Posted by Paul DeCesare on December 12, 2008 at 1:18 PM
For the 5D2 owners (and those of us waiting to be), one thing that's mandatory is UDMA-enabled CF cards, video requires it. Your choices are the new SanDisk Extreme IV (black and silver label), and Lexar 300x. I've been watching the prices, and SanDisk just initiated a sale price today in conjunction with their current rebate program. You can now get the Extreme IV 8GB CF at Beach Camera on sale for $79.99, THEN with a $40 rebate! If you buy three for a toal of $239.97, you get a $150 rebate. That means $89.97 for THREE 8GB UDMA CF cards. Not too shabby.
The 4GB and 16GB rebates don't work out to a savings quite as good as the 8gb, btw.
The cards can be purchased here.
The rebate form can be downloaded here.
Please note that the rebate from SanDisk is in the form a a prepaid Visa. To deal with that, I usually pull my gas money that I budget for the month and pay back my credit card for the rebate amount, then just use the SanDisk Visa at the pump.
If there are Lexar fans out there, you can get the 8GB Lexar 300x for $69.99 after rebate at Adorama.
***UPDATE: Since I posted this, Beach Camera has raised the price $10.00***
Hmmm, maybe a response to the late-day surge on Wall St.?
Posted by Don Miller on December 12, 2008 at 3:12 PM
The new version of the Extreme III seems to work works fine:
SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition
About $115 for the 16gb version before rebate
I recall UDMA being mentioned, but now all I can find is 8mbs. UDMA may be safer if shooting stills while recording video.
Galbraith has 5DII CF tests up now.
Posted by Paul DeCesare on December 12, 2008 at 4:04 PM
No go Don, I thought that too. 30mb/sec should be fine, because video is 8mb/sec, right? Wrong, because the buffer fills up as you shoot video. UDMA takes the processing off of the host (in this case the 5D2), thus avoids buffer fill-up. Luminous-Landscape talks about this, and Vincent Laforet mentions it somewhere on his blog. So therefore you'll need UDMA for video. NOW, having said all that, if you or anyone successfully shoots video on a non-UDMA card, please post that! Thanks!
Posted by Phillip Noll on December 12, 2008 at 5:27 PM
I just checked Beach Camera and they are listed for $89.99. Not $79.99
SDCFX4-8192-901 Sandisk 8GB Extreme IV UDMA
BuyDig also has them for $89.99.
Also, BE CAREFUL! It appears that both the UDMA (silver and black label) and the non-UDMA (red and black label) cards have the same product number. B&H, Adorama, and others show the non-UDMA card (~$79.99) but give the UDMA (SDCFX4-8192-901) product number. I'm getting confused!!
If someone knows for sure which product number goes with which CF card--please correct me!
Posted by Don Miller on December 12, 2008 at 7:13 PM
I been making videos for a week with non-UDMA cards. While I think UDMA is safer, especially if stills are taken while shooting videos, there are much less expensive cards than extreme IV that should work. Transcend and Ridata make UDMA cards.
16gb is a nice size for video because it roughly uses one battery. Change the card and change the battery.
Posted by Paul DeCesare on December 12, 2008 at 9:56 PM
Thanks Don. See? Don't always trust what you read I guess! The sources I saw (including Canon) insist on UDMA for video. I bet it's SAFER for them to insist on UDMA to ensure no glitching while recording (therefore no complaints).
Phillip, you're right! They raised the price $10 since this afternoon! I ordered mine at $79.99 right after posting the first message... so now I went to the exact same link, and it shows $89.99! They also raised the price on the 4GB from 49.99 to 59.99. The 16GB is the same. You have the correct part# (SDCFX4-8192-901), the web guys probably didn't bother to update the image. If they DO send you the old version, they're stinkers, but I don't think they will. The Part# is key.
Posted by Don Miller on December 12, 2008 at 10:56 PM
The new version of the Extreme III seems to work works fine:
SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition
About $115 for the 16gb version before rebate
I recall UDMA being mentioned, but now all I can find is 8mbs. UDMA may be safer if shooting stills while recording video.
Galbraith has 5DII CF tests up now.
Posted by Austin Booth on December 13, 2008 at 2:07 PM
I may get ridiculed for suggesting this but I have a Ridata 4GB card I've had for a couple of years now and it has worked flawlessly. I just got another recently which is UDMA and 233x. It says 35mb/s on it. It works great also. The 16GB Ridata 233x is $50.99 on www.mydigitaldiscount.com. The 8GB 233x is only $28.99. I've ordered from that website several times with no issues at all. I've also bought third party batteries for my 40D there that I've never had a problem with. I could buy 4 for the price of one canon battery.
Posted by Don Miller on December 13, 2008 at 2:52 PM
I've tested the Ridata 233X UDMA 16gb on the 5DII. Although this card had problems with older cameras, I've filled the card several times with no problems. Ridata claims they have fixed the firmware.
Here's what I have concluded from my testing:
First, a card needs to be fast enough to record 8mbs (bits, not Bytes). Many newer cards can do this.
