Larger CF cards

[Galahad]

I have always used 1GB cards, changed over when necessary and been happy with the thought that I'm less at risk of a card failure. These I have had for about 4 years and all are still going strong, mostly Sandisk and Ridata, plus a couple of Transcend 500MB ones.

Prices have now come down so much that I have just bought two 4GB Sandisk Extreme IIIs. I seem to remember that there was a problem with some Canon cameras not being able to fully utilise the extra capacity, and the cards registering a lower size than they are. I have 1dMkIIs, but I'm not sure if it applies or a firmware update solved any potential problem, can anyone shed any light please.

[PavelOlavich]

CF cards are getting more reliable, especially the solid state cards. I would suggest you throw out the older cards, because flash memory have a finite number of writes before they error out...refresh your card collection every few years to minimize write errors.

There is a mindset that using smaller capacity cards will spread out the images over multiple cards, minimizing the effect of a card going bad, and losing all your shots.

I use cards no bigger then 4gb myself, and I throw them away after 18-24 months....overtime flash can get flakey...of course this is a function of how often one uses a card, etc, so YMMV...

When I shot 1D Mark II's for my wedding business, I loved the two card feature...allowing you to write to two cards at the same time, so if one card errors, the other will save your butt....but my 5D's don't offer this excellent feature :-( Still, I've not had a card fail....yet.

To the point, I'e used 4gb cards with my 1D Mark II's with no problems...I've never used larger capacity cards however, so I can't speak to that.

[Galahad]

Thank you Pavel, that has answered my question perfectly.

[Max@Home]

Galahad,

The 1D series had some issues with highspeed LEXAR cards, which issues were solved with firmware upgrades

...FWIW, *my* €0.02...

Kindest regards!

Max@Home

[EOS_JD]

Pavel
I'll take your old CF cards

I've had one of mine for about 6 years (256Mb)...... Still going strong. Useful for my smaller digicamera)

[jfrancho]

Originally Posted by EOS_JD

Pavel
I'll take your old CF cards

I've had one of mine for about 6 years (256Mb)...... Still going strong. Useful for my smaller digicamera)

I keep the old cards too. Sometimes I use them to sneakernet music to friends, or if a I have a family member that lives far away, I'll just send them a a card with the pictures on it. It's easier to mail a card off than a CD/DVD. They work well for friends and family that don't have a computer as well. That way they can take the card to Walgreen's or wherever and get prints.

[Forrest]

I don't know much about how or why cards fail, but I use an 8 GB one in my 5D most of the time. My gut tells me ( based on nothing ) that a 16 GB card probably has the same chance of failing as a 512 MB one; it's true a 16 GB card failing would be much, much worse than a smaller one ... but I honestly don't know if it's more likely.

[jfrancho]

I've never had a failure. One card was corrupted twice - PC Inspector found all the files - and that card has been flagged and replaced, only to be used during emergencies and non critical stuff.

[Kosherpaparazzi]

I have two 2GB Sandisk Extreme III cards. Some people don't like going over 2GB because if something happens to one (lost, stolen, destroyed) alot of memories get lost.
Really large cards are best for really large files (like those from high end digital backs).

As for the 1dmkII support there is a firmware update for the larger cards.

[nadtz]

At a million writes per sector one would have to do a lot of shooting to wear a card out in 18-24 months. I have a bunch of old cards and have never had a failure. I currently use a 4gb card as my main and I have a couple smaller cards as well but I dont worry at all about using the 4gb as my main card.