Memory cards: SD or CompactFlash?

[Rupert67]

I first had an EOS 5D Mk II in 2009 and upgraded to a Mk III three years ago. Both cameras have HD video facility but until very recently I never felt any compulsion to use my camera for video.

Now I fancy giving it a go but, before I do, I want to ensure that I have the most appropriate memory card(s) in the camera.

As many will know, the 5D Mk III has slots for both CompactFlash and SD cards, so I've had a look on the Sandisk website to find out about read/write speeds for the two types. It seems that SD cards are available in faster speeds and that both SD and CF have much higher capacity these days than the 8GB cards I've been using for a while.

My gut feeling is to remain with CF cards because they are larger and therefore presumably more robust than SD cards. In addition, the SD type seem so impossibly small for the high memory capacity they purport to handle. However, as I already noted, SD cards are available in faster read/write speeds than CF (better for video?) so .... does anyone have an opinion as to which card type to use, please?

 

[Angelboy]

I first had an EOS 5D Mk II in 2009 and upgraded to a Mk III three years ago. Both cameras have HD video facility but until very recently I never felt any compulsion to use my camera for video.

Now I fancy giving it a go but, before I do, I want to ensure that I have the most appropriate memory card(s) in the camera.

As many will know, the 5D Mk III has slots for both CompactFlash and SD cards, so I've had a look on the Sandisk website to find out about read/write speeds for the two types. It seems that SD cards are available in faster speeds and that both SD and CF have much higher capacity these days than the 8GB cards I've been using for a while.

My gut feeling is to remain with CF cards because they are larger and therefore presumably more robust than SD cards. In addition, the SD type seem so impossibly small for the high memory capacity they purport to handle. However, as I already noted, SD cards are available in faster read/write speeds than CF (better for video?) so .... does anyone have an opinion as to which card type to use, please?

My friend is a professional cameraman and he recently loaned me his 5D mk III. He had several 32gb CF cards but he also has a field laptop and hard drives to dump his footage whilst on a shoot. I don't know if he uses them as legacy cards left over from his Mk II or by choice but obviously they've been good enough for him to use on paid work, which he still occasionally does on the 5D.

 

[redsnappa]

does anyone have an opinion as to which card type to use, please?

Only if you need the extra speed will it matter. Otherwise the photos will be the same quality which ever type or brand or memory card you use.

 

[Rupert67]

Thanks for your input, guys.

My current CF cards are Sandisk Extreme 8GB 60MB/s UDMA, so it's probably time to invest in higher capacity faster versions if I'm going to shoot video. The latest Sandisk Extreme Pro 32GB cards are 160MB/s UDMA 7 and are available for less than £50 a pop .. they've certainly come down a lot in price in recent years.

 

[Angelboy]

I think you also need to know the speed the camera can write as well as read.

I seem to remember that my 70D was something 45mbps max so there was little point getting anything too fast. When I first got the camera I only had a 8gb 20mbps card and it worked fine for recording video.

Having said that, I still bought a 80mbps 64gb card just the other day.