D200 CF Write speed

I see the compact flash has speeds of 10,20,30,40 mb/sec.

What is the speed of the D200 camera?

Are some of the compact flash speeds not needed
because they are faster than the camera can write?

Thanks.

KBaird said:

Are some of the compact flash speeds not needed
because they are faster than the camera can write?

Click to expand...

Even if the card speed is faster than what your camera will write; you'll still see a benefit in reduced card-to-pc transfer times if you use an external USB/Firewire card reader [rather than downloading from the camera body].

The fastest cards give just over 8mb/s. No point in shelling big bucks for the expensive models. As long as it is a true 120x or faster it would be fine (pay attention to the write speed - should be more than 10MB/s because usually the 120x/20MB/s is the listed read speed).

PC Card reader may be a little faster if you have the latest model, but to me I'd rather have 2x th storage in-camera than a little faster PC transfer rate.

Microcenter sells 120x cards in bulk 2GB for $19.95, there are others selling Ritek 150x 4GB for about $50 shipped. I would not pay more than that presently... No idea what $100 costlier card would give you...

KBaird said:

I see the compact flash has speeds of 10,20,30,40 mb/sec.

What is the speed of the D200 camera?

Are some of the compact flash speeds not needed
because they are faster than the camera can write?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

by just over 8mb/s was that this is the speed the D200 can write in-camera. As long as the card can give you that you will be maxing-out the D200 write speed and do not need a faster card in-camera...

Thanks for the replies.

I have a 4 gb sandisk ultraII, I think it writes 9mb/sec.

So it's not slowing the camera?

Thanks.

kocho said:

by just over 8mb/s was that this is the speed the D200 can write
in-camera. As long as the card can give you that you will be
maxing-out the D200 write speed and do not need a faster card
in-camera...

Click to expand...

Right 8.8mb/s..Thats also the speed it will upload the CF from with in the camera. But when you take for example, the new Ultra IV (40mb/s) and use it with its dedicated firewire reader it must be bliss. Tests on that combo show 38mb/s data transfer.

with someone's tests of various CF cards performances in D200. You may try searching for it here or at the D200 forum at Nikonians.org

I forgot the address, but it was interesting to see how some "slow" cards outperformed "faster" cards in the D200.

KBaird said:

Thanks for the replies.

I have a 4 gb sandisk ultraII, I think it writes 9mb/sec.

So it's not slowing the camera?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

http://www.robgalbraith.com

kocho said:

I forgot the address, but it was interesting to see how some "slow"
cards outperformed "faster" cards in the D200.

KBaird said:

Thanks for the replies.

I have a 4 gb sandisk ultraII, I think it writes 9mb/sec.

So it's not slowing the camera?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

If that is correct, I messed up.

Thanks

The D200 has enough of a buffer that unless you never release the shutter you will never notice a write speed problem. I bought 2 2g SanDisk Ultra IIs with the camera. I just bought a San Disk Extreme III (fastest on the Galbraith chart) more for Capture One than the card. at the same time I bought a Kingston Elite, cause it was cheap nominally a 50X. I have several generic cards in my office from a Fuji S1.

Can't tell the difference between the Extreme III and the UltraIIs, Can't tell the difference between the Kingston and the UltraIIs. But if I put he Kingston in right after the Extreme III the camera seems a little slow. Use the generics and you really notice the little green writing light is on alot more. Downloading from a Lacie card reader (pretty generic) the Extreme down loads whole cards the fastest. The one time I filled the Kingston it was over 5 minutes for a 2gb card.

Tom

I agree with Tom. The buffer on the D200 enables more than 20 RAW pictures to be taken before the camera needs to write to the card. Faster CF cards are much less important with this camera.

I share this observation, D200 is really a well designed camera.

However to answer the originator question, lets indeed point to Rob's excellent database, which we all use probably before making purchasing decision for new CF cards.

Here is the direct link to Rob Galbraith's database

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-8197

As you can see the fastest SanDisk Extreme IV has a 33% faster writing speed with the D200 than the SanDisk Extreme II.

Regards
Ole Thorsen
http://www.pbase.com/ole_thorsen

• OMNISCIENCE

Knowing what
thou knowest not
is in a sense
omniscience.
(Grook by Piet Hein)

I have the Sandisk Extreme 2GB cards and I just got the Extreme IV 4GB cards yesterday. I don't notice any difference in write speed from the camera to either card. They're both so much faster than my D100 that I don't care!

Like everybody else has said, if you're using a 10MB card or faster you should be fine.

Now I just need to get my hands on a fast reader for my laptop!