# sandisk vs ultra II vs extreme III



## DeepSpring

Can someone please tell me how the plain sandisk compact flash card will be any different from the ultra II and the extreme III compact flash?     

This will be for a rebel 350 if it makes a difference. Thank you

oh and what size would be best 1gb to start with?


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## forzaF1

I use a 1GB Extreme 3 with my D200. I really like it. It's very fast. I haven't shot a lot with the ultra 2, and I haven't even touched the standard version. Just go with the Etreme 3 witht he biggest memory you can afford.


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## DeepSpring

Would the extreme III really be much better than the ultra II? I mean i know it is better but that comes with cost. I dont have that much money to spend and dont want to be limited to only 60 pictures on an amazing card when i could get 200 on a pretty good card


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## jemmy

I have a canon350D and use a sandisk ultra2 1gb card - I shoot raw and have just purchased another 2 ultra2s - 1gb & 2gb.  I havent tried the others nor do i know the difference but i have been 100% happy with mine.  I generally get about 180ish raw shots per 1gb or if you are shooting highest quality jpeg - approx 4-500.  hope this helps. x


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## thebeginning

DeepSpring said:
			
		

> Would the extreme III really be much better than the ultra II? I mean i know it is better but that comes with cost. I dont have that much money to spend and dont want to be limited to only 60 pictures on an amazing card when i could get 200 on a pretty good card



don't worry about the extreme III, you won't notice a difference in speed (except for maybe when you're transfering photos to your computer, but only a slight difference) and the ultra II is more than fast enough for your rebel XT.  the ultra II is a very good card.


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## Big Mike

My Ultra II, Extreme and Extreme III cards are all very fast.  Great to use.

I used to think that slower cards were OK because my camera has a good buffer...and when shooting, it's never really a problem.  However, when reviewing...or checking the shot/histogram...I find my other cards are slowing me down.

On another note; I read that Sandisk has new Extreme IV cards which are twice as fast as anything currently avaliable.


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## MommyOf4Boys

I use the regular Sandisk 1GB SD card and the Ultra II cards..the only difference is really during burst shooting.  I do not know about the Extreme 3, but the difference with the Ultra II is that it is faster for burst shooting, which I do not do a lot of.  Other than that, there is no difference is photo quality at all.


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## Big Mike

That's right, the ability to store an image file is the same...no difference in quality.  Speed is the big difference.  I thought that I read somewhere that the Extreme cards were supposed to be more resilient...but just about all cards are very tough.  I read a test where they ran a card over with a car and ran it though the washing machine...with no loss of data.


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## MommyOf4Boys

yep, i dropped my card in a deep puddle of muddy water and it worked fine after I let it dry out for 24 hours.  I do want to add though that there have been many complaints to the Ultra II.  There have been many people who have complained that some are defective..unfortunately, I got one of the defective ones, but it was replaced for free and I have not had a single problem with my new one (knock on wood).


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## DeepSpring

Ok well good stuff guys thanks. I'll get a bigger normal card so I can have more memory for the same price and then a smaller ultra II for the occasional burst mode


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## ravikiran

Guys,
I recently got a Kingstone card, as there are no SanDisk cards available in my town (India). I am likely to purchase another carda and would like a suggestion whether I shall wait for a SanDisk or go with Kingstone.


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## fmw

I did this test just yesterday but with SD cards instead of compact flash.  I couldn't tell the regular Sandisk from the Ultra.  No difference.  The regular was $39 for 2GB after rebate and the Ultra was $60 for 1 GB.  I don't need to tell you which I will be buying.  For Ravi, I also have a couple of Kingston SD cards and they are the same as the Sandisk.

Perhaps life is different with compact flash.  I don't know.  My comments may have no bearing at all on them.


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## ravikiran

Thank you FMW.


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## Alex_B

as far as i know, CF card have a limited life span and die after a certain number of write and erase cycles. that number should be pretty high though. anyway, I wonder if there is also a difference between those cards in that respect.


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## Big Mike

I used to think that the differences between the regular (cheap) and the Ultra or Extreme cards were negligible.  I have a regular Sandisk, an Ultra, a few Extremes and some Kingston cards.  

My camera's buffer can keep up to any burst shooting I will be doing in JPEG...although when shooting RAW it's more limited but still fast enough with any of the cards.  The Extreme cards do seem to clear the buffer faster though

The big difference I notice now is when reviewing the shots.  With the slower cards, it takes just a bit longer for the image to pop up on the LCD (not counting the auto review when the shot is taken).  In a lot of scenarios, this is not a problem...but I have been in situations when I wanted to quickly check the image or the last few shots...and the extra delay became annoying...and even frustrating after a while.  If the price difference is not too great, I will opt for the faster cards...but if not, the cheaper cards are quite usable.


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## Johno

The read/write speed of the Ultra II compared to the Extreme III is too close to call. The reason the extreme III card fetches the higher price is that it can function better in more adverse weather conditions (Super High and Super Low temps.) unless you're planning on taking a trip to the Sahara or to the North pole, Stick with the Ultra II and save yourself some money.


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## thebeginning

Johno said:
			
		

> The read/write speed of the Ultra II compared to the Extreme III is too close to call. The reason the extreme III card fetches the higher price is that it can function better in more adverse weather conditions (Super High and Super Low temps.) unless you're planning on taking a trip to the Sahara or to the North pole, Stick with the Ultra II and save yourself some money.


actually the read/write speed of the extreme III is much faster than the ultra II, it's just that most people dont notice the difference because they never fill their buffers.  ultra II's write at like 9-11 mb/s while the extreme III's write at 20 mb/s.  the new extreme IV's get 40mb/s read and write speeds


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## Silverpenguin

Also, when transfering files from the III series to a computer (using the newer optimised Sandisk card reader) it takes about a second per RAW, which is pretty impressive! When your filling up several 2gig cards in a single shoot its nice to be able to transfer that quickly.


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