Memory cards rated > 20MB/Second now $7.50/GB

[JimC]

Update:

I gave the Transcend 16GB 133x CompactFlash card a workout on Saturday, taking some 836 photos (1672 files total) using cRAW (compressed raw) + JPEG Fine with a Sony DSLR-A700, using some 13.5GB on a 16GB card in one afternoon. ;-)

I went to a family reunion at around 12:30PM Saturday (shooting indoors in a well lit reception hall with a Minolta 28mm f/2 AF Lens with no flash) and an outdoor wedding later at 5:00PM Saturday afternoon (shooting with a Minolta 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 AF Lens from the audience ), attending an outdoor reception following the wedding and shooting more with it there.

The card worked just fine and I never filled the camera's buffer from what I could tell.

I clocked it in my A700, and it looks like it can flush 10 cRAW files (12.2MB each) in 8 seconds flat, or a full buffer of 15 cRAW images in 12 seconds flat, working out to a bit over 15MB/Second write time to the card, including the time the camera needs to compress the raw files into cRAW (Sony's lossless compression format). lol

That's as fast as an Extreme III in this camera. But, that's a lot slower than an Extreme IV in this camera from user tests I've seen so far (this camera has a very fast write speed to media and can take advantage of the new higher speed 266x and 300x cards that support UDMA). It's probably the fastest camera on the planet for write times to media right now.

[Photo 5]

Thanks for the memory card info. Only twice in my 5 years of digital have I had the chance to take that many photos in one day and that was on back to back days at the Baltimore Fire-Rescue Expo and Parade. They have the entire convention floor filled with fire trucks and exhibits to the max and the next day they have the parade to end all parades with over 125 fire vehicles. I ended up taking1600 photos in two days set on the 5MP setting of my Fuji S-9100 camera. I did offload my 2GB Ultra II sandsc card in the middle of touring the exhibits while I had lunch to a Wolverine 80GB portable device and did the same as soon as the parade was over. All the photos from the entire weeks vacation -- 2600 in all fit on 1 DVD..... I tend to shoot at 5mega-pixel most of the time because that is what my employer wants as far as file size and quality so that is by habit.

dave

[Twister336]

JimC wrote:

Most cards that are UDMA capable are rated as 266x or 300x cards, and this one is rated at 133x. Interesting.

According to Transcend's press release, it's dual mode (supports both dual-channel transfer and UDMA mode 4):

Transcend also sells 266X cards which have the same performance as their 133x UDMA cards. :roll:
http://dcareview.com/CF/CF_2GB_Transcend_266X.html

I wouldn't be surprised if these cards were exactly the same, except with a different label.

[JimC]

They don't have 266x cards in 16GB size, yet (but, you can get a Transcend 8GB 266x Card now).

[drgrafix]

This looks too tempting to pass up. 16Gigs of space, UDMA ready, and under $120.00? I did some informal polling online and quite a few folks like the Transcend cards. The D300 is on order :-) and I know I'm going to need some space. This sounds like a winner. Or... should I go for the faster, albeit smaller 8GB 266X?

[JimC]

One of each. ;-)