I have a Canon EOS Rebel XTi. I am currently using a Sandisk UltraII 2 GB for the CompactFlash memory. I'm headed out on a trip and I've been thinkking about upgrading to an 4 or 8 GB Ultra III or IV.

Any advantage other than speed and capacity with the III or IV. Are there brands to stay away from?

Thanks in advance for your opines!

Rusty,
I have a Canon 30D and I bought the SanDisk Extreme II, III and IV in various sizes and frankly I could not see one bit of difference between them including speed of writing. It could be due to the age of my camera (~5years) but I would buy the least expensive. I only have the SanDisk brand, can't speak for any of the others.

Rusty,

Check on the Canon website for those brands that have been certified to work with your camera.

One note of caution ... buy from a camera store or authorized seller, as there is a LOT of junk labeled as premium vendor CFs on eBay. I have had one card bought on eBay die with way too many irreplaceable pics on it. Ain't worth the small number of dollars involved.

NEVER put all of your pics from an even on ONE CF card ... even if there is room. Always use more than one card for more than a few important pics.

Rusty,

Mike is right.

Also, may I suggest that if you are not taking a computer with you for backup, that you get yourself one of those photo storage hard disk viewers.

They are small enough, and have slots to transfer the photos from the memory card to them for save keeping.

Excellant information, guys!

Thank you again!

If your going to buy Sandisk be sure to buy from a reputible dealer such a B&H or Adorama as there are a bunch of conterfit Sandisk cards out there!

FAR from an expert, but as an old Fart a fairy tale from my childhood rings in my head on issues like this . . . .

Never put all your eggs in one basket.

Nothing to do with CF cards, but I copy my priceless stuff (pictures of parents) onto thumbdrives and put them into a labeled envelope with a note on it telling me the contents are PRICELESS PHOTOGRAPHS! NEVER ERASE!

Got two 4g class 2 Sandisk SD cards for $15 each from the supermarket.
My little niece likes shooting video so I figured they'd be ok for her to play with, but I can't see much difference between them and an Extreme Sandisk card for a lot more money.
Not tried HD vid with one, that may not work so well.

Full HD at 24 MBs needs a class 6 SD card.

quote:

Canon EOS Rebel XTi.

quote:

Posted 24 July 2009 09:54
I have a Canon EOS Rebel XTi. I am currently using a Sandisk Ultra II 2 GB for the CompactFlash memory. I'm headed out on a trip and I've been thinking about upgrading to an 4 or 8 GB Ultra III or IV.

Any advantage other than speed and capacity with the III or IV. Are there brands to stay away from?

Speed and capacity are the only advantage. Since you are shooting a Digital Rebel XTi you have a 10.10 megapixel capture and a DIGIC II Image Processor in the camera to work with. I am guessing since you are talking about shooting pictures of a hunting trip you are probably shooing the camera in jpeg capture mode. Even at the highest jpeg quality setting you are only recording a 3.2mb file. Since that camera can capture at 3 frames per second and has a 27 frame buffer capture burst for large jpeg files do you really need it to be faster for your uses? I doubt it.


The simple answer is save the money and stick with Sandisk II's. There 15mb.s speed is faster than your camera can put out megabytes. To increase capacity they have them in 4gb or 8gb sizes. That's probably 1200 and 2400 pictures per card. B&H has a 4gb for $25 with a $5 rebate.

[URL=http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/541390-REG/SanDisk_SDCFH_004GA11_4GB_Ultra_II_CompactFlash.html ]B&H 4gb[/URL]

I used the Lexar cards with my old Nikon D70. They were certified by Nikon, were very fast and were not made in China (at that time any way).

I also have a rebel & just bought this one from B&H. Awesome card. (I only shoot in RAW format) Sandisk has a rebate going on now.

B&H Photo

Rusty

At Office Depot the other day I saw that the Lexar 4 GB Compact Flash card was on sale for $20.00.

I have the latest Extreme IV and it does "write" very quickly -- I shoot a Nikon 300D and the card will keep up with my 6 fps motor-drive for as long as I hold the shutter down ---- I'm not sure how fast your camera will write but most times the camera is the limiting factor.