Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Medium Format / Film / Digital Backs – and Large Sensor Photography => Topic started by: narikin on August 12, 2009, 11:14:39 am
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I've been using some of the newest generation 32Gb and 16Gb ultrafast UDMA CF cards in my P65+ and 5D2, and am very happy with the results.
the 32Gb is particularly useful capacity for MF, with 440 L-RAW files in my Phase P65+, and obviously even more in other backs.
the 32Gb gives ~31mb/s write speed in the 5D2 (the fastest writing camera I posses)
and the 16Gb 'plus' version hits 45-47mb/s write speed! which is an incredible 50% faster than my other best cards - Sandisk Extreme IV 4Gb, or Lexar 16Gb 300x Pro - (both latest generation UDMA)
read speed is constrained by hitting the USB bus transfer limits on my 'puter, if you have a firewire 800 reader it should be pretty fast.
There are no dramatic speed gains in my P65+ back, as these backs cant write at the speed of a Canon or Nikon, but the 32gb card matches the Lexars + Sandisks speed with much higher capacity.
I got mine from this vendor in USA: http://www.dvnation.com/Flash-Media-Cards.html (http://www.dvnation.com/Flash-Media-Cards.html)
both are $129 + shipping - the 16Gb is the fastest CF out there at present hence the premium on that, the 32Gb is the only shipping fast 32Gb I can find for sale.
I have no connection with the company, just wanted to pass along the info.
ps: when I think of paying $380 for a 8Gb Sandisk 3 years ago, I could weep!
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Sounds good, I wonder if it's as reliable as Lexar or SanDisk.
They also make SSDs: http://gadgetophilia.com/photofast-g-monst...-1-tb-capacity/ (http://gadgetophilia.com/photofast-g-monster-pcie-ssd-comes-with-a-spacious-1-tb-capacity/)
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While not 32GB (yet), Transcend just came out with 600X UDMA 6 16GB cards. 90MB/sec read/write. Click the link for more info on my blog.
David Farkas Photography Blog - Transcend 600X UDMA 6 Extreme Plus CF Cards (http://dfarkas.blogspot.com/2009/07/transcend-600x-udma-6-extreme-plus-cf.html)
David
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While not 32GB (yet), Transcend just came out with 600X UDMA 6 16GB cards. 90MB/sec read/write. Click the link for more info on my blog.
yes lots of companies announce incredible speeds, but they never match up. The only thing to do is to stick it in a fast camera like 5D2 or D3x and see what it does.
so I'd take those Transcend numbers with a BIG pinch of salt. Even SanDisk claim 45mb/s write, and deliver 30, so...
RobGalbraith's site has the best database on real world CF/SD cards in a wide range of cameras.
these 16Gb cards are a 50% increase over my best 2009 Sandisk ones, (and RG's database results) so its definitely a generational leap. I expect Sandisk and Lexar will announce similar ones soon, though at far higher prices.
David - I took a look at your link, and $275 for 16Gb is nuts! I would bet its the same real world speed as these Photofast UDMA 6 ones, but you are asking more than double the price. not a good deal.
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Street price is $195 for the Transcends http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820208498 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208498)
I love their cards, and have no doubt these will be terrific.
- N.
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Street price is $195 for the Transcends http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820208498 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208498)
I love their cards, and have no doubt these will be terrific.
hopefully you are right, but as it says on the site: * Note: Based on internal Transcend testing. Actual transfer speed may vary due to host hardware, software and usage.
so lets see what the actual final real end figures are. I suspect writes in the region of 45mb/s not the 90mb/s they advertise.
of course my/your/all digibacks may not be capable of these transfer speeds, though it is reassuring to see your data written quickly to card, and not anxiously watch that red light stay on for ever!
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I don;t have the link, but I think it was at Rob Galbraith there is a review of which cards write the best in each camera body. I have one of the Ridata 16GB x233 cards, which is about 25Mbs, but the card is really slow in my camera. The Sandisk CF were the fastest in the Canons.
It is true too that the USB interface, although theoretically capable of 480mbs or about 50MBs, will not read or write CF cards that fast--CF cards being weird in that respect. YOU can get a CF dedicated reader that is IDE and that WILL allow you read and write at the cards highest speed, or close to it. They're about 50 US though and all you get is a CF reader.
I'm sure that we will soon see SATA and IDE multi-card readers soon. Alternatively, the Firewire 800 works well too.
And as one other person said, to summarize, the onlyn way to see waht card will give you more of an improvement in speed is to look for reviews, like the one on Galbraith's site, or do the timing yourself. Trouble is, you have to buy the card to do that.
I "think" this is the link:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007 (http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007)
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I don;t have the link, but I think it was at Rob Galbraith there is a review of which cards write the best in each camera body. I have one of the Ridata 16GB x233 cards, which is about 25Mbs, but the card is really slow in my camera. The Sandisk CF were the fastest in the Canons.
YOU can get a CF dedicated reader that is IDE and that WILL allow you read and write at the cards highest speed, or close to it. They're about 50 US though and all you get is a CF reader.
