the cards as you go rather than come home with a stack of cards at night.

I use the 300x UDMA Sandisks by the way.

[Danny Winn]

Originally Posted by Charles Papert

I personally think that it's better to have more cards of a lower capacity. Since the camera forces a cut every 12 minutes/4GB, it's not that big a deal to swap cards after 48 minutes of shooting. If the card happens to have gone bad and is corrupting clips, the sooner you find that out, the better. I'd hate to lose half of the day's work because of that. I have four 16GB cards and I have yet to get close to a situation where that has not been enough. I imagine in a scenario where one is unable to download during the day (run and gun doc style) you might need more, but I would be most comfortable with using a data store device and still downing the cards as you go rather than come home with a stack of cards at night.

I use the 300x UDMA Sandisks by the way.

Hey Charles, I can understand why you wouldnt want to risk losing 32gb's worth of data if something went wrong but does the 5D seem to work properly with a 32gb card or are there functional problems like some have suggested?

Thanks much.

[Kris Koster]

Danny,

I did a lot of personal research on CF cards for the 5D2 before I spent the cash. I went ahead and bought the Transcend UDMA 600x 32GB which was a very reasonable price for what it is, and never looked back since. I push the camera hard in a whole variety of situations and never had a single problem to date.

I never usually do events, but owed a favour and covered a 2.5 hour performance recently. An assistant shot the performance on my XH A1 whose footage was used as the master and I covered all the close-ups with the 5D2. I had a spare 8GB in my pocket just in case, but never had to use it. It was nice not to have to change cards, whilst my assistant on the other hand had to struggle changing tapes twice.

I respect the logic of using smaller capacity cards as Charles mentions above. Although I have to say, I've never once come across a problem with CF cards, they seem to be built like tanks. I like the flexibility that the 32GB size offers. Personally I find, when I'm out shooting all day too, that switching over my CF card half way through is one thing less I need to worry about.

Just my two cents.

[Danny Winn]

Originally Posted by Kris Koster

Danny,

I did a lot of personal research on CF cards for the 5D2 before I spent the cash. I went ahead and bought the Transcend UDMA 600x 32GB which was a very reasonable price for what it is, and never looked back since. I push the camera hard in a whole variety of situations and never had a single problem to date.

I never usually do events, but owed a favour and covered a 2.5 hour performance recently. An assistant shot the performance on my XH A1 whose footage was used as the master and I covered all the close-ups with the 5D2. I had a spare 8GB in my pocket just in case, but never had to use it. It was nice not to have to change cards, whilst my assistant on the other hand had to struggle changing tapes twice.

I respect the logic of using smaller capacity cards as Charles mentions above. Although I have to say, I've never once come across a problem with CF cards, they seem to be built like tanks. I like the flexibility that the 32GB size offers. Personally I find, when I'm out shooting all day too, that switching over my CF card half way through is one thing less I need to worry about.

Just my two cents.

Thanks so much Kris, thats exactly what I was hoping to hear. I'd like to at least have the 32gb option if I desired.

Thanks again!

[Chris Barcellos]

I'm with Charles.... I have two 16gb, and two 8gb, and during a shoot, will always have time to offload cards for instant feedback, and to detect any ongoing issues.

I originally bought some very cheap Kingston Elite Pro cards when I purchased the cam two years back now, (2 16's, 2 8's) --figuring I would le the dust settle on what best cards would be and replace them. I have never run into issues with them, through Magic Lantern, and everything else, so I have never replaced them.

The new Magic Lanter variable bit rate capability is making me rethink the cards, so they may be gone soon, but I don't think I would ever go above 16 gig.