The Fastest SD & CF Cards for the Canon 5D Mark III
This is a part of our SD/CF/XQD Database.
The data in the table below tracks the time (in seconds) it took to write 20 RAW and 20 Fine Large JPG to the memory card. Timing commenced when the camera’s card status light illuminated, and stopped when the light went out. Each test cycle was performed three times, and the average is presented. Lower numbers are better.
The figure in the Burst column represents how many RAW photos the camera and card take in 30 seconds. Higher numbers are better.
Prior to each test, all cards were formatted within the camera. The same scene was photographed under the same illumination for all tests. The identical camera settings and lens were used throughout.
Compact Flash | Type | RAW | JPG | Burst |
CF | 8.63 | 4.30 | 69 | |
CF | 6.67 | 4.14 | 78 | |
CF | 6.01 | 4.13 | 83 | |
CF | 6.16 | 4.22 | 83 | |
CF | 13.31 | 4.48 | 43 | |
CF | 10.31 | 4.19 | 59 | |
CF | 8.03 | 4.03 | 70 | |
CF | 6.88 | 4.10 | 72 | |
CF | 6.34 | 4.03 | 82 | |
CF | 6.03 | 4.06 | 82 | |
| SD | Type | RAW | JPG | Burst |
SD | 26.21 | 5.72 | 26 | |
SD | 26.47 | 5.85 | 26 | |
SD | 26.05 | 5.72 | 26 | |
SD | 26.00 | 5.64 | 26 | |
SD | 25.94 | 5.77 | 26 | |
SD | 29.34 | 6.63 | 24 | |
SD | 27.31 | 6.22 | 25 | |
SD | 27.86 | 6.27 | 25 | |
SD | 29.18 | 6.39 | 24 | |
SD | 27.06 | 6.12 | 25 | |
SD | 29.49 | 6.88 | 24 | |
SD | 29.41 | 6.91 | 23 |
Yes, it’s really great for the Photographer! I also see this site review related to the memory cards: http://top10perfect.com/top-10-best-smartphone-memory-cards/
That’s awesome thanks… and explains a lot… My camera, a Sony, was choking shooting raw+jpg… now I know why… probably the JPG conversion…
who knew such a thing.
Apparently if you’re writing to the SD and CF cards simultaneously it will slow down since the slot speed for the SD is slower (133x possibly) than the CF slot (even with a faster SD card, it won’t get much faster), it will go as fast as the SD will allow slowing down the shared buffer and slowing the CF card as well in a way.
So if you care about burst speed (like for action / sports photography) it might be better to just use a fast CF card and keep an SD in for extra space if you run out on the CF…
It is possible it might not slow down as much if you can put JPG on the SD and raw on the CF maybe, or just JPG on both. I haven’t tested that yet myself though.
I have used these card for my NIkon D5200 and worked well.
I appreciate the test especially since I will be buying new Nikon D850 and Z7 cameras in the next few weeks, I’ll ask that I get to test the cards before walking out the store.