Need your crystal ball help for CF card purchase

I am / will be in the market for purchasing some CF cards.

Right now Lexar has a deal on the 128gb 1066x: http://www.adorama.com/ILXPCF106128...ate&utm_campaign=Other&utm_source=rflaid41619

I will be in need of these cards at Christmas this coming year (2014).

My question is --- Do I jump on the deal now or do I risk it and wait until I need them and hope the price is the same / better --- or even better yet the price of the 256 gets better and I buy that instead.

I know this requires us to see into the future but I thought the forum could help me make up my mind.

OH - I have settled on the Lexar opposed to any of the other brands.

I want / need the higher capacity so I don't need to fiddle with card changes

I want / need the speed so I can have less issues with buffer

YES I do own a psd (personal storage device) but my next trip will be to Antarctica and I want to have less electronic challenges

What I will use it with:

Canon 1dx -- it has CF slots, 2 of them - I will be purchasing 2 of these cards so the sale price today is nice

thanks

Jam said:

I am / will be in the market for purchasing some CF cards.

Right now Lexar has a deal on the 128gb 1066x: http://www.adorama.com/ILXPCF106128...ate&utm_campaign=Other&utm_source=rflaid41619

I will be in need of these cards at Christmas this coming year (2014).

My question is --- Do I jump on the deal now or do I risk it and wait until I need them and hope the price is the same / better --- or even better yet the price of the 256 gets better and I buy that instead.

I know this requires us to see into the future but I thought the forum could help me make up my mind.

OH - I have settled on the Lexar opposed to any of the other brands.

I want / need the higher capacity so I don't need to fiddle with card changes

I want / need the speed so I can have less issues with buffer

YES I do own a psd (personal storage device) but my next trip will be to Antarctica and I want to have less electronic challenges

What I will use it with:

Canon 1dx -- it has CF slots, 2 of them - I will be purchasing 2 of these cards so the sale price today is nice

thanks

Click to expand...

1. I would wait. Prices always drop and Lexar might even come out with even better cards by Christmas. Also, I always feel a bit uneasy with cards that are pushing the outer limit of capacity and speed.

2. Do you really need such tremendous capacity? I'm a photojournalist shooting two 5D III using Lexar 1000X 16 GB cards and I've never filled them to the point where I need to change cards. RAW+jpeg, except for sports assignments which are jpeg only.

My two cents--enjoy!

Thanks,

couple of responses:

1) Lexar already sells higher capacity cards

2) YES I continue to fill up my 64gb cards regularly and the 128 or higher would be great.

Oh--go for it! Sounds like you already need them.

any other crystal ball owners out there?

Jam said:

any other crystal ball owners out there?

Click to expand...

I don't know where you live, but Best Buy has a sale on nearly every week. You need to check if your store has a selection of CF vs SD cards. I like the SanDisk brand.

The office stores (Office Depot/Staples) can have a selection of older model cards at a higher price. Sometimes you may get lucky at Target or WalMart.

--
I Shoot RAW

What camera are you shooting?

I aren't many cameras that need a CF card that fast, or can even make use of speeds that fast. Even at cards with much slower speeds, your camera will cause the bottle neck. Even when shooting video.

thank you all for your responses --- however it's very sad that very few have actually read the request.

It says:

* I've already picked the brand I'm going to choose

* I have a camera that can use the speed

* I have a need for larger capacity

The question is: do you think this price is the best it will be this year or do you think it will drop in the next 6 months (that's where the crystal ball comes in)

i have been using SanDisk CF cards for a long time and never had an issue. i still use my 2GB an 4GB cf cards from a long time ago from time to time. i hardly ever format them, just delete the file that has the CR files in it (after transferring the files to my HDD in the laptop) and load them back in the camera, no problem, ever ;-)

cheerz.

I have a D800 and as you probably know, the RAW file size is really big. I have always believed in the adage about not keeping all of your eggs in one basket. I have found the 16GB will hold a lot of images and have standardized on this size.

Lexar is one of the finest manufacturers of flash media. They have a great warranty (which I have never had to use) and the card is fast and reliable. If you can get a deal on the cards now, why not. After all, there is no "best by" date on them. I would highly recommend that you go with what your vendor recommends. You should have a countdown display that will let you know how much capacity is left on your card. Since you will be shooting with two cards, you can set them up so that you won't start filling the second card until the first card is filled. The thing is that if you suffer an issue with one of your cards, you won't lose everything. Make sure you take a laptop with you so that you can dump your images every "night". If you have access, you might set the laptop to copy your daily images to your cloud server if you have one or you can get a short term contract with one of the cloud providers.

Since you are visiting a foreign land, I suggest that you use the facilities of Google images and Flickr to help plan your trip. Try to filter so that the days you will be there will be shown. This way you can use those images to plan for what you are going to be shooting during your trip. Make note of the ISO, f/stop, and shutter speed of the images you like. Taking photos in the snow presents challenges the you might not be familiar with. At the beginning of each shooting day, I format my cards in the camera. Never format them on the PC and don't just delete the old images to get space. Even though you are going there during "high summer", it's still pretty cold so make sure your gear is prepared. Battery capacity is really affected by cold. You might want to get an external battery holder that will allow you to put the battery close to your body so if you want to take images during a cold snap, you won't have to worry about the battery fizzing out. You might consider a "rain coat" (ThinkTank makes a good one) to keep blowing snow off of your camera.

Have a great trip and don't forget to get a South Pole marker if you can. Since the ice moves 30' annually, they have to set a new marker every year. The trail or markers might make for an interesting image about the south pole. Also, don't forget to get an ATM receipt from the only ATM at the south pole.

http://www.amazon.com/Lexar-Profess...55&sr=1-16&keywords=lexar+compactflash+memory

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1031507-REG/lexar_lcf16gcrbna10662_16_gb_pro_compact.html

http://www.adorama.com/ILXPCF106162.html

http://www.adorama.com/ILXPCF106282.html

--
Cliff

Jam said:

thank you all for your responses --- however it's very sad that very few have actually read the request.

It says:

* I've already picked the brand I'm going to choose

* I have a camera that can use the speed

* I have a need for larger capacity

The question is: do you think this price is the best it will be this year or do you think it will drop in the next 6 months (that's where the crystal ball comes in)

Click to expand...

Prices could well drop, or some natural disaster could strike that would shut down production at Lexar. I would buy them, try them and set them aside. Price drops can be disconcerting unless you factor in the use you got out of the item before the price dropped.

Pricing is meaningless unless you are on a budget. If you camera costs $3000 and your memory card costs $30, it is false economy to get the cheapest brand. You have to have confidence in your memory card. Of course, it would be best to use the smallest memory card to meet your shooting style so that if one fails, you won't lose all of your images.

Thank you everyone for your answers to my question, your answers have made it very easy for me to determine what to do based on my question.