With fast shooting high mega pixel cameras, the CF card can be a major performance factor. Why have one of these cameras and use a card that cannot keep up? When I bought my 8.2 mp Canon 20D, I decided it was time to get a second CF card so the research started.
The Ultra II cards write with a minimum of 9 mb/sec. and read at 10 mb/sec. These fast write speeds are desirable with large image files. There are cameras with buffers to hold images while writing to the card during continuous shots. At some point if the card cannot write fast enough, your camera will stop shooting until the buffer clears enough room.
This card has a high impact rating. For example; if you were to accidentally drop this card 10-foot up to then hit the floor, this card is rated to sustain the fall without damage.
Sometimes the trade off on price comes from power consumption. Lower priced cards may use more power to do the same job as this card. The low power consumption of this card means a longer battery life.
People generally want to know how many images a card will hold. This is a difficult question to answer and greatly depends on both the card and the camera it is used in. The number of images this card will hold on my 20D also depends on the settings used. Let me provide a few settings and image counts for an idea of what this card holds.
Shooting Raw w/ISO 100 - 221 images
Shooting Raw w/ISO 800 - 206 images
Shooting Large jpeg - 479 images
Shooting Medium jpeg - 825 images
Shooting Small jpeg over 999 images (the 20D cannot provide counts above 999)
I use both a 1GB and a 2GB card shooting primarily raw images. Sometimes the 1GB card is more than adequate, but other times I could easily fill the 1GB card quickly. There have been many days where I have taken 200-300 pictures without the opportunity to transfer my images. The 2GB card not only gives me more storage space, but also permits me to change the card in a slow moment before it completely fills up. It is truly aggravating to lose a shot because your card filled up. For these reasons I tend to prefer the 2GB cards. When considering the card size, one should attempt to balance convenience with capacity. Having one card for all your images may be convenient, but it is also putting all your eggs in one basket.
Worried about reliability? It's backed with a lifetime limited warranty outside Europe. The warranty excludes any defects, malfunctions, performance failures or damages to the card resulting from use in other than its normal and customary manner, misuse, accident or neglect; or improper alterations or repairs.
PROS:
Reliable
Fast read/write
Impact resistant
Low power consumption
Backed by a lifetime limited warranty
CONS:
None SanDisk Ultra Compact Flash 2GB Card (SDCFH-002G-A11) (Retail Package)
Two gigabytes in a pretty fast CF card for well under $100 (March 2006) is a pretty darned good deal. I have used this card constantly in my Nikon D70s with excellent results. While there may be faster cards, this one is plenty fast, and allows my Nikon to shoot approximately 258 RAW shots. Pretty impressive. While pros may notice a difference in image saving speed in situations involving top-of-the-line pro digital cameras and rapid-fire sports shots and the like, most amateurs will not, and most digital cameras probably cannot save images as fast as this card anyway, causing the camera, not the CF card, to be the bottleneck.
Right now 2 Gigabytes seems to be at the "sweet spot" of price/performance for these cards, and here Sandisk has produced an excellent product. I have used Sandisk CF cards for years and found them to be reliable and quick. This 2GB card is an excellent value.
Remember Goldilocks and the Three Bears story? In DSLR and CompactFlash cards story, run-of-the-mill discount memory cards are too slow. Top-of-the-line memory cards are faster than necessary. SanDisk's Ultra II series is just right.
Ask professional photographers which memory cards they use, they will probably answer Lexar and/or SanDisk. With increasing number of DSLR enthusiasts shooting in RAW format, which consumes between 5 to 15 MB (generally 1 MB per megapixel), the demand for high capacity and high performance memory card is higher than ever.
For Canon DSLR photographers, SanDisk has been more ideal choice. Although the problem should be fully resolved by now, there was an issue where Lexar's high speed CompactFlash memory cards sometimes lost images against Canon DSLRs. Sealing the deal is SanDisk Ultra II's excellent performance and lower price.
My DSLR is Canon Digital Rebel XTi, where each RAW consumes nearly 10 MB. In continuous shooting mode, the camera's internal buffer can hold 9 RAWs at 3 frames per second. With slower memory card, it can shoot 10 RAWs at 3 fps. With faster memory card such as Ultra II, it can shoot 12 RAWs at 3 fps. Here's the kicker. Even with faster SanDisk Extreme IV and Lexar Professional 133x memory cards, it did not exceed 12 RAWs.
On paper, SanDisk's Ultra II series is only so so. At 9 MB/sec for write and 10 MB/sec for read, it is 4 times slower than Extreme IV's 40 MB/sec for read and write ratings. Yet they perform nearly the same. What gives? The limitation lies in DSLR's CompactFlash interface. On Rob Galbraith's CF/SD Performance Database, none of the cameras exceeded 10 MB/sec. In fact, most DSLRs peaked at 8 MB/sec. In other words, SanDisk's Ultra II represents the real world maximum for DSLR use.
What about capacity? As I write this, 2 GB offers highest capacity per dollar. The trend will undoubtedly change and I am certain by next year, 4 GB will offer greater bang for the buck. Fearful of memory card failure, which does happen from time-to-time (particularly in challenging weather condition), many photographers prefer to carry multiple lower capacity memory cards vs. one large capacity memory card. Use your own judgment, budget, shooting style to determine which is right for you. As far as the performance is concerned, SanDisk's Ultra II series is just right for your DSLR. - Photography - Memory - 2gb - Sandisk'
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