Best cards for 5Dii
 

Sorry, I know this is obviously something thats been talked about alot, but I've spent a while looking at other posts and I can't seem to find a definitive answer as to what is the best card to use for the 5d.

My 5d arrives tomorrow and I plan on doing my first wedding with it this weekend. I assumed that it took SD cards, like my 550d, but I realised earlier that is takes CF cards.

So I was just looking for some advice on whether I should use CF cards, or SD cards (using an adapter), and if so, which adapter is best?

And if CF cards are best, which are the best make? Are Transcend OK or is it best to go with Sandisk?

And similarly with SD cards, which are best? Is it ok to use 32GB cards? I've only ever used 16gb (Sandisk) cards, with my 550d, as i remember reading somewhere that it wouldn't be able to cope with a 32gb card... :/

Any help would be much appreciated!!

:)

Re: Best cards for 5Dii
 

I've been using Transcend CF cards exclusively with no issues. I've used 32G cards but stick mostly to 16GBs to minimize impact if I ever did have a complete card failure

Art

Re: Best cards for 5Dii
 

I don't know which ones are best, and didn't even know it was possible to use SD cards via an adapter! But I suspect plugging a CF straight into the camera will cause you less hassle than fiddling with adapters.

What size -- depends how much shooting you do and how you're shooting. I personally use 32gb and wouldn't go larger than that for the reason Art cites. Why 32 and not 16? Well, it feels a lot more comfortable to me. There's plenty of ceremonies that go longer than 45 minutes, and also plenty of speeches-cake-first waltz sequences. So 16 wouldn't be quite enough for me since I shoot these things with DSLRs as main cameras, and as continuous coverage rather than highlights.

32 rather than 16 also means I'm carrying a fewer number of cards. As it is, I've got around 20 CF cards; normally go through about 12 of them in a wedding across four cameras (often switching out cards before they're full), and I like to have plenty spare in case I've got two weddings back to back, or there's some unexpected entertainment at the reception that needs to be filmed in full, or I've lent cards to someone, or whatever. Twenty 32gb cards is a bit mad; 40 16gb cards would be proper mad.

Which brand -- I've only used Sandisk. Big company, limited lifetime warranty, and 628 five-star reviews at B&H have got to count for something. But, to be honest, I've never heard of anyone having problems with any brand.

What speed -- I'm cheap and haven't bought Sandisk Pro cards that go 90mb/s. 60mb/s is fine for me. But it does make a difference to downloading time. And there may be some applications where you need a higher data rate. For instance, if you're shooting 4K on a 1DC... well, you'd probably need higher than 60mb/s (and a lot larger than 16)!

Edit: 12x32gb might sound like a lot, and I'm definitely overshooting a lot, but I usually end up with only 200-250gb of data, including sound, from a 14hr day, since I'm swapping cards out before they're full. Four cameras, not rolling all the time, and two videographers. Hopefully gives you some idea of what amount of data to budget for.

Re: Best cards for 5Dii
 

Thanks for the advice. Got the 5d a couple of weeks ago and decided to go for a couple of Sandisk 32gb 60mb/s.

Done two weddings with this set up now (along with a 550d as bcam with four 16gb cards).

All working out great and loving the 5d!

Re: Best cards for 5Dii
 

You cannot go wrong with (genuine) SanDisk and we have a bunch for using in the XF105 as Can XF & EOS Cinema cameras are only guaranteed to work with specific cards (including the SanDisk). However the 5D isn't picky about CF cards & we still occasionally use the 16GB 133X Transcend cards that we bought when we got the 5D2s. I don't think that you can even buy these anymore but the 400X Transcend cards. The advantage of newer faster cards is that they are quicker to unload as the read speed is faster but the write speed of even the slowest that you can buy is plenty fast enough for the 40Mbps recording rate of the 5D2.

Re: Best cards for 5Dii
 

Genuine Sandisks all the way tbh.

I use the Sandisk ULTRA 16GB cards ... but do own some 32GB Sandisk Extremes.

Re: Best cards for 5Dii
 

I like Hoodman. I've used them for 6 years and have had no issues. They're a little more costly, but worth it for the peace of mind.