$68 2gb CF CARD Ultra II

[Scott Brady]

Run, dont walk to your nearest Best Buy. I just picked up (2) two gig CF cards for $68 each. They are on clearance.

Discounted to $88 and then a $20 rebate.

Oh, and they are the faster Ultra II's as well.

[Jonathan Hanson]

Damn! Thanks for the tip, Scott.

[Robthebrit]

Also try fry's, I picked up a 2gb SD card for my 630 elph for a whopping $34.99.

Rob

[Ursidae69]

Tiger Direct has Transcend 2gb compact flash cards with a write speed of 80x on sale for 24.99 each. Plenty fast for my Rebel XT.

[goodtimes]

On the subject of CF cards (now that I am looking for more storage)...

Any thoughts on a single larger capacity cards vs multiple lower capacity cards? Say, a single 8 gig 120x card vs 2 4 gig 120x cards?

I'm working on a archaic computer that doesn't know what USB 2.0 is even after it was hit up-side the motherboard with it...so I'm restricted on the transfer speeds anyway....so some of the cheaper cards are appealing to me despite the lower real-world read speeds. In addition, I am usually shooting single shots, so the write times are rarely a problem (I cannot think of a single time I have ever thought "dammit! this thing is to slow!").

So, is it better to have a single card with alot of storage....fewer things to keep track of, no need to change cards in the field, card is always in the camara where it is less likely to be subject to harsh environments....

Or multiple cards which would cut down data loss if something *did* happen to it....could loan a extra card to a friend if they happen to run out of storage....

I have been seeing them for ~ $10/gig ($80 for a 8 gig 120x, $41 for a 4 gig 120x and $22 for a 2 gig 120x)...so the price would be about the same no matter which route I went.....

[jeffryscott]

put it this way, how much do you need? Do you really need 8 gigs on one card? With my EOS 1D mkII's I can fit somewhere between 150 and 250 photos on a single 1 gig card at the high quality (obviously less with RAW, but I rarely shoot raw). With your camera (Rebel, correct?) you will be able to fit nearly 1,000 pics on a 4 gig card ...

the reason I point this out is flash memory will wear out, it is designed for x-number of write cycles, so unless you are filling the whole card, the 100 to 500 shots you might shoot on a heavy day will only fill up parts of the card while much of the card is not ever being used.

In addition, cards do fail. Not often, but at the worst possible times. Having a second or third card handy is definitely an advantage - so I would say go for a couple of smaller cards.

If you find yourself routinely filling up two 4 gig cards, then buy an 8 gig - but I really can't picture that happening often.

[goodtimes]

With your camera (Rebel, correct?) you will be able to fit nearly 1,000 pics on a 4 gig card ...

I get about 130 per gig in RAW. On a typical day trip, with 4 or 5 vehicles on a interesting (photographically speaking) trail, I take about 100 pics. But I am gearing up for the Trans am trail this summer, where I expect to take anywhere from 500 - 1000 pics over 2 - 2.5 weeks, with no laptop to copy them to...so they all gotta stay on the card(s).

the reason I point this out is flash memory will wear out, it is designed for x-number of write cycles, so unless you are filling the whole card, the 100 to 500 shots you might shoot on a heavy day will only fill up parts of the card while much of the card is not ever being used.

In the back of my mind, I seem to remember reading that somewhere...which is really what brought the question up. Any idea of the number of write cycles before failure? Obviously, there will be no hard and true answer, but are we talking about hundreds of cycles? Thousands? Tens of thousands?


Regardless, I ended up going with multiple 2 gig cards...$21.50/each.

http://www.meritline.com/commemcarfor.html

[whitethaiger]

.... with no laptop to copy them to...so they all gotta stay on the card(s)....

One of those portable notebook drive/card reader combo might be an option too. Here is an example.

Anyone have experience with those? I was thinking about it for trips without laptop.