Fast SD card?

[kellymdempewolf]

I have a canon t2i and I shoot a lot of continuous shoot because I mainly shoot kids and I never know what facial expression I'll catch a fraction of a second after I take the first shot. But when I shoot in RAW (which is what I prefer to do), it bogs down after a few shots and then I miss one that I would've gotten if I was shooting in JPEG.

I read somewhere that there were SD cards that process faster (not hold more but process faster). Anybody know which ones are like that or if that will help me catch more continuous shots in RAW?

Thanks!

Kelly

[Goldcoastgolfer]

I'm running San Disk Extreme Class 10 30 Mb/s cards in my camera. I've fired off 10 continous shots at a rate of 6 fps without any issue. You can get faster ones but they get exponentially expensive.

[shreds]

Yes they do get expensive, unless you can justify the expense.

I currently run with 90Mb/s Sandisk CF cards and I think their latest is now 100Mb/s, but the difference starts to become marginal. However there is a very noticeable difference with the difference between 30s and 90s, if shooting continuous subjects, as the write function just causes the buffer to back up on the slower cards.

I therefore have a stock of older slower cards unfortunately that see little use!

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Yes they do get expensive, unless you can justify the expense.

I currently run with 90Mb/s Sandisk CF cards and I think their latest is now 100Mb/s, but the difference starts to become marginal. However there is a very noticeable difference with the difference between 30s and 90s, if shooting continuous subjects, as the write function just causes the buffer to back up on the slower cards.

I therefore have a stock of older slower cards unfortunately that see little use!

Yep - just checked and Sandisk also have SD cards that now go up to 95Mb/s the Extreme Pro cards. They're also triple the price of the Extreme cards from the looks of things.

[kellymdempewolf]

Thanks everyone! I will definitely be getting a new SD card tomorrow...I was just out with my husband and kids playing in the park and kept getting the buffer backed up and missed some shots so I switched to JPEG...AGAIN! Definitely an issue if I'm going to be focusing on children photography!

[herbert]

Hi Kelly,

A quick check of the camera specs show that the T2i has a camera buffer for 6 raw photos or 34 JPEG photos. You may be hitting the 6 frame buffer with your continuous shooting. The camera only shoots at 3.7 frames/second so you will be shooting for about 1.5 seconds and then you will hit a slow down according to Canon.

For a more practical field test example I take a quote from the camera review on The Digital Picture:

'To test burst rate, I shoot in M mode (wide open aperture, 1/4000 shutter speed), ISO 100, MF, IS off, lens cap on, and all noise reduction off. I clocked 8 shots in 2.192 seconds for a measured 3.65 fps rate followed by 1 frame every 1.05 seconds or so.'

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/R...ra-Review.aspx

So you can certainly exceed the 6 frame buffer but not by much.

When the camera takes a picture it writes the image to super-fast memory built into the camera (the buffer). This is then copied to your memory card at a slower rate. Unfortunately the in camera memory is expensive and so they do not put much in. This is why you have a specified limit of 6 photos. That is probably a conservative limit, i.e. the camera will always perform at least at this level.

Given the real-world example above it seems that the camera can write to the buffer and simultaneously read it off and write to the memory card (so clearing the buffer). I would certainly hope so given this is a fundamental feature. If so then a faster SD card will certainly help as your camera will clear the buffer faster and you may get an extra frame or two.

However I think that a faster card will not get you a massive improvement. If you want to shoot for ten seconds continuously then you will have to stick to JPEG.

Let us know if you have any success.

Regards,

Alex

[Harpo]

Yeah Kelly… Alex is right. I have the T2i and have experienced the limited buffer. For something faster you probably need a camera body upgrade to the 7D.

[kellymdempewolf]

Just to update...

I had the "standard" Sandisk SD card and after 6 shots with RAW in burst mode it would fill up the buffer and I'd have to wait 30sec - 1 min for it to be free again (it wouldn't even take a shot in the meantime).

I got an "Extreme" Sandisk SD card and now I can do the 6 shots with RAW and the buffer fills up, but it will continue to do about 1 shot/sec after that...a big improvement over having your camera inoperable for 30 sec - 1 min.

So for those that are having a problem, yes, a better camera would cure the problem, but a faster SD card will help in the meantime!

Thanks for all the tips!