8GB FC Cards - Urgent!...

[johndefreitas]

Hi folks, I am new to this forum, and glad to have found it. I am a big fan of Steve. He is the Master of photography.

I have an urgent question for you guys that know about photo storage cards. I am in the market for a 4-8GB card for my new Sony A100. I found today on sale at Fry's for 139.00 a choice of Transcend 8GB 120x writing 20mbs reading 18mbs w. lifetime warranty, or the Seagate 8GB, no speed mentioned, no writing/reading info, 12 months warranty, but w. a good reputation behind. What should I do? What is your knowledge on these 2 cards? Your help is highly appreciated if done ASAP since the sale ends tomorrow. Many thanks.

John D.

Soccerman

[JimC]

Welcome to the forums.

I haven't seen any performance tests on the 8GB Transcend cards. But, the 2GB and 4GB 120x cards seem to do OK for their price, and they are likely to be much faster than a mechanical drive like the Segate you're looking at.

If you plan on shooting raw often in conditions where better performance is needed after the buffer is full, you may want to consider something like a Sandisk Ultra II or Extreme III. I personally don't need that much speed. But, some people might.

The newer Sandisk cards like these test more than twice as fast as the Transcend cards you're looking at in the Sony DSLR-A100.

The built in buffer isn't that large. But, AFAIK, with an Extreme III, this camera has the fastest throughput to CompactFlash of any camera made if you need that much speed.

You can see some tests for some of the popular cards at this link (user reported performance for cards in KM and Sony DSLR models):

http://www.dyxum.com/reviews/cfcard/index.asp

[johndefreitas]

Thanks Jim. After posting the initial post I found an area advising to check first if the camera accepts the 8GB card. I looked at the manual and found Zero on it. Sony support is not yet on their feet for DSLR cameras/info. Do you have any idea if the A100 accepts 8GB card? Tahnks for your help and your info on the Sandisk.

John

[JimC]

Yes, it should work with 8GB cards (although I haven't seen anyone post test results from one yet, so I don't know that one would work for sure, since you do see compatibility "quirks" from time to time with media).

Anything over 2GB in size requires support for a 32 Bit FAT, and since it works with 4GB cards that way, it should also work with 8GB cards.

Sometimes, the Seagate drives are a bit "finnicky" in some models though (for example, I know of a Nikon D70 owner that wasn't able to get one working recently, even though it should work in it). So, I'd probably stick with solid state media from a better known CompactFlash manufacturer if it were me.

Lexar and Sandisk are usually safe bets. But, from looking at the tests, if the price were "right", I'd probably consider a Transcend card.

I was just looking at them at newegg.com and mwave.com recently (I noticed that they have Transcend 8GB cards for about $150 and there is even a rebate on some of them from mwave.com through today). The 4GB are even less (cost/mb at mwave after rebates).

They're only going to be about half the speed of a Sandisk Extreme III or Lexar 133x though (but, their price is much lower, too). :-) Phil Askey tested a Lexar 133x Pro Card in this camera, and clocked throughput to it at over 13MB/Second (it was almost as fast as an Extreme III in this camera). But, if you don't need that much speed, the Transcend cards appear to give pretty good bang for the buck. If you decide to try one, let us know how it works in the Sony.

Transcend CompactFlash Cards at newegg.com

Transcend CompactFlash Cards at mwave.com

Edit:

Remind me to actually read the entire post. ;-)

I just noticed you mentioned that Frye's had these cards for only $139. Sure enough, I found it there.

http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4894110

They've had some good deals on media lately. I recently got some Lexar 1GB 40X Pro cards they had on sale for only $19.95 including ground shipping.

[JimC]

P.S.

I found this on another forum. But, the poster did not provide a link to the data (and I didn't find it with a quick search on Sony's site). So, I can't verify it. The only 8GB card listed was a Lexar 40X Pro. But, that doesn't mean some others won't work.

That's probably just the only one they tested in it, since there may not have been many available yet at the time of the tests. Personally, I'd avoid the Seagate cards though (I've seen mixed reports from them in cameras that do have support for a 32 Bit FAT).

Here is the official list of CF cards compatable with the A100.

