About to get a 350D and have been looking around for a 1Gb compact flash card for it.

What do you all use? I am considering getting a 1Gb SanDisk Ultra II card, which I believe are about 60x?

I found this http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-7699 which rates the Sandisk Ultra II 1Gb card quite highly, above the 80x cards anyway.

Would I be better off getting an 80x or will this not really make any difference?

Thanks for any advice :)

"What do you all use? I am considering getting a 1Gb SanDisk Ultra II card, which I believe are about 60x?"

I'm no expert, but I have two Ultra II cards and they work great, but you really only need the speed if you're shooting big files (ie Raw) on continuous drive - it speeds the transfer from the camera buffer, and also the later down-loading to PC. But we're talking seconds here - vital for some people, while for others (like me probably :) ) the cheapest Kingston should be just fine.

I have recently taken the 'strategic decision' not to buy any more Flash memory and invest in an Epson P2000 portable 40Gb hard-drive instead. (At least, I think I have :) Paul?) The supposition that the Epson is merely a trick toy for superficial photographers is, errm, cynical speculation.

Richard.

Would I be better off getting an 80x or will this not really make any difference?

Save your money, you'll never notice it in a 350D.

e.g. The Sandisk Extreme III is only very marginally faster than the Ultra II but it's significantly more expensive (30%+).

You probably don't need anything as fast as that for the 350D, but who knows what camera you'll have in a couple of years time. However, have a look at this (http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthread.php?t=474345) thread :)

Dunno about Canons, but I bought a chgeap 512MB card for a Minolta, and it balked at it. I just kept getting an "Error" message, and the card got hot.

On contacting Minolta, they told me a list of the cards I could use. I then contacted the company who had sold me the cheapo one, and they swopped it for a better (well, more expensive), one for the extra cost.

Alcazar

For me (d70), Ultra II is slightly faster than the Kingston Pro, which is slightly faster than a standard Lexar 8x.

Non scientific tests and has never got in the way of shooting.

Downloading to PC has a larger difference but if you're waiting a few minutes anyway, what's an extra 30 secs..?

Taken from Daren's (darlodge) thread

"I bought 6 x PQI 512Mb CF cards from ebuyer in May. Used them ever day for 4 weeks during a Mountaineering Expedition in Alaska. Temperatures ranged from 28 deg C midday to -10 deg C during the nights and they worked flawlessly in my Canon Ixus 430.

I'd bought some 256Mb cards the previous year for a trip to Oz and I'd buy them again for any more trips.

Their 1Gb cards are pretty cheap now - http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=13659078929&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=51216
"

Stefan