# Canon 7D Memory Card question



## ceejtank

Hey,

I'm upgrading my camera for Xmas to the 7D from my current 10.0 MP Canon T3.

My question is when reading all the sites on it, all of them have it listed as only using CF (the big square memory cards).  Currently my camera uses a SD card.  It's not a big deal one way or the other to me... but it brings up some questions.  Are there 7D's available to use SD cards?

Also I know the 7D is a more advanced model than the T3, so my question is does the CF (compact flash) card offer an advantage over the SD cards?


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## jaomul

Only cf cards for this model according to DP review. CF cards are considered more robust and have the possiblity to be faster and more memory. You can get an adapter to turn your  sd cards into cf cards but probably better to buy original card


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## ceejtank

Awesome. Thanks.  Yeah I have no problem buying CF cards.. I just assumed they weren't as good because they're bulky.. and I had them on my first digital camera when I was 16, so I assumed older technology.

Thanks for the input.


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## j-digg

You will probably end up LOVING CF cards... I remember being disappointed when I had to buy a CF when I got my 7d... I liked my little SD cards, I was used to them... now it's just the opposite.. they seem small and flimsy to me and I dont like having any of the reading bits exposed.

Looks like theyre getting cheaper as well... I think I bought this one for about 91 bucks shipped, about $25 less now: 
Amazon.com: SanDisk 16GB 60MB/s Extreme Compact Flash Card SDCFX-016G-A61 (US Retail Package): Electronics


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## ceejtank

Nice, I'm pretty pumped. Parents are gettting me the camera for xmas/bday (theyre only 20 days apart).. so maybe I'll see if the GF can buy me a second CF card since they are more expensive than my SD cards..


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## dylanstraub

A word to the wise... keep the card in there. I busted three of the pins on my XTI because I wasn't paying attention when I tried to put my cf card back in. The newer SDHC cards (class 10) have a read/write speed of 20mb per second but the CF cards have had that for a while.


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## dakkon76

I'm about to buy a 7D as well and I've been researching CF cards like crazy, so that I can get the longest burst of RAW images possible. From the sound of it, DPReview did a test with a 400x (60mb/sec) card and got a 24 shot burst; I posted this on another thread yesterday. From what I've found, the 600x (90mb/sec) card that Lexar makes is even better. Their 16gb card is $116, and it looks like that will hold about 600 RAW images in the 7D. It's a more expensive card, but if you shoot continuous RAW, then it's money well-spent. I can't imagine adapting your current SD card is going to result in very good data rates.


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## Jethro

If you are getting a 7D, I suggest you get also a FAST CF card - the thing is, the camera is capable of taking 7f/s but, if you have a slow memory card, it will slow down your camera significantly, therefore taking this speed away. Here's what i have: Lexar 16GB Professional UDMA 600x CompactFlash LCF16GCRBNA600


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## j-digg

8 fps even, I can confirm that the 400x card from Sandisk does a pretty damn good job... The other message posts that it is capable of popping off 24 frames in a burst, that is 3 straight seconds..if you plan on shooting that many frames in succession you could probably just switch it up to Jpeg.. or work on your timing a bit 

But hey, if spending a bit more isnt a big deal, than why not get the better card? Faster read speed, and sortve "future proofs" in a sense it for crazy higher MP/FPS bodies that may come.


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## dakkon76

Timing doesn't always help when you're taking pics of someone fly fishing or wakeboarding... kind of difficult to predict how long it's going to take someone to execute the maneuver they're starting.

Jethro, I'm guessing you didn't read my post since you said the exact same thing I did... but since you have that card, can you tell us how many large RAW files you can burst before it slows down?


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## Jethro

Dakkon: I didnt have time to read the whole topic yesterday  so sorry if I said the same thing 

Anyway, I tested the speed now and in fast continual shooting, with slightly moving camera up and down to make it focus, it went for 24 shots, almost all pretty focused, tho some were slightly oof. In one shot mode it was 7 shots, than it slowed down a bit and took a new serie of 7 shots and so on and on. So basically this card allows you to fully use the cameras potential.


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## dakkon76

Thanks Jethro, 24 is good enough for me! I'd guess that the reason it's only doing 7 in single shot mode is because it's losing it's focus point and stopping, rather than having trouble off-loading the buffered images to the card. On my camera at least, if I'm on one-shot mode, the shutter won't release until I've got focus lock.


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## Jethro

Well, the slow down in single shot mode is really barely noticable, I only noticed it because I really paid attention to the shutter and focusing sounds and therefore I managed to hear a little slow down after 7th, 14th,...picture. On continual, I think it can do even more but I've tried it several times and this is an average number that I got


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