What Speed CF cards for Footy/Rugby

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I have recently had three CF cards go down on me and need to replace them. I'm not in a great hurry as I have half a dozen still working.So I thought I would ask the Pro Sports shooters what they were using.

I have two card slots on the camera body and always have a back up card fitted (SDHC). As this would slow the write speed down when shooting fast subjects (Footy/Rugby), I reduce the file size on the backup card down so to compensate for the slower write speed on the SDHC. The CF's are 533x and the SD's are 45MB/s.

So what CF cards are you using and is it really necesary to go for the fastest write speed that is available ?
 
I dont set my second card to back up, never had a failure yet! I use the fastest I can afford cos that way the camera keeps up with the buffer (or should that be the other way around?). Also download speed is important for me so again I go for fast cards and I do notice a difference. But I only buy what I need and dont intend to upgrade cards again so if yours is big enough and fast enough for what you want...save your money. But go for a reputable make that should not let you down, Lexar and San Disc have been my choice and I use a Lexar 600x as the main card now.
 
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I use 233x samsung cards, if ive got the lappy out and wiring from pitchside i restrict myself to 2GB capacity cards as the lappy reads them much quicker than 4, 8 or 16GB cards
 
bluesnappa said:
I dont set my second card to back up, never had a failure yet! I use the fastest I can afford cos that way the camera keeps up with the buffer (or should that be the other way around?). Also download speed is important for me so again I go for fast cards and I do notice a difference. But I only buy what I need and dont intend to upgrade cards again so if yours is big enough and fast enough for what you want...save your money. But go for a reputable make that should not let you down, Lexar and San Disc have been my choice and I use a Lexar 600x as the main card now.
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Thank you Mark, I'm looking at the Lexar 600x. I'm also looking at the slower Sandisk Extreme, Just concerned if I'm shooting a 7 frame sequence if it will slow at the key moment in the action.

Gary Coyle said:
I use 233x samsung cards, if ive got the lappy out and wiring from pitchside i restrict myself to 2GB capacity cards as the lappy reads them much quicker than 4, 8 or 16GB cards
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Hi Gary, Thought we may have seen you again at Cas v Rhinos. On the D3s, do the 233x Samsung cards ever restrict sequence shots due to the slower write speed ?
 
Tugster said:
Thank you Mark, I'm looking at the Lexar 600x. I'm also looking at the slower Sandisk Extreme, Just concerned if I'm shooting a 7 frame sequence if it will slow at the key moment in the action.



Hi Gary, Thought we may have seen you again at Cas v Rhinos. On the D3s, do the 233x Samsung cards ever restrict sequence shots due to the slower write speed ?
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Nah mate, no problems ever, you need to bear in mind we were more than happy with 50x speed cards 2 years ago using the same cameras, UDMA cards are all well and good if your cameras buffer can cope and if you have the very best and fastest card reader ie firewire 800 to download with.

My samsungs have no problem writing a 20 shot burst, ive just tested it to its limit and file size set to its biggest size and 9FPS it shot a burst of 39 frames before it began to slow down, same sequence using a Sandisk extreme III 30mbs gave me 31 frames before slowing down.

Not very scientific i know but just gives you an idea, obviously the larger file sizes of your MKIV will make a difference
 
Hi G, what image quality is set in camera for the sandisk cards?, I ask because I only shoot Sandisk Extreme III 2g cards & I find they slow down after only around 18/20 frames? I shot Barnsley's equalising goal today & I missed a few secs of celeb due to waiting for it to catch up?. oh on a D3!, the other in the D2h ran like a train lol
 
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I use the same as Gary only I use the 8GB version and yesterday I got 800 shots (rugby) which took up just over 4GB and obviously I was shooting burst with no ill effects.
 
Bluesman graham said:
Hi G, what image quality is set in camera for the sandisk cards?, I ask because I only shoot Sandisk Extreme III 2g cards & I find they slow down after only around 18/20 frames? I shot Barnsley's equalising goal today & I missed a few secs of celeb due to waiting for it to catch up?. oh on a D3!, the other in the D2h ran like a train lol
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Max file size G, the D3S has a bigger buffer than the D3 though, you can get the D3 buffer upgraded but its about £150
 
Thank you for the comments and also for the test Gary.

I have some 4Gb Extreme III's, but tend to leave them at home as they are rated at 30MB/s...Perhaps I should give em a go.
 
I use 4GB Extreme III's (30MB/s) at 10fps/max jpeg size which have been fine but difficult to compare it to others as I haven't used any.

Would be interesting to see how much better faster one's would be.
 
What's gone wrong with the 3 cards that you say have gone down ???
 
whiterosesom said:
What's gone wrong with the 3 cards that you say have gone down ???
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Hi Arthur,
When I put them in the card reader the fault box came up saying unable to read card, this card needs to be formatted. format card ?

I tried another card reader and also another laptop....all gave the same fault message.

I also tried a different card in each of the laptops with differnet card readers and all working correctly.

The only thing that may have caused the problem was the full formatting of the cards prior to a multicard shoot. ie, I formatted them the night before in the pc. No problem during the shoot and a bit of chimping during the shoot confirmed the card was working correctly. Displayed image from card 1 was selected.

Over three weeks, three cards down....this weekend I shot 8 games and all cards worked perfectly.
 
As Gary said format them in the camera and NOT in your PC/Laptop.

It states clearly in my Nikon manual that cards that have been formatted by PC/Laptop may not work in when put in the camera.

I always format mine in camera.
 
whiterosesom said:
You didn't lose any pictures did you ???
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Unfortunately I did lose some images, but as I had the secondary card in use, I didn't lose as many as I could have done. Only problem the backup card resolution is a lot lower than the CF primary slot.
We live and learn !

Gary Coyle said:
Format them in camera
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I normally do Gary but I have found on several occasions that the old images were still present on the card after formatting. Strange I know, but its even stranger than it doesn't happen all the time. Might well be the operator and not the gear lol

AFC said:
As Gary said format them in the camera and NOT in your PC/Laptop.

It states clearly in my Nikon manual that cards that have been formatted by PC/Laptop may not work in when put in the camera.

I always format mine in camera.
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As above, I only format in camera now...

I think its just typical of my nature to be too precise about things... I need to chill out and take things as they come and not try and pre-empt everything.

Thank you all for your views and advice.
 
Pro Extreme III - 90mbs and UDMA 6 - never miss a frame. For sports and Wildlife I want to know I can get the full 8 fps the body is capable of while shooting RAW.

I also always format inteh camera once I know the images are safe on the HDD and DVD
 
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Never had a problem so far with Sandisk Extreme III 30mbs cards

Then again, as mentioned by someone else, i;ve not tested anything else to compare, never felt the need to
 
Don't throw the card away as I have a good program that retrieves any images that you think are lost. The last one I did had over 4000 pictures on a 4gig card which were then put onto a disc. They had most of the pictures over the last 6 months or so but it was the last few hundred that they thought had been lost.
There were a few corrupt images that were causing the probem with the card.
 
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