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Crucial 8Gb Lexar Media Professional Udma 300X Compactflash Cf8Gb-300-380
See it at Amazon.com for $249.99Average Customer Rating
(5.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
Outstanding when paired with a UDMA reader
(5 out of 5) by Derek on Feb 15, 2008 (New York, NY)This is a great little card. But there are a couple of things to keep in mind before picking it up.
1) Don't expect the 300x to make a big difference while you are out shooting, especially if you are using a modern digital SLR. Cameras seldom take full advantage of flash card speed, largely because they don't have to thanks to their big, fast internal buffers. 99.9% of the time I could get by with a glacially slow card because my DSLR can buffer 40 RAW frames before it even needs to write to the card.
2) The 300x will make a big difference when transferring files from the card to your computer, but only if paired with a UDMA card reader. On paper this card boasts 300x speed, or 45 MB/s. That seems stellar, but when I plugged it into my trusty USB 2.0 CF card readers, I found the actual transfer speed to be 4 MB/s for both reads and writes! (Yes, 4 MB/s -- that's not a typo. And yes, I'm sure it's a USB 2.0 reader using a USB 2.0 port. I even repeated the exercise with another reader from a different vendor to verify my results.) I tested by moving several GB of 15MB RAW files, as well as some 1GB video clips to measure sustained performance. Obviously the problem was that my reader could not take advantage of the full UDMA speed of this card. Fortunately I had a third UDMA USB 2.0 reader, and keeping all other variables constant, using that reader my write speed jumped to 14 MB/s and reads went to 33 MB/s, or about 220x, which is quite respectable and hugely better than the 27x speeds I was enduring before.
Make sure your reader supports UDMA and you'll be very happy with this card.
1) Don't expect the 300x to make a big difference while you are out shooting, especially if you are using a modern digital SLR. Cameras seldom take full advantage of flash card speed, largely because they don't have to thanks to their big, fast internal buffers. 99.9% of the time I could get by with a glacially slow card because my DSLR can buffer 40 RAW frames before it even needs to write to the card.
2) The 300x will make a big difference when transferring files from the card to your computer, but only if paired with a UDMA card reader. On paper this card boasts 300x speed, or 45 MB/s. That seems stellar, but when I plugged it into my trusty USB 2.0 CF card readers, I found the actual transfer speed to be 4 MB/s for both reads and writes! (Yes, 4 MB/s -- that's not a typo. And yes, I'm sure it's a USB 2.0 reader using a USB 2.0 port. I even repeated the exercise with another reader from a different vendor to verify my results.) I tested by moving several GB of 15MB RAW files, as well as some 1GB video clips to measure sustained performance. Obviously the problem was that my reader could not take advantage of the full UDMA speed of this card. Fortunately I had a third UDMA USB 2.0 reader, and keeping all other variables constant, using that reader my write speed jumped to 14 MB/s and reads went to 33 MB/s, or about 220x, which is quite respectable and hugely better than the 27x speeds I was enduring before.
Make sure your reader supports UDMA and you'll be very happy with this card.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Lexar pro cards are always top knotch
(5 out of 5) by Garth Gerold Jones on Jan 7, 2008 (dallas, Tx)i went looking for a more reliable and larger card than the 133x 4gb sony card i purchased when i bought my 40d, having had a lexar pro 2 gb card and knowing their proven reliablity i went with this card, and man, i couldnt have made a better choice. i shot a whole wedding with this card and never missed a beat. the card was as fast as the camera. even at $169, you cant find a better card. Bravo Lexar!!
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Great Match for Canon 40D
(5 out of 5) by Cyclist 2B on Dec 27, 2007 (southern california)Got this CF Card as an interim memory card for the Canon 40D camera [new fast digital camera] planning to use it until a bigger faster one could be located. The camera can take 6.5 pictures per second at 10+megs per picture. Turns out even at full image size this card kept up with the camera great. No problems at all. In fact after some significant research it turns out this card is about twice as fast as most of the 16GB cards currently available, and just as fast as the fastest 8GB cards. This memory card is a great match for the Canon 40D camera.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Speed That Makes A Difference
(5 out of 5) by David L. Staples on Feb 20, 2009 (Wichita, KS USA)I shoot a Canon 5D and work with dancers in performance. The shooting is quick, often strings of many frames with the camera running as fast as it will cycle. When I changed from 133x cards to 300x cards, I noticed a significant improvement in the speed with which the camera's buffer clears, allowing longer strings and better readiness for more shooting. This is only going to be more important with newer cameras having higher resolution and faster cyclic rates. This Lexar and the Sandisk Extreme Ducati series claim the 45MB/sec performance level. I use both with equal satisfaction. I have recently switched from 4GB to 8GB cards to reduce the number of reloads necessary during a job.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
8GB Lexar UDMA 300X CF Card Review
(5 out of 5) by Roger A. Krupski on Apr 25, 2008 (Kenmore, NY, USA)Not much to say other than FAST!!!! 300X equates to 45 megabytes per second transfer speed! That's FAST!!!!
This card is being used in my Sony A-700 camera body. Taking pictures on full auto mode does not overrun the card. I could fill the entire card with one shutter button press if I wanted to.
The card will hold 408 pictures in full, uncompressed RAW mode (with a Sony A-700 12.24 megapixel camera). That's equal to over 11 rolls of 36 exposure 35mm film! In JPEG or other compressed modes, this card holds THOUSANDS of images!
A few things to watch out for (these are generic warnings - not specific to the Lexar UDMA card):
* Be sure your CAMERA can SUPPORT an 8GB card before you buy.
* Be sure your CAMERA can SUPPORT an UDMA card before you buy.
* Be sure your COMPUTER card reader is USB 2.0 or FireWire, full speed and can support UDMA.
That's all. You need a wicked fast memory card for your camera or other data storage use? ... The 8GB Lexar UDMA 300X CF Card will make you very happy!
This card is being used in my Sony A-700 camera body. Taking pictures on full auto mode does not overrun the card. I could fill the entire card with one shutter button press if I wanted to.
The card will hold 408 pictures in full, uncompressed RAW mode (with a Sony A-700 12.24 megapixel camera). That's equal to over 11 rolls of 36 exposure 35mm film! In JPEG or other compressed modes, this card holds THOUSANDS of images!
A few things to watch out for (these are generic warnings - not specific to the Lexar UDMA card):
* Be sure your CAMERA can SUPPORT an 8GB card before you buy.
* Be sure your CAMERA can SUPPORT an UDMA card before you buy.
* Be sure your COMPUTER card reader is USB 2.0 or FireWire, full speed and can support UDMA.
That's all. You need a wicked fast memory card for your camera or other data storage use? ... The 8GB Lexar UDMA 300X CF Card will make you very happy!