Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Medium Format / Film / Digital Backs – and Large Sensor Photography => Topic started by: Barkeeper on November 03, 2011, 03:57:17 am

Title: Will H3DII-50 benefit from faster CF Cards?
Post by: Barkeeper on November 03, 2011, 03:57:17 am

Hello Hasselblad(-Users),

I am currently using SanDisk Extreme IV CF Cards (4 or 8GB) in my H3DII-50, but I would like to buy a Card with higher capacity.
My cards have 45mb/s printed on.

Now I can choose between

SanDisk Extreme with 60mb/s and
SanDisk Extreme PRO with 90mb/s

I am wondering if I could get a "higher" frame rate with those cards compared to my old ones.

Is a 45mb/s card a limitating factor?
Or is it the camera with its compression (RAWZOR ? (http://www.rawzor.com/photo/))?

Thanks,
Barkeeper

Title: Re: Will H3DII-50 benefit from faster CF Cards?
Post by: David Grover / Capture One on November 03, 2011, 06:07:44 am

Quote from: Barkeeper on November 03, 2011, 03:57:17 am

Hello Hasselblad(-Users),

I am currently using SanDisk Extreme IV CF Cards (4 or 8GB) in my H3DII-50, but I would like to buy a Card with higher capacity.
My cards have 45mb/s printed on.

Now I can choose between

SanDisk Extreme with 60mb/s and
SanDisk Extreme PRO with 90mb/s

I am wondering if I could get a "higher" frame rate with those cards compared to my old ones.

Is a 45mb/s card a limitating factor?
Or is it the camera with its compression (RAWZOR ? (http://www.rawzor.com/photo/))?

Thanks,
Barkeeper

Depends!

Do you find yourself hitting the buffer?  If so, then yes!  If not, then no!

Also consider that a faster card will dump the data quicker to your computer when importing.

David

Title: Re: Will H3DII-50 benefit from faster CF Cards?
Post by: NikolaBorissov on November 03, 2011, 08:15:35 am

Yes! I have both 60 and 90mb/s cards (as well as some 45mb/s, but never use those with the Hassy) and the difference is quite significant, actually.

Title: Re: Will H3DII-50 benefit from faster CF Cards?
Post by: Barkeeper on November 03, 2011, 10:03:03 am

Quote from: David Grover / Hasselblad on November 03, 2011, 06:07:44 am

Depends!

Do you find yourself hitting the buffer?  If so, then yes!  If not, then no!

(...)

David

Hallo David,

we had problems once.
We did long time exposures ("B") of around 5 - 15 seconds.
The shutter was released by a computer controled relais.
We used a break between two exposures of around min. 1.2 seconds, as far as I remember.
The exposure after the shortest break failed.

Would a faster card have helped us?
What would be a safe break duration? 1.5 seconds?

Unfortunately I do not have this controlled relais myself at the moment.
So I can not test and compare two cards excactly.

@NikolaBorissov:
Do you notice a difference at your Hassy between 60 and 90mb/s? (and/or between 45 and 60...)
How would you describe it?

Thanks,
Chris

Title: Re: Will H3DII-50 benefit from faster CF Cards?
Post by: NikolaBorissov on November 03, 2011, 10:31:14 am

Hi Chris! I've used the 45 only a couple of times on longer location shoots when all the fast cards were filled up, and it was noticeably slower than the 60; the same goes for the difference between the 60s and the 90s - the difference in the writing times is big enough to be felt on a even a moderately fast-paced shoot; it's even more evident when transferring the files to the pc (I use a Lexar expresscard reader, which I believe is the fastest option) and when you have to transfer 60-70 gigs of raw material it can be annoying. I use a 40 mp Hassy so I suppose that it will make even more of a difference with the bigger files of the 50 and the 60 :-)