Transfer Speed of Canon 1DS MKIII

[dwdallam]

Does anyone know the maximum write speed to a CF card for the Canon 1DS MKIII? I'm going to get a San Disk card, since according to Galbraith, they are the fastest with the Canon 1DS MKIII. However, if it can only write 30MB/s I can save money buy getting the Extreme III 30MB/s cards instead of the new Extreme IV cards.

Thanks.

[Josh-H]

Does anyone know the maximum write speed to a CF card for the Canon 1DS MKIII? I'm going to get a San Disk card, since according to Galbraith, they are the fastest with the Canon 1DS MKIII. However, if it can only write 30MB/s I can save money buy getting the Extreme III 30MB/s cards instead of the new Extreme IV cards.

Thanks.

Hi Dwdallam,

I went through this exact exercise just before my recent trip to New Zealand. The Extreme III's are sufficient for the 1DSMK3 - unless you want faster download speeds from your cards (which didnt and doesnt matter to me). Added bonus as you point out is that extreme III's are a lot cheaper. I use an Extreme III CF and Extreme III SD 30 MB's write for both and shoot RAW to both cards simultaneously for what is effectively a RAID 1 set-up. A very safe way to shoot images with a 1DS MK3 with maximum write speed you can take advantage of.

Rob Galbraith has some info somewhere on his site about this from memory, but you would have to dig around for it (I cant remember where it was).

[dwdallam]

Thanks Josh. That's a good idea. I only ahve an 8GB SD card. All of my cards are high speed, but work very badly with the IDS III. SO I'm going to buy two new cards, like you suggest, SD and CF at 16GB both. Use the others for backup.

 I found your post and the Galbraith information. It seems that the 1DS MKIII will transfer faster than the Extreme IV 8GB (older version) as the Ducati is near 20MB/s.

So I wonder is the new version of the IV cards will transfer even faster? I mean if the camera will transfer at the IV's 45MB/s that's worth the expense, even if I have to buy the 8GB versions instead of the 16GB--given that the 8GB version is updated and can transfer at near 45MB/s also. It would save a lot of time while chimping.

[peegeenyc]

Rob's forum needs updating - there are a lot of new cards out there that are very fast and very affordable.

also watch out for the different versions of Extreme III's - Sandisk have the annoying habit of changing the cards internals without clearly changing the external naming  - so an early Extreme III is much slower than a late Extreme III.

The 1Ds3 is a surprisingly slow writer, compared to 5D2, I think Canon found better pipelines and we can expect upcoming 1 series cameras to be a lot faster. -worth bearing in mind if you are investing in cards now - the UDMA6 range (e.g. by Transcend and Photofast) are probably the ones to get.

[francois]

Hi Dwdallam,

I went through this exact exercise just before my recent trip to New Zealand. The Extreme III's are sufficient for the 1DSMK3 - unless you want faster download speeds from your cards (which didnt and doesnt matter to me). Added bonus as you point out is that extreme III's are a lot cheaper. I use an Extreme III CF and Extreme III SD 30 MB's write for both and shoot RAW to both cards simultaneously for what is effectively a RAID 1 set-up. A very safe way to shoot images with a 1DS MK3 with maximum write speed you can take advantage of.

Rob Galbraith has some info somewhere on his site about this from memory, but you would have to dig around for it (I cant remember where it was).

FWIW, I'm using the same setup with Extreme III cards CF/SD 30MB/s). Extreme iV are so much more expensive and there's no difference for the in-camera speed. The only difference - and it might important for some users - is in the transfer speed between the card reader and the computer.

[dwdallam]

Rob's forum needs updating - there are a lot of new cards out there that are very fast and very affordable.

also watch out for the different versions of Extreme III's - Sandisk have the annoying habit of changing the cards internals without clearly changing the external naming  - so an early Extreme III is much slower than a late Extreme III.

The 1Ds3 is a surprisingly slow writer, compared to 5D2, I think Canon found better pipelines and we can expect upcoming 1 series cameras to be a lot faster. -worth bearing in mind if you are investing in cards now - the UDMA6 range (e.g. by Transcend and Photofast) are probably the ones to get.

True, and the Extreme III 30MB/s are marked on the front "30MB/s" and if you don't see that, you don't get that!

I'm afraid to buy a specific brand until I see tests on how they perform in specific cameras. My Ridata x233 is a VERY fast CF card, but piss poor in the 1DS3.

I had no idea that the 5DMKII wrote faster than the IDS3. Do you know what the difference is?