I have a Canon Dig Rebel XT and I am looking to purchase an additional CF card or two. Of course, the Canon manual states that one should use the Canon brand CF cards for best results ... are there any other brands that are just as effective? Also, there are a variety of types in the various brands I have seen - standard, ultra, extreme - and of course the cost increases as the names change!

I would really appreciate some direction in this area as I would like to maximize my dollars without sacrificing too much for quality. THANK YOU!!

I use Lexar and Sandisk, both reputable makes and have various options from ludicrously expensive Lexar Professional 133X down to sensible Sandisk Ultra II.

With your camera you probably won't find much difference in speed between the cards, I expect they will be capable of working faster than your camera can write.

Sandisk Ultra II 1GB around $60
Lexar Pro 133x 1GB about $95

I have a Canon Dig Rebel XT and I am looking to purchase an additional CF card or two. Of course, the Canon manual states that one should use the Canon brand CF cards for best results ... are there any other brands that are just as effective? Also, there are a variety of types in the various brands I have seen - standard, ultra, extreme - and of course the cost increases as the names change!

I would really appreciate some direction in this area as I would like to maximize my dollars without sacrificing too much for quality. THANK YOU!!

I have never even seen a Canon CF card for sale! Any card is fine, just check out the useable speeds at

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007

to make sure you aren't paying more for something your camera can't use.

FWIW, I have had nothing but very bad luck with Lexar products. Two CF cards and two USB memory keys failed quickly. No other product has died that badly and that continuously. There was also a Lexar-Canon incompatability with a few cameras a while back, I'm not sure if it was fixed or not. I would never trust anything to a Lexar product. I have had no problems with SanDisk and Viking.

What cards you use depend on a number of items. 1: how large a card can your camera use? 2: write speed - whats the cameras max write speed 3: do you shoot in extreme cold? say freezing and below? If you don't shoot in the cold you don't need the Extreme version.
and one final thing, what does the camera manufactuere suggest. Per a Canon rep - Kingston


JS

CF cards have speeds???!!!

Yes.
CF cards have speeds.

For the 350D/XT http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-7699

SanDisk Extreme III 1GB ...... 6.263MB/sec
Kingston 512MB .................. 1.293MB/sec

And everything in between.

Since these are actual measurements using the cards and camera in the database, then you know that these cards do provide different speeds in that camera as opposed to manufactuere's claimed 80x, 133x speeds which may be theoretical maximum when used in a D1X or something exotic.

Well, I've got a SanDisk ultra II 512mb. I hope that's a good one lol.

SanDisk Ultra II 512MB ............. 5.750MB/sec

So yes, it's quite a fast one.