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D200: UltraII vs. ExtremeIII

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Alvin Chow

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Does anyone know whether a Sandisk ExtremeIII CF card will yield noticeably faster write speeds over an UltraII card on a D200?
 
If what you are interested in is measuring write speed the extreme might be a tiny bit faster and you will be happy. I get paid to shoot Indy cars. I shoot mostly with older 40x cards. I never fill the buffer I never...ever have a problem with write speed. I shoot the fastest cars in the world and have to get the shot. If I could buy a reliable 40 or 50x card cheaper than an 80x card or a zillionX card I would buy the cheaper card because, to me, it doesn't make much difference.

I might pay a little more for a faster card if it would download to my card reader a little faster and I could go home a little earlier after a day at the track...but I would not pay much more.

Just my opinion...and I have been wrong before!

--
John Cote
http://www.johncotephotography.com

'Cameras are just cr@p we have to lug around because there is no direct brain to printer connection...yet!'
 
Every comparison I have ever seen has shown there was virtually no difference in real life situations. I buy the cheapest ones.
 
Since the ExtremeIII cards just went down in price I'd say pick those up. I'm planning on getting a D200 in the near future and will be snagging a 4GB card. It went down to $235 over at BHPhotoVideo from $400. The 2GB went down to $109. You at those prices you should be snagging the ExtremeIII's. My main reason for wanting the ExtremeIII though is the download speed to the computer. There are cases where I need to download all my cards in the shortest time possible. The ExtremeIIIs go a little fast which helps me out.
 
I think noticing the .13 second difference would be possible after guzzling down two double espressos and then firing off maybe 100 continuous shots at 1/8000th of a sec. However, I have no scientific basis on which to make this claim.
 
The 4GB standard Sandisk CF Cards are down to $130 compared to the Extreme III at $235. Is it worth almost a $100 more for the Extreme III?

Other than slow download speeds, what are we really talking about in terms of filling up the buffer shooting RAW + JPEG? Just JPEG Fine? I don't have the D200 yet, so I just don't know...though hopefully by this afternoon at 3pm things will be different!

Thanks in advance.
 
The standard SanDisk warranty is 5 years---- the Ultra and Extreme warraties are forever.
Piece of mind--priceless
 
I hit the limit occasionally shooting sports. Especially basketball, where following the ball can result in quite a few frames. For most things a slower card is just fine. The only other, minor niggle, is copying the data to the PC. I've got a couple of really slow cards (4GB) that take a lot of time.

Most people, including me, could probably work with 1 or 2 fast cards and use slower cards for the majority of things.

LOL
Roy
 
John Cote said:
If what you are interested in is measuring write speed the extreme
might be a tiny bit faster and you will be happy. I get paid to
shoot Indy cars. I shoot mostly with older 40x cards. I never fill
the buffer I never...ever have a problem with write speed. I shoot
the fastest cars in the world and have to get the shot. If I could
buy a reliable 40 or 50x card cheaper than an 80x card or a
zillionX card I would buy the cheaper card because, to me, it
doesn't make much difference.

I might pay a little more for a faster card if it would download to
my card reader a little faster and I could go home a little earlier
after a day at the track...but I would not pay much more.

Just my opinion...and I have been wrong before!
Click to expand...
Hi John,

That's surprising. I have no trouble filling up the buffer on my D2x, and that's just general purpose shooting. With a 40x card it should take a minute or so to clear the buffer, so you only have to shoot 20 images or so a minute in order to fill the buffer.

--
Fabian
 
I have a handful of 2GB and 4GB cards: Ultra II's and Extreme III's. With the D2x (shooting compressed NEF+JPG Basic Small) I have hit the buffer capacity many times at weddings. The ExIII's are a tad faster in flushing out the images.

Concerning playback on larger cards, a 4GBUII card is slower to review & delete an image (and format the card) than the 2GBUII's or 4GBExIII's.

The ExIII's download a little faster to boot. They shave 2 minutes off the DL time for a 4GB card.

--
Regards,
Joe H.

WPPI, NAPP
---------------------------------------
http://www.BBSphotography.com
http://www.pbase.com/joeh113
http://www.focusonweddings.com

(Sarcasm Included - some assembly required.)
 
I just ordered an UltraII 4 GB from B&H yesterday ($179). I'm thinking the buffer is good enough to handle most of my situations.
--
Scott
 
hi john-

according to rob galbraith's site, worst-case is the III's are 8.6% faster at downloading to the PC than the II's. i would think that would save you quite a bit of time if you've got several GB worth of images.

--
http://www.ottosphotos.com

http://pbase.com/ottokalata


John Cote said:
I might pay a little more for a faster card if it would download to
my card reader a little faster and I could go home a little earlier
after a day at the track...but I would not pay much more.
Click to expand...
 
No such thing as 'lifetime warranty'. It's for the life of the production of the product. When they stop producing it, you warranty ends. There are provisions if you bought it right at the end of life of the product, something like +5 years or less; but non are forever.
hzmeyer said:
The standard SanDisk warranty is 5 years---- the Ultra and Extreme
warraties are forever.
Piece of mind--priceless
Click to expand...
 
One reason I purchased the Extreme III for my D100 is its ability to withstand temperature extremes. I shoot a lot in the desert of Southern California, and daytime temperature can get over 110 F every day for a long time. The EIII is rated to withstand 180 F, as I remember.
 
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