Sandisk 8GB

As for speed, the difference when copying to your computer can be drastic. A fast card can transfer a gig in just over a minute and a half (I'm talking practically here, not theoretically), whereas a slow card may take 5-6 minutes. If you're copying on USB 1.0 or using a non-CardBus PC card adapter (the $10 ones as opposed to the $40 ones), you're looking at closer to 15 minutes per gigabyte. That's 7 minutes per 4 GB instead of an hour.

 

Fast cards are worth every penny, especially these days -- fast 2GB and 4GB cards are all relatively inexpensive.

So which way is the true fastest way to get images off of CF the ExtremeFirewire? Does this need a different 1394 port on your computer? Anybody know?

So which way is the true fastest way to get images off of CF the ExtremeFirewire? Does this need a different 1394 port on your computer? Anybody know?

Not sure which computer you have (I use Macs) but got a couple of Sandisk ULTRA IV and the Sandisk Firewire Reader and it is incredibly fast. On one trip I bought an older Mac that did not have FW 800, so I used a FW800-FW400 cable and still the speed was great.

I also have some 9pin-4pin (the small FW connection, used in many video cameras and some PCs) but have not tried that card but my guess it will still work very well.

The only issue I ran into was that a couple of my older cards would not work with the reader (all non-Sandisk cards, some wored, some did not) and had to use the older USB reader. Then I really appreciated the SanDisk and Firewire reader even more.

Somewhat oddly, I have various CF cards and find that on occassion some will not download using a usb reader in which case I use a firewire reader. However sometimes this reverses and I haven't found any real pattern to what is going on! I do though always reformat the cards in camera and to date none have actually refused to download although sometimes it has taken a few switchovers (I have 3 readers all told) to actually start the download. I wonderr about static build up as its the only explanation that I can so far come up with. Any suggestions?

Thanks Joel! Ill get a 4GB then. I just wanted to make sure there wouldnt be any issues with the 4

I went to my local photo store to purchase the Sandisk 8GB Extreme III compact flash card, and the sales person said that there is a problem using the card on the Canon 20D (and maybe other Canons). Anyone know otherwise? <_<

I am using the Sandisk 8GB Extreme IV with no issues on a Canon 5D. I believe 8GB is the max Canon 5D can handle.