compact flash 512 card

[DrySuitDave]

As image sizes become larger and larger to to the megapixel wars, as long as it is competitively priced, go for the largest memory card you can.

I have a pro digital camera for products we market, and I use an IMB 1 gig microdrive. The file sizes for tiff-RGB images are huge, but it will hold 75 of them. If I take photos in hi res .jpg formats, it will hold over 1000 of them. Pretty mondo.

The thing is, as I upgrade cameras with an ever larger megapixel count, I just swap over the microdrive which fits into a compact flash card slot. When cameras get over 10 megapixels, that same memory device will be down to holding 500 images....enough for an entire trip.....

 

[ssra30]

From my experience the write time isn't that big of a deal if you are recording in .jpg. We're taking a few seconds here. But if you're shooting in RAW or TIFF, those are huge files and definately could interfere with taking the next shot.

As a mere amateur, card speed doesn't apply to my buying decisions.

Pretty much what Dee said. For C5050, CF card speed does make a difference especially for RAW and Tiff format. I shoot in RAW format which is a little over 7mb. The faster card will write a file in about 4s where as the slower one can take as much as 8s. It may not be a big deal often but when you get a brief chance to shoot something rare, it can be annoying sometimes. SHQ is a little over 2mb so the speed difference is not nearly as big a factor. However if you can get faster card such as Transcend 45X or Ridata for a few dollars more, it would be worth it, I think.
Interestingly, when I shoot sequentially in RAW, the buffer can hold about 3 pictures but it only take a second or two more to write 3 files than one file. I don't know enough about the mechanics of CF card to understand why that is so. Unfortunately even with the 1s recycle time on the Ikelite strobe, it is still not fast enough to synchronize with the C5050 in sequential mode for every single exposure.

 

[wolfeel]

I think I'm going to try the Ridata 512mb card. It's supposed to be really fast.

We'll be getting the C5050's wet for the first time next weekend in Bonaire for 9 days. I guess I'd better get that card on order!

 

[justleesa]

I think I'm going to try the Ridata 512mb card. It's supposed to be really fast.

We'll be getting the C5050's wet for the first time next weekend in Bonaire for 9 days. I guess I'd better get that card on order!

When I ordered mine I got it after 3 days....I was impressed how fast it got here.

 

[Scubamedicjoe]

I also use the Ridata CF 512 and use my XD 256 card as backup.