Sandisk Ultra II or Extreme III Compact Flash

[Ed_P]

There are some great deals on CF cards at the moment, particularly Sandisk Extreme III. I have a Canon 350D and the Ultra II cards seem pretty fast to me. Can the 350D exploit the higher spec in the Extreme IIIs or would it be a waste of money upgrading?

[Andy M]

I'm not sure that there would be any performance increase in-camera due to the 350s buffer, but your write speed to your computer should be faster (so long as you have a fast card reader).

If you find yourself waiting for your pictures to download to your computer, then it may be worth the increased spending. If not it will depend on the difference in price between the II and III...

[sgrimshaw]

If my Minolta is anything to go by, the answer is yes.

As I understand it, with CF the controller is on the card so your Canon should be able to clear the buffer faster with an III than a II.

Write times of Extreme III are much quicker than the Ultra II.

I was just looking at the prices of Sandisk on warehouse express, so cheap at the moment - even the IV's are reasonable.

Simon

[RobDickinson]

Have a look here :

www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-7699

Decide if the difference is worth the extra cash (and possible future updated body etc).

[gf350]

I thought they both had the same write speed it was more down to the extreme III being able to handle extreme temperatures.

[GetCarter]

Extreme 3 is a LOT quicker (I have both), but it makes no difference unless the camera can write to that speed. The 3 is no quicker in my compact than the 2 - but is much quicker than the 2 in my D2X

[stuart b]

I have Ultra II and Extreme III but on a Nikon D70. There is a noticeable difference if you are shooting continuous on my camera (contrary to my expectations from what I'd read in other places on the 'Net), but as has been said, I don't know about the 350D

Cheers
Stuart

[wyvern971]

Just got 2 x 4Gb Ultra IIIs

hopefully should be better than the generic Jessops ones I'm using atm

[byker28i]

I bought 2Gb Extreme III's for my 300D. It won't make any difference to the camera but will when I upgrade. Also transfer from the CF reader onto my PC is much quicker.

[nelly111s]

I've just bought two Extreme III SD cards - one from Amazon, one from eBay. Amazon one's great in my D80 & very fast on continuous. The card on eBay was a fake. Sent it back and got a full refund though, but still hacked off that I got sold a dud.

Nelly

[fastfreddy]

There are a fakes a plenty on ebay so be careful if you think you have found a real bargain.
Somewhere on Sandisk's site is 'spot the difference'section so you can tell a fake. The differences are quite subtle as the fakers have got pretty good, but if you're at all worried about losing your images then just don't buy off ebay in the first place. Do a Google and buy from a UK distributor. They don't make big margins on flash cards and you'll be sure of buying an original card.

[Ed_P]

Thanks for all the replies folks. Very helpful.

Ed ...

[Oakey]

fastfreddy said:

There are a fakes a plenty on ebay so be careful if you think you have found a real bargain.
Somewhere on Sandisk's site is 'spot the difference'section so you can tell a fake. The differences are quite subtle as the fakers have got pretty good, but if you're at all worried about losing your images then just don't buy off ebay in the first place. Do a Google and buy from a UK distributor. They don't make big margins on flash cards and you'll be sure of buying an original card.

Are 7dayshops fake? The only reason I ask is the 4Gb card I got from Play.com came in a plastic wrapper (the kind that shred your fingers to bits when you try to open them) and the cards from 7dayshop just came in little plastic cases.

[crmcatee]

This looks an amazing deal..

8Gb Extreme IV for the princely sum of £109 seemingly was £499 !!

On 7Dayshop.com


Still not sure of putting that much images on a single card.

[Brink]

nelly111s said:

I've just bought two Extreme III SD cards - one from Amazon, one from eBay. Amazon one's great in my D80 & very fast on continuous. The card on eBay was a fake. Sent it back and got a full refund though, but still hacked off that I got sold a dud.

Nelly

Got to carefull of that ebay. I order mine from amazon also. The extreme III is IIRC x133 speed or 20MB per sec.

[luca brazzi]

Just bought 2 Sandisk Extreme III 4Gb cards on Ebay....arrived yesterday, checked them on Ebay's own counterfeit checking pages, and yep- they're fake.

Have informed the seller, and waiting for their response, then will leave the feedback, inform Ebay and PayPal according to their procedures.

Here's a useful link.

http://reviews.ebay.com/FAKE-SanDisk-

LB

[F308 MAN]

crmcatee said:

This looks an amazing deal..

8Gb Extreme IV for the princely sum of £109 seemingly was £499 !!

On 7Dayshop.com


Still not sure of putting that much images on a single card.

hi craig ... i would not trust so many images to one card, and my self imposed limit is 4g.

www.picstop.com are worth a try for good prices.

d

[luca brazzi]

Waiting for the 10 day notice period to elapse before I can raise my issue of receiving fake cards with Ebay, but in the meantime bought 4 x 2Gb Sandisk Extreme III from Picstop yesterday at 3.50pm....they arrived on my desk at work at 11.30 this morning.

Great service, and a good price. Well recommended.

LB

[F308 MAN]

luca brazzi said:

Great service, and a good price. Well recommended.

Of course ! ... they're from the Isle of Man .... "Road Racing Capital of the World"

d

[crmcatee]

Bit the bullet and ordered a couple of 2Gb Extreme III cards from........ Amazon for 22.50 each including P&P..

Picstop worked out to be just under £26 each.