I'm sure that we will soon see SATA and IDE multi-card readers soon. Alternatively, the Firewire 800 works well too.
And as one other person said, to summarize, the only way to see what card will give you more of an improvement in speed is to look for reviews, like the one on Galbraith's site, or do the timing yourself. Trouble is, you have to buy the card to do that.
I "think" this is the link:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007 (http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007)
Rob does indeed have the best card speed reviews on his site, but has not tested the new generation UDMA ultra high capacity cards yet, so ...
I have very good USB Sandisk readers, and indeed a Firewire 800 reader, but no Firewire 800 on my computer! (all Phase backs come with the fastest Sandisk readers in the 'plus' package) In all cases the READ speed simply hits the buffer on the USB bus, that is the limiting factor in my system, not the cards.
However, the READ speed is of less concern to me: WRITE/ shooting speeds matter much more than waiting an extra couple of minutes when you are back safe at your desk and downloading images!
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Strangely these Photofast new generation cards are for sale on eBay at about 30% higher price than this US retailer, (and the eBay ones are coming from HongKong)
At $129 for fastest 16gb out there, or same price for very fast 32Gb, they are great value.
Yes long term performance is an issue with very cheap suspect no-name brands, one can only point that this company makes a wide range of SSD disk drives and memory products, so hopefully know what they are doing. So far no problems on multiple Phase and Canon shoots with mine. will report back if I see any.
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However, the READ speed is of less concern to me: WRITE/ shooting speeds matter much more than waiting an extra couple of minutes when you are back safe at your desk and downloading images!
That's true, and write speeds are always slower than read by a large margin.
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something to pass along:
Apparently the reason why the ultrafast 16gb card in this range costs the same as the fast 32Gb card is that it does in fact contain 32gb of flash, but its used as 16gb, (double registers?) allowing things to be written much faster - though not twice as fast - more like a 50% increase.
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I see these cards came out very well (easily fastest writes for Canon 5D2) in Rob Galbraith's new test.
pretty impressive that they beat Sandisk's newest generation by a good margin.
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They also make SSDs: http://gadgetophilia.com/photofast-g-monst...-1-tb-capacity/ (http://gadgetophilia.com/photofast-g-monster-pcie-ssd-comes-with-a-spacious-1-tb-capacity/)
Does anybody know prices and availability of these, maybe even any experience?
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Does anybody know prices and availability of these, maybe even any experience?
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/2852/excl...sd/index10.html (http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/2852/exclusive_review_of_photofast_s_g_monster_promise_1000mb_s_128gb_pcie_ssd/index10.html)
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New 90 MBps Sandisk
http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2009/09/n...xtreme-pro.html (http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2009/09/now-you-know-sandisk-extreme-pro.html)
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Thank you for the link, Jonathan!
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New 90 MBps Sandisk
http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2009/09/n...xtreme-pro.html (http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2009/09/now-you-know-sandisk-extreme-pro.html)
yes these newest generation Sandisk's are precisely the ones Rob Galbraith tests, and the PhotoFast cards easily beats them in writes (5D2) and Firewire reads.
the only point the new Sandisk comes top is in a Express Card reader, and write speed matters a lot more to me than read speed to me.
when you compare prices, its a no-brainer. Photofast 32Gb $129, Sandisk $320?
Sandisk are putting a very hefty premium on their name and branding. I paid for that in the past, but simply won't anymore.
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yes these newest generation Sandisk's are precisely the ones Rob Galbraith tests, and the PhotoFast cards easily beats them in writes (5D2) and Firewire reads.
the only point the new Sandisk comes top is in a Express Card reader, and write speed matters a lot more to me than read speed to me.
when you compare prices, its a no-brainer. Photofast 32Gb $129, Sandisk $320?
Sandisk are putting a very hefty premium on their name and branding. I paid for that in the past, but simply won't anymore.
The only thing I can see why one would want the SD is warranty. PF is not well represented anywhere. Still, maybe if we buy PF cards this will allow them to expand and give SD competition well needed. I'll probably go for the PF myself.
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Interesting that the fastest writing card in the Canon 1Ds Mark III is still the old Ducati CF cards, which is just barely faster than these latest cards and the older Extreme IV's. I'm also guessing that in the 1D Mark III these new CF cards won't have any benefit for write speed since it's a non-UDMA camera. If you're looking for faster buffer clearing in the 1 series Canons, these cards aren't really an upgrade.
Really this is more about how long it takes to download the card to the computer, unless you are shooting with the latest generation of Canon cameras (5D Mark II, 7D, 1D/1Ds Mark IV?).
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Well, I guess they're almost here? I can't fin one PF 16GB card for sale anywhere.
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The newest 16GB 533x Plus versions are available, but you'll only find them at one place in North America - "Right now, DV Nation is the only authorized reseller for North America" as quoted from PhotoFast SSD website.
http://www.dvnation.com/Flash-Media-Cards.html (http://www.dvnation.com/Flash-Media-Cards.html)
Yeah I just found that
Here is a little speed/capacity/price comparison using the Canon 1DS MKIII RAW
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SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s 16GB 17.3MB/s 77US
SanDisk Extreme IV 45MB/s 16GB 18.8MB/s 185US
This is only a 1.5MB/s increase. Given the price, it's a given which card you want.
