Same CF Cards as the XF line?
 

Hi all. I'm going to be shooting with the C300 for the first time next week. I have several Transcend 400x 64GB cards that work perfectly in my XF105. I assumed these cards would work in the C300 as well (since it's recording the same exact same codec) but now I'm reading some people are having problems with those cards.

Can anyone confirm those cards won't work? And why would the C300 be more picky than the XF line about what cards it will use?

Re: Same CF Cards as the XF line?
 

yes......

Jim Martin
Filmtools.com

Re: Same CF Cards as the XF line?
 

Personally I would stick with cards that are on the Canon approved list Canon U.S.A. : Professional Imaging Products : EOS C300
Only 600X Transcend cards & listed & even then with the caveat that they are "not operational when using slow motion modes"

SanDisk Extreme or ExtremePro cards are "fully operational in all modes" so the choice is clear for me.

Re: Same CF Cards as the XF line?
 

I'm using old Transcend 32GB (labelled as x133) cards that I bought many moons ago for my FlashXDR recorder.

Or, I should say I was, until during a recent hire my c300 along with three EF lenses ended up in the river! BTW it's not waterproof:-(

Alan

Re: Same CF Cards as the XF line?
 

The CF cards have to be over 600x speed to handle the XF codec....anything below will choke after about 5 mins of shooting.....for example, we used the Delkin 450x card on a XF305 and it choked at the 5 min mark. So Hoodman, Delkin 685x combats, SanDisk extreme & extreme pro work......

Jim Martin
Filmtools.com

Re: Same CF Cards as the XF line?
 

Go on don't tease us - tell us what happened.

Sounds like a very dramatic story and hopefully one that involved full insurance cover.

And were you able to extract the data from the cards?

Re: Same CF Cards as the XF line?
 

Yeah, that's what the documentation says. I'm just confused why the 400x Transcend cards work fine for hours in the XF105 at 50mbps. Isn't it the exact same codec and bitrate?

I purchased a few Sandisk Extremes just to be 100% safe, but I'll definitely test out the Transcend 400x cards too. I'll be sure to report back with my findings.

Re: Same CF Cards as the XF line?
 

Whatever the specs say, I've had no trouble with the old x133 Transcend cards choking at all. I can fill the cards with a single take.

As to the drowned C300. It was the B camera at a shoot at a castle here in the UK. The user stumbled on a completely unlit path (note here that the sensitivity of the c300 does have some disadvantages as he wouldn't have been there with his A cam, a F750) and fell with the camera and 3 lenses into the moat. His report was 'thank god it was the canon that went into the drink, if it had been the F350 my tapes would have been lost' The Transcend cards were both full and unaffected by the water so he lost no work. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the cards with time!

Re: Same CF Cards as the XF line?
 

PS I've not tried these cards in slow motion modes. Maybe I'll try that as well when the insurance replaces my c300.

Alan

Re: Same CF Cards as the XF line?
 

Thanks for the story Alan. Poor guy and good luck with your insurance claim.

I've not lost an expensive came yet although I've had a tripod run over by a lorry I was filming. I wanted to go handheld and put the tripod out of shot behind the lorry I was filming. As the lorry reversed I heard a weird grating noise and wondered what it was until I saw my vinten tripod with very flat legs.

And I recently had a Go-pro lose suction from the bonnet of my car and go under. It looked great on playback and just required a new plastic lens.

But this is a digression in a thread about cards. I use identical cards in my XF305 and C300. These are 32GB Sandisk Extreme 60mbs. No problems as yet, fingers crossed. I did have a problem with a Transend card but was able to transfer the data in camera. ( 16gb udma 300X)

Re: Same CF Cards as the XF line?
 

UPDATE: I shot about 500 GB of footage with the C300 last week. Most was at 1080/24p 50mbps. Almost all of the footage was shot with the Transcend 400x 64 GB cards, including some long shoots where we recorded meetings that were several hours long. The cards worked ALMOST flawlessly.

I say "almost" because there was one problem. On the last day of shooting, one of the cards simply died. It didn't seem to have a problem recording the data. It just died shortly after I initialized it (initialized for at least the 10th time that week, certainly). I tried formatting the card in a PC, and it still wouldn't work. The same thing happened to another one of these Transcend cards several months ago (not in the C300).

I can't really complain. We bought 6 of these cards in March 2011, and we've shot hundreds of hours of footage with them. We've initialized them in-camera tens or hundreds of times. I'm not sure if that will eventually wear the card out.

Re: Same CF Cards as the XF line?
 

I have been using 6 of these Topram 64gb cards in my C300 all work perfectly bought from ebay link here
TOPRAM 64GB CF 64G CF COMPACTFLASH Extreme Fast CF card 600X | eBay
I cannot believe how cheap they are

Re: Same CF Cards as the XF line?
 

At £63 those cards aren't all that cheap considering they need to be imported from Taiwan & you should pay customs & tax on top. Sandisk Extreme 32GB cards are just £70 from Amazon here in the UK. If you really want cheap no-name 600X CF cards that aren't on the Canon blessed list then these also from Amazon at just £50 are the cheapest that I could find I suppose Duracell aren't strictly no-name but they aren't famed for flash storage. Actually at that price I am tempted to buy a few myself. I have enough Sandisk Extreme 32GB for several days shooting on the C300 but the 5D2 & 5D3 are not fussy about what CF cards are used & if they are really 600X then it will be much quicker dumping them onto the computer.

Re: Same CF Cards as the XF line?
 

Nigel I think maybe you overlooked that they are 64gb not 32gb so twice the capacity also they never charged me any vat or customs duty. They were certainly a lot cheaper than than the 5 Sandisk extreme 32gb cards I bought and work just the same.

Re: Same CF Cards as the XF line?
 

Wow! They really are cheap for 64GB cards.