Sandisk

Standard CF

512MB SDCFB-512-J60
1GB SDCFB-1024-J60
2GB SDCFB-2048-J60
4GB SDCFB-4096-J60

Ultra II CF

512MB SDCFH-512-903
1GB SDCFH-1024-903
2GB SDCFH-2048-903
4GB SDCFH-4096-903

Extreme III CF

1GB SDCFX3-1024-903
2GB SDCFX3-2048-903
4GB SDCFX3-4096-903

Lexar Media

Entry series

512MB CF512-231J

High Speed series

512MB CF512-40-278
1GB CF1GB-40-278

Platinum series

512MB CF512-40-PLT
1Gb CF1GB-40-PLT

Professional series 40X

512MB CF512-40-380
1GB CF1GB-40-380
2GB CF2GB-40-380
4GB CFB4GB-40-380
8GB CFB8GB-40-380

Professional series 80X

512MB CF512-80-380
1GB CF1GB-80-380
2GB CF2GB-80-380
4GB CFB4GB-80-380

Professional series 133X

1GB CF1GB-133-380
2GB CF2GB-133-380
4GB CF4GB-133-380

[meanstreak]

johndefreitas wrote:

Hi folks, I am new to this forum, and glad to have found it. I am a big fan of Steve. He is the Master of photography.

I have an urgent question for you guys that know about photo storage cards. I am in the market for a 4-8GB card for my new Sony A100. I found today on sale at Fry's for 139.00 a choice of Transcend 8GB 120x writing 20mbs reading 18mbs w. lifetime warranty, or the Seagate 8GB, no speed mentioned, no writing/reading info, 12 months warranty, but w. a good reputation behind. What should I do? What is your knowledge on these 2 cards? Your help is highly appreciated if done ASAP since the sale ends tomorrow. Many thanks.

John D.

Soccerman

I have the Transcend 2 GB 120X and it is a bit slow in the 5D once the buffer is full. The extreme III runs almost twice as fast. I use the Transcends mostly as backup in themy 7D since I can snap off 9 shots before the memory is full. Truthfully I can run theTranscend fulltime in the 7D since I rarely need more continous shots than the buffer can handle. The extreme III is just a luxury in that camera.

This weekend I went to a ball game with the5D and the three shot buffer was stretching it trying to take shots of pitching, batting, sliding etc. Truthfully in that particular situation I'm not so sure the card would matter much because a throw, bat swing, or a slide is usually over by the time the camera is ready to take the 4th shot regardless of card, but for continous shooting of events like car racing it might make a difference. The price on the Transcends is hard to beat. I paid at least two times as much for the Extreme III.

Let us know how you make out.

[AlpineMan]

Another CF to add into the mix is the Ridata 150x 8gb card. It is slightly slower than the Sandisk Extreme III, but slighly faster than the Lexar 8gb cards...yet it's almost half the price of either cards.

Here's it's performance on different DSLRs: http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/mul...?cid=6007-8478

This is what I use on my Canon 30D.

[JimC]

AlpineMan wrote:

Another CF to add into the mix is the Ridata 150x 8gb card. It is slightly slower than the Sandisk Extreme III, but slighly faster than the Lexar 8gb cards...yet it's almost half the price of either cards.

Here's it's performance on different DSLRs: http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/mul...?cid=6007-8478

This is what I use on my Canon 30D.

I personally wouldn't trust one in a KM DSLR unless someone else tried it first.

KM DSLR models tend to be a bit "finnicky" on card compatibilty. A card that's fast in a Canon model may be very slow in a KM DSLR.

For example, even a standard speed Sandisk compactflash card is about 5 times as fast as a Ridata 52x Pro card in a KM 5D. It comes close to being one of the slowest cards you can buy for a KM DSLR.

You'll see it near the very bottom of the performance tests on this page:

http://www.dyxum.com/reviews/cfcard/index.asp?cam=5D

The Ridata 150x may be a better performer in it. But, I'd be more inclined to buy a 4x Lexar card before I'd buy a Ridata card, unless someone else tried it first and reported good results in a KM DSLR, because I've got a 4x (not 40x) Lexar that tests more than 5 times as fast as a Ridata 52x card in a KM Maxxum 5D.

Just because a card performs well in one camera, doesn't mean that it will perform well in another.

You'll find similar performance issues with the Kingston Elite Pro Cards in KM DSLR models (they're almost as slow as the Ritada 52x cards in a KM DSLR, and are just about the slowest CompactFlash Card you can find in one). Ditto for trying to use a Kingston El8ite Pro card in some of the KM A series models (they're very slow in most KM models).

Even the standard speed Kingston cards test much faster. It's probably some kind of strange compatiblity "quirk" with the controller electronics in the way the camera communicates with them..

[DorkUnderwater]

seagate's reputation derives from internal hard drives (and in that sector i think western digital is better) and the 8 gb card is a microdrive, essentially a very tiny hard drive, whereas the sandisks are flash, like RAM memory.

i thought about getting a seagate a long time ago considering the very low price, however there are much more chances of it failing IMO than flash such as sandisk, and with 4gb or 8gb on a seagate there is so much more to be lost, id rather have several 2/1 gb's than one seagate.