Second, the speed of the card, and UDMA, will deterime how much still shooting you can do while shooting video.
If the buffer is filled while shooting video and still the camera pauses until it can empty the buffer. Video will not resume automatically as it normally does. After the buffer empties, video can be restarted.
If my purpose for using the camera is video, I'm not going to be interrupting video to shoot stills. In this case there's no advantage to the fastest cards. If I'm shooting stills I may take some video too. But I'm not making uninterrupted video. So if the camera pauses every once in awhile it may not matter. ANY card can be overwhelmed by a combination of video and stills.
I'm not going to be buying the most expensive cards for this camera. The best value expensive card seems to be the 16gb Transcend 300X UDMA16gb at $150. I don't know how much faster this card will be compared to the Ridata 233X UDMA 16gb for $50.
Posted by Paul DeCesare on December 13, 2008 at 3:45 PM
This is excellent info guys. Here I was believing what I read, and turns out to be not the case. And we save money!
Posted by Paul DeCesare on December 15, 2008 at 4:50 PM
NOW Beach Camera has raised the price of the 8Gb to $109! Wonder what's going on there.
The 16GB SanDisk Extreme IV UDMA is $158 after mail-in rebate there, nearly same as the Transcend.
Posted by Phillip Noll on December 15, 2008 at 11:11 PM
Ha! I just checked and they have a suggested retail price of $599.99!!!
When you put it in your cart, however, it becomes $109.00. Goofy!
Discussion
11 repliesFor the 5D2 owners (and those of us waiting to be), one thing that's mandatory is UDMA-enabled CF cards, video requires it. Your choices are the new SanDisk Extreme IV (black and silver label), and Lexar 300x. I've been watching the prices, and SanDisk just initiated a sale price today in conjunction with their current rebate program. You can now get the Extreme IV 8GB CF at Beach Camera on sale for $79.99, THEN with a $40 rebate! If you buy three for a toal of $239.97, you get a $150 rebate. That means $89.97 for THREE 8GB UDMA CF cards. Not too shabby.
The 4GB and 16GB rebates don't work out to a savings quite as good as the 8gb, btw.
The cards can be purchased here.
The rebate form can be downloaded here.
Please note that the rebate from SanDisk is in the form a a prepaid Visa. To deal with that, I usually pull my gas money that I budget for the month and pay back my credit card for the rebate amount, then just use the SanDisk Visa at the pump.
If there are Lexar fans out there, you can get the 8GB Lexar 300x for $69.99 after rebate at Adorama.
***UPDATE: Since I posted this, Beach Camera has raised the price $10.00***
Hmmm, maybe a response to the late-day surge on Wall St.?
SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition
About $115 for the 16gb version before rebate
I recall UDMA being mentioned, but now all I can find is 8mbs. UDMA may be safer if shooting stills while recording video.
Galbraith has 5DII CF tests up now.
SDCFX4-8192-901 Sandisk 8GB Extreme IV UDMA
BuyDig also has them for $89.99.
Also, BE CAREFUL! It appears that both the UDMA (silver and black label) and the non-UDMA (red and black label) cards have the same product number. B&H, Adorama, and others show the non-UDMA card (~$79.99) but give the UDMA (SDCFX4-8192-901) product number.
If someone knows for sure which product number goes with which CF card--please correct me!
16gb is a nice size for video because it roughly uses one battery. Change the card and change the battery.
Phillip, you're right! They raised the price $10 since this afternoon! I ordered mine at $79.99 right after posting the first message... so now I went to the exact same link, and it shows $89.99! They also raised the price on the 4GB from 49.99 to 59.99. The 16GB is the same. You have the correct part# (SDCFX4-8192-901), the web guys probably didn't bother to update the image. If they DO send you the old version, they're stinkers, but I don't think they will. The Part# is key.
SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition
About $115 for the 16gb version before rebate
I recall UDMA being mentioned, but now all I can find is 8mbs. UDMA may be safer if shooting stills while recording video.
Galbraith has 5DII CF tests up now.
Here's what I have concluded from my testing:
First, a card needs to be fast enough to record 8mbs (bits, not Bytes). Many newer cards can do this.
Second, the speed of the card, and UDMA, will deterime how much still shooting you can do while shooting video.
If the buffer is filled while shooting video and still the camera pauses until it can empty the buffer. Video will not resume automatically as it normally does. After the buffer empties, video can be restarted.
If my purpose for using the camera is video, I'm not going to be interrupting video to shoot stills. In this case there's no advantage to the fastest cards. If I'm shooting stills I may take some video too. But I'm not making uninterrupted video. So if the camera pauses every once in awhile it may not matter. ANY card can be overwhelmed by a combination of video and stills.
I'm not going to be buying the most expensive cards for this camera. The best value expensive card seems to be the 16gb Transcend 300X UDMA16gb at $150. I don't know how much faster this card will be compared to the Ridata 233X UDMA 16gb for $50.
The 16GB SanDisk Extreme IV UDMA is $158 after mail-in rebate there, nearly same as the Transcend.
When you put it in your cart, however, it becomes $109.00. Goofy!