Has any D700 owners use or have feedback for the following Compact Flash Card:


16B Elite Pro 133x Compact Flash Card?

I will be a proud owner of a D700 tomorow morning, I was searching for accessories, found this on the meritline.com website. The spec's looks good, but the price is what I am leary of, they are selling for $31.99. I am a firm believer you get what you pay for, in this case, just hopping..

thank in advance!!!

Mr Vic

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Although there are other decent brands out there, I've found that you won't go wrong with the SanDisk Extreme IV (either 40Mb/sec or the newer 45). or the equivalent Lexar. I've used the 2, 4, and 8 Gb, but not the 16. You need (well....want) their speed for this camera.

You're right about the price...possibly counterfeit. Walk away quickly.

Walter

f/8 and be there?...but I'm moving as fast as I can...I'm up to f/4 already!

thank you..

I do have couple of Sandisk 8's that I used on my D300 and D200, just thought about the 16's...your are correct, thanks for the sanity check!!!



Mr Vic

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I buy 4 Gig cards at Best Buy, usually San Disk Extreme III cards, and have had no problems with them.

I get 4 Gig cards because if you fill one up, and download it, you can put it all in one folder, and then burn that folder to a DVD fairly easily (since a DVD has about 4.7 gig capacity). I have one 8 gig, but use it pretty rarely.

I stay away from off-brand cards just because when you get really screwy results it won't be from your camera, it will usually be from the memory card going loopy on you.

A. L. DeWitt
Jefferson City, MO

Cameras allow us to share the beauty in God's creation with others.

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thanks for your prompt reply, very much appreciated. I like your logic in using the 4 Gig's, I never thought of it that way!!! It make perfect sense, which I will incorporate in my workflow!!!



Mr Vic

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Hi Vic,

I agree with the others. Stick with the Sandisk cards. The 16GB Extreme IV's work very well but they are still pricy!
Good Luck and Enjoy your Nikons!

Best Regards,
Marty

My SanDisk Extreme IV 16GB screams but put a serious dent in my wallet. I’m at about 5,000 images with it and not one problem to date. The nice thing is it come with recovery software that came in hand on an SD card problem (D80, Christmas was saved). I’ve become a serious SanDisk fan.

Stop and take the picture, you may not get a second chance.

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Actually once I found the correct reader to use, the cheapo Kingston card is not all that bad...see here of my trials and tribulations:

http://www.nikonians.org/forums/dcboard.php?az=set_threaded_mode&forum=197&topic_id=18019&prev_page=show_topic&gid=18019#18418

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I have always stuck with lexar and sandisk 4gig. Gives me about 200 pics (nefs) per card and for me that is perfect.

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Haven't used that one. I have two Sandisk Extreme IV 8GB (45 MB/sec transfer, a.k.a "300x") and one Transcend 266x 8GB and haven't had problems with any of them, though they haven't seen a whole lot of use yet on my D700.

I don't think you can go wrong with Sandisk, and right now they have a $60 mail-in rebate offer on the 8 and 16GB Extreme IVs. Works out to about $65 net apiece IIRC for the 8GB from Newegg/B&H/Adorama/etc.

Update: So does Lexar (rebate offer), imagine that They are another good brand, in my past non-camera experience.

--------------------

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I have the SanDisk Extreme IV 16 B disk and it is very good. The one consideration I would recommend is that you probably don't need that much space on one disk. I agree with the gentleman who recommended the 4's. My 16 will hold way over 900 RAW pics, and I don't like keeping that many on a disk. That becomes very hard to manage in the computer. I am going to explore buying some 4's with this rebate that all are talking about. I shoot a lot and find I just don't need a disk that big. Maybe on a long trip or something like that, but not for general everyday shooting.
Ron

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All very good points! Thank you for your comment. I too have to rethink on putting too many eggs in one basket....



Mr Vic"s Photography

The putting-too-many-eggs-in-one basket idea kinda made me think a bit too, when I was deciding between 8 and 16 GB. Well, that and the fact that the 8 GB Extreme IV cards still cost less per GB than the 16s .

I've never had a camera card die on me, and I don't typically shoot so much in an outing that I'm too far behind in backing up the card, but anyone who is/has might strongly agree with the more-and-smaller card philosophy.

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I get the same write speed at the same settings on both sandisk extreme iii and iv 16gb cf cards on d700.

FYI...
Adorama has the SanDisk 4 GB Extreme Ducati Edition CF Memory Card(45MB/s) on sale for $49.95.

Daniel
North Carolina
SmugMug

Caution: I don't have one of the really fast cameras, so my experience may or may not be applicable.

I use a lot of the Kingston Elite Pro 133x cards, mostly 4GB. I've never had any trouble with any of them - I have seven. They are not, in practice, 133x: they're about the same speed as my Lexar 80x cards. However, with my D2h and D2x, that hasn't been any issue at all. Most of the time I shoot only one or a couple of frames at a time, and I almost never get anywhere near the buffer limit, which is when card speed would make a difference. Even in sports situations I rarely exceed the buffers (25 frames in raw on the D2h, I don't even know on my D2x).

The only time I've really wished for faster cards is when I've come back from a big shoot - the download speeds could be better. It's not too often that I fill more than one card for download at time, though.

_____
Brian... a bicoastal Nikonian and Team Member

My gallery is online. Comments and critique welcomed any time!

