1d mark III cards reccomendation

[michaelnotar]

i have a 1d mark III and 4Gb Extreme 3 CF cards. am i a seeing the cameras full potential with these cards or will the Extreme 4s show much improvement.
Also do i need even the specs of the Extreme 3, how about the ultra IIs at half the speed?
i am general photographer, but i am shooting a sports event in a month.

[Mel Thompson]

Post By Chuck Westfall 6/17/08 might be of interest?
Re: 1D Mark III CF/SDHC speed questions

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Rob Galbraith DPI: Canon EOS-1D Mark III

As you noted, this table shows that the 1D Mark III's card writing speed is limited to approximately 10MB per second with CF and 14MB per second with SD. That's nowhere near the transfer speed capability of the high-speed cards themselves, as shown by their performance when connected to a personal computer with a high-speed card reader. In some cases, you could be looking at transfer speeds of 30MB per second or more, so in this context, the camera is clearly the limiting factor.

On the other hand, a slow memory card like the 5MB per second example you mentioned could very well reduce the 1D Mark III's burst rate below its maximum potential. Coming back to your original question, there is no doubt that using a higher speed card could maximize the number of shots per burst. But it should be clear that the best you're going to get under any circumstances with the 1D Mark III is approximately 33 to 36 RAW images per burst at 10 fps. In other words, once the card speed exceeds a certain point, the camera becomes the limiting factor as I previously mentioned. And conversely, once the card speed falls below a certain point, it becomes the limiting factor instead.
__________________
Chuck Westfall
Technical Advisor/Professional Products Mktg. Div.
Consumer Imaging Group/Canon U.S.A., Inc.


Mel

[michaelnotar]

so it appears the ultra 2 cards at 15MB/sec are just fine, assuming that they do perform as advertised.

so perhaps high speed cards are just for faster download these days... if so what are card readers limited to for transfer speed? im a using a little lexar FW 400 reader that I have had for a few years, perhaps a FW800 version would be better, but are only the extreme 4 cards going to show better performance under FW800 vs 400.

[Matt Ballard]

I'm a big fan of the Transcend cards. Specifically I use the 133X cards which I find to be the best value for your buck. Lifetime warranty and I've never had one fail (touch wood).

[Mel Englander]

I've also used Transcend cards almost exclusively for 9 years now without any problems.

Mel