New cards:
PhotoFast 533X Plus 16GB 18.9MB/s 129US
PhotoFast 533X 16GB 85US (no test but on Galbraith's site the 32GB was only 1/s slower)
SanDisk Extreme 16GB 16.3MB/s 169US
SanDisk Extreme Pro 16GB 16.6MB/s 300US
Looks like I'm buying the Extreme III 30MB/s cards. Why not the PhotoFast card for 85US? Simple, they only offer a ONE YEAR WARRANTY! I don't think Galbraith said anything about that. SanDisk is Lifetime for their CF cards and 5 years for SDHC.
From the PhotoFast Resellers website: Photofast, Silicon-Power, and Solidata carry a one year warranty. Shoddy.
And can anyone tell me why the 5D2 writes so much faster than the 1DS MKIII?
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Well, I guess they're almost here? I can't fin one PF 16GB card for sale anywhere.
http://www.dvnation.com/Flash-Media-Cards.html (http://www.dvnation.com/Flash-Media-Cards.html)
is where I got mine.
Interesting that the fastest writing card in the Canon 1Ds Mark III is still the old Ducati CF cards, which is just barely faster than these latest cards and the older Extreme IV's. I'm also guessing that in the 1D Mark III these new CF cards won't have any benefit for write speed since it's a non-UDMA camera. If you're looking for faster buffer clearing in the 1 series Canons, these cards aren't really an upgrade.
Really this is more about how long it takes to download the card to the computer, unless you are shooting with the latest generation of Canon cameras (5D Mark II, 7D, 1D/1Ds Mark IV?).
yes thats true, the 1Ds3 is amazingly slow to write compared to a 5D2, but obviously the next generation 1 Series (MkIV's ?) will write as fast or faster still than the 5D2, so surely better to buy UDMA cards for the future, than ones that will not be able to keep up with next gen cameras, and leave you waiting for the buffer to clear?
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From the PhotoFast Resellers website: Photofast, Silicon-Power, and Solidata carry a one year warranty. Shoddy.
And can anyone tell me why the 5D2 writes so much faster than the 1DS MKIII?
true, should be 3 year, but I find I'm onto the next generation of cards within 3 years, so warranties longer than that are moot for me.
what use is a lifetime warranty on a 5 year old 1Gb Sandisk I keep in the drawer now, as its so slow and small?
we'll all be on C-Fast cards in a little while. I've never had a card go wrong on me - Sandisk, Lexar or Photofast, and as a PhotoFast one is under half the price of Sandisk, you could replace it and still save money. and still have a faster card!
the 1Ds3 is not UDMA 6 enabled, so it cant write to the max speed of new generation cards. 5D2 is, so its more than 2x faster!
like I said before I'd advise against getting old Sandisk III's simply as when you upgrade your camera in a few months to a newer Canon, you will then need to upgrade your cards to UDMA 6 ones to get the speed bump. its not worth buying old generation ones, imho, especially as their price hasn't dropped that much.
beware of eBay too there are SO many Sandisk fakes out there, III, IV, etc, all in very convincing packaging, that you must pay full price at a main dealer to be sure of getting the real deal, or you'll be buying a counterfeit most likely.
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true, should be 3 year, but I find I'm onto the next generation of cards within 3 years, so warranties longer than that are moot for me.
what use is a lifetime warranty on a 5 year old 1Gb Sandisk I keep in the drawer now, as its so slow and small?
we'll all be on C-Fast cards in a little while. I've never had a card go wrong on me - Sandisk, Lexar or Photofast, and as a PhotoFast one is under half the price of Sandisk, you could replace it and still save money. and still have a faster card!
the 1Ds3 is not UDMA 6 enabled, so it cant write to the max speed of new generation cards. 5D2 is, so its more than 2x faster!
like I said before I'd advise against getting old Sandisk III's simply as when you upgrade your camera in a few months to a newer Canon, you will then need to upgrade your cards to UDMA 6 ones to get the speed bump. its not worth buying old generation ones, imho, especially as their price hasn't dropped that much.
beware of eBay too there are SO many Sandisk fakes out there, III, IV, etc, all in very convincing packaging, that you must pay full price at a main dealer to be sure of getting the real deal, or you'll be buying a counterfeit most likely.
The 1DS MKIII is UDMA enabled, but at what class, if not 6?
Advice to buy the faster cards for upgrade in camera is solid. I think I'll buy one of the PF cards to see how they perform.
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I believe the class 6 standards/cards predate the 1 series cameras, so no, they are not class 6, which is the new high performance standard that all the card manufacturers are working to, till C-Fast comes out.
Phase digital backs are not UDMA class 6 enabled yet either, but will be soon with an upcoming firmware update, apparently.
to be clear, UDMA6 cards DO work in older cameras/backs, but not at their highest speeds.