Anybody useing and willing to comment on 90MB/s CF memory card?

The speed is awfully appealing. Has it worked well for you and is the difference worth the price?

Thanks for all comments.

Charlie - The first thing to ask is do you have a camera or a card reader even capable of those speeds? Both the card and the device it's in have to support the speed. Most cameras top out way below 90 no matter what kind of card you stick in them. Newer card readers (USB3 or Thunderbolt) could probably use that speed, and in the future more things will use it. But it might not be an advantage right now.

Here's a great database of camera/card speeds : http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007

David, you are hitting me with exactly what I need. The knowledge of people like you that delve into this stuff more than I. I now have a top of the line camera and will check out the link. I'd like to max out the camera's capability. As to the reader I would care very little if I didn't get the speed there. The camera capability is my reason for interest.

Thanks.

Charlie

Charlie, there is more to these fast cards than just in-camera performance as I am sure you are aware.

From my personal experience with the Canon 1DMIV the advantage of these faster cards comes into play during the "flushing" of the camera's buffer to the CF card, not during actual shooting. No matter what card I use at this point, even the fastest 90MB/s cards from Lexar and Sandisk, my Mark IV pauses after I rip off 30 RAW images due to the camera's buffer becoming full. However, the amount of time it takes my Mark IV's buffer to clear is noticably less with the faster cards versus the slower cards. This is a big benefit to me when action is happening fast and furious.

Outside the camera, transfer rates with these new cards can approach their capabilities if paired with the correct CF card reader and computer, greatly decreasing your data transfer time from CF card to computer hard drive.

So, I do believe there are advantages to these new fast cards, it just depends on what you need and want from these cards whether or not they are worth the extra expense to you.

Ah, this is great. Two responses and I'm getting meat. I don't yet know what my camera (Olympus E-5) speed will utilize of the faster speed, but Ron the "flushing" being significantly faster (no matter how much faster) is what I'm interested in. You of all people here must know that split seconds of time prodvided to you by anything that speeds up return of your cameras full function can make the difference of capturing or missing the best shot of your life. It is not a gaurantee. It is a possibility of being *the difference*. I'm only getting into high speed sequence shooting and want to work at the maximum capability.

Thanks Ron.

Charlie

The dump-to-buffer speed of specific body models is the big issue for us. On high pressure shoots my wife and I each carry two bodies with identical lenses, and occasionally even three, so we don't miss shots while waiting for bodies download full buffers to their cards. To the degree that extra speed cuts down on download time, it's valuable to us. But in our experience there's a finite limit to the bodies, no matter how fast the cards. Speed of download to computers is immaterial.

Charlie, I do use a 32gb Sandisk Extreme Pro (90mb) and a couple 16GB Extremes (60mb) on a 5D Mark II, and for stills I second Ron's statement. But in order to take advantage of that, check your manual and verify your camera supports UDMA Level 6, that's what the 90mb cards are generally rated at. To be honest, at more than twice the price you're not getting twice the performance for stills. The 16GB 60mb CF is $69 on Amazon, and the 90mb version is $170. I'd load up on the 60mb cards and your pocket will be much happier.

Where the 90s really shine is shooting video, specifically on a 5D2. I've noticed that the camera runs cooler with faster cards (really heats up with non-UDMA cards). BTW, UDMA simply means that the card does a lot of the file processing, which gets you faster write speed. Non-UDMA cards make the camera do all the work when writing images to the card. If you have a UDMA-enabled camera, by all means get UDMA-enabled cards.

I have verified that my camera supports UDMA but haven't found if level 6 is supported. I too checked Amazon and in fact ordered one 16gb (60mb) card and $69 was the price. however I believe there was a (90mb) card for around $ 120 but can't remember exact. I am doing some video but very little at this point. I'll work with this 60mb and see how things look as I gain experience and learn more. Delay seldom costs money on camera equipment.

Thanks for the info. Paul.

Charlie