Brian,

Thank you, I agree. I have 2 Sandisk Extreme IV 4GB a Extreme III 4GB and 3 Extreme III 8GB cards. This is more than enough for an evening at the bar. I was able to pick up the 3 8GB Sandisk Extreme III cards at B&H this past December for $30.00 each. There was a $70.00 mail in rebate on 3 cards so after the rebate all 3 cards cost me $20.00.

I did some testing a while back between the III and the IV in my D700. This difference is one frame before the buffer reaches the limit at 7 FPS 17 vs 18. I still owe this forum a full blown test. One of the reasons I haven't yet, is I have been unable to find the transfer speed of the D700 from buffer to the card.

As you mention sports is the only area where I can think of where this would be an issue when shooting. Even with hockey and the technique I use I have never come close to needing an Extreme IV let alone a Ducati in the field. In the lab yes a faster card might be nice but it gives me time to fill my coffee cup.

Michael P. Meyers

http://www.artizencreations.com

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since D700 doesn't support UDMA (Ultra Direct Memory Access), the money spent on extreme IV or above is a pure waste.

http://www.sandisk.com/Retail/Default.aspx?CatID=1644

>since D700 doesn't support UDMA (Ultra Direct Memory Access),
>the money spent on extreme IV or above is a pure waste.
>
>http://www.sandisk.com/Retail/Default.aspx?CatID=1644
>

Reading Thom Hogan's D700 guide it is stated that the D700 is one of the first cameras to support UDMA (pg. 115) and that if you don't have a UDMA card for your D700 you will not be getting the full benefit of its speed (pg.47)

ETA...
I think the D700 came out after Sandisk posted that about UDMA cards? I could be wrong though. Can anyone confirm the D700 has UDMA support? I currently don't have a D700 just Thoms book.

Daniel
North Carolina
SmugMug

Nikon's D700 product sheet:

http://nikon.ca/en/Product.aspx?m=17700&disp=Features

States that:
"The Nikon D700 is also compliant with the next-generation high-speed UDMA CompactFlash cards that enable 35-Mbyte recording speed.
* Based on the new CIPA guideline established in August 2007."

Hi, check the D700 user book at the end there is a liste of the Cards tested & approved by Nikon on the D700.
In Technical notes / Other Accessories page 390

Michel

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nikon's d700 only supports udma 2 spec, which gives IO speed up to 33MB/sec, while the latest standard is udma 6 which allows up to 133 MB/sec read/write speed. while nikon can say d700 supports udma, but in reality d700 can't do IO more than 33MB/sec. in this sense, using sandisk extreme IV, which uses udma 3 spec, is a pure waste of money.

"What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so." - Mark Twain

>nikon's d700 only supports udma 2 spec, which gives IO speed
>up to 33MB/sec, while the latest standard is udma 6 which
>allows up to 133 MB/sec read/write speed. while nikon can say
>d700 supports udma, but in reality d700 can't do IO more than
>33MB/sec. in this sense, using sandisk extreme IV, which uses
>udma 3 spec, is a pure waste of money.
>
>"What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know.
>It's what we know for sure that just ain't so." - Mark
>Twain

Although the D700 doesn't support the full speed, I still don't think it's a waste of money as THIS TEST shows there are differences in the speeds between the different CF cards. Would a firmware update in the future allow the D700 to have faster speeds or would it even be necessary...isn’t it fast enough already? Keep in mind I don’t have the D700...I'm trying to learn as much as possible before I get it.

Daniel
North Carolina
SmugMug

>Although the D700 doesn't support the full speed, I still
>don't think it's a waste of money as
>THIS
>TEST> shows there are differences in the speeds between the
>different CF cards. Would a firmware update in the future
>allow the D700 to have faster speeds or would it even be
>necessary...isn’t it fast enough already? Keep in mind I don’t
>have the D700...I'm trying to learn as much as possible before
>I get it.
>

Go figure out the price difference between Sandisk Extreme III and IV, and then ask yourself the question whether it is stupid of paying that kind of premium for using Extreme IV, and only getting 1 to 2 more frames per second advantage when you shoot in 14-bit raw even with all fancy adjustments all turned off.

for me it was the same price so it was a no brainer...again not a complete waste of money

Daniel
North Carolina
SmugMug

Call me conservative, but I follow the information on page 390 of the Nikon D700 user's manual that mentions only San Disk and Lexar up to 8GB---16GB is not mentioned.

I like the sound of A.L. DeWitt's system of using 4GB cards, but I see a possible flaw. Normally, I download my images at the end of each day. With the system in question, I see myself waiting until a card is full. Kind of like leaving a partially used roll of film in the camera, which was never a good idea.

Edo

I'm sure that many of you have seen that the Extreme IV CF
cards are carrying a rebate of up to $60 for the 8gig.  Only
certain vendors are included in the rebate offer. I just
ordered 2 -8gigs from B&H for $114 each and a total rebate
of $130.  Net cost per card with shipping will be about $53. 
There is also a rebate on the IIIs

I got the Sandisk CF Extreme IV 16GB when I got the D700, thinking that the camera would take full advantage of the speed. I'm now planning on getting a second card, but given what has been mentioned here, it appears that the CF Extreme III 16GB is the way to go for me. I would still like the IV, but it is over 2x more expensive here... so, for the price/performance, the III seems like a good deal.

Ralph.

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