I'm very pleased with the IQ of Canon 5D III images but often worried about low buffer, resulting in missing pictures. Even motordrive @ 6 FPS is ok, but with various cards, it shows the buffer of 13 frames, but actual performance varies from 13; 18; 21.
I was just wondering, how much buffer you are getting, with which card n speed. I prefer to use Sandisk BTW.
What's the CF card are you using Jagdeep, are you shooting RAW, missing pictures may not be the fault of the buffering, you need think about the set-up ie case settings, is it moving towards you, across you, AF... etc
Posted by Paul DeCesare on August 16, 2015 at 7:40 PM
Hi Jagdeep, I had the same issues when shooting weddings and after a good amount of research I discovered that card speeds are rated at READ speed and the actual write speed is lower and usually hard to find in specs somewhere. Turns out that the high end SanDisks do have equal read and write. The Extreme Pro series from 2 years ago was 90mb/sec read & write. I also was a lifelong SanDisk user (and still am for many of my devices), but when I got my 5D3 I did want a UDMA 7 CF card with equal read/write speeds faster than 90, and I found that in the 32GB Lexar 1000X cards. With these I get 29 raw files to the card before the buffer starts kicking in. Had SanDisk made cards with the same spec in 2012/2013 then I would have gone for it, but Lexar fit the need. Honestly, Lexar has been as reliable as ever so I'm pretty much a Lexar guy now for photography, but both are really good for all I know, SanDisk has CF cards that match the speed but I have my 4 32GB cards that serve me well. I think Lexar calls them 1066X now, must have made and improvement along the way.
OK, couple things you need to know:
The 800X Lexars have much slower write speeds, the 1000X or 1066X have the actual 140mb/sec
ONLY THE 32 GB AND 64 GB CF cards have that speed, the 16GB 1000X at the time was actually slower.
The SDHC slot in the 5D3 is completely useless if you want high speed shooting and no buffer. Canon did not make that slot UHS-I compatible for some reason. I set the menus to ignore that slot forever. If I wasn't going to re-sell my 5D3 someday I'd fill that slot with glue, lol.
Certainly by now SanDisk has made a UDMA 7 CF card that has at least 140mb read/write speed, so check that out. Otherwise the Lexar 1000+ series will get you 29 raw frames before buffer. Hope that answers your question!
Stephen, I've been using San Disk only with a speed od 90mn/sec and 120 MB/sec.And I shoot raw only.
Paul, I agree with all of your observations.
I'm planning to buy San Disk extreme pro 32GB & 64 GB which has a read speed of 160MBsec. and write speed of 150MB/sec. Hopefully, that should resolve the issue.
Discussion
3 repliesI'm very pleased with the IQ of Canon 5D III images but often worried about low buffer, resulting in missing pictures. Even motordrive @ 6 FPS is ok, but with various cards, it shows the buffer of 13 frames, but actual performance varies from 13; 18; 21.
I was just wondering, how much buffer you are getting, with which card n speed. I prefer to use Sandisk BTW.
Thank you so much!
Jagdeep Rajput
What's the CF card are you using Jagdeep, are you shooting RAW, missing pictures may not be the fault of the buffering, you need think about the set-up ie case settings, is it moving towards you, across you, AF... etc
Hi Jagdeep, I had the same issues when shooting weddings and after a good amount of research I discovered that card speeds are rated at READ speed and the actual write speed is lower and usually hard to find in specs somewhere. Turns out that the high end SanDisks do have equal read and write. The Extreme Pro series from 2 years ago was 90mb/sec read & write. I also was a lifelong SanDisk user (and still am for many of my devices), but when I got my 5D3 I did want a UDMA 7 CF card with equal read/write speeds faster than 90, and I found that in the 32GB Lexar 1000X cards. With these I get 29 raw files to the card before the buffer starts kicking in. Had SanDisk made cards with the same spec in 2012/2013 then I would have gone for it, but Lexar fit the need. Honestly, Lexar has been as reliable as ever so I'm pretty much a Lexar guy now for photography, but both are really good for all I know, SanDisk has CF cards that match the speed but I have my 4 32GB cards that serve me well. I think Lexar calls them 1066X now, must have made and improvement along the way.
OK, couple things you need to know:
Certainly by now SanDisk has made a UDMA 7 CF card that has at least 140mb read/write speed, so check that out. Otherwise the Lexar 1000+ series will get you 29 raw frames before buffer. Hope that answers your question!
Thank you so much friends!
Stephen, I've been using San Disk only with a speed od 90mn/sec and 120 MB/sec.And I shoot raw only.
Paul, I agree with all of your observations.
I'm planning to buy San Disk extreme pro 32GB & 64 GB which has a read speed of 160MBsec. and write speed of 150MB/sec. Hopefully, that should resolve the issue.
Thanks again!
Jagdeep Rajput