storage: Exclusive SD/CF + card reader review?

[blazing fire]

Hi all!

Just like to share with you 2 review sites, one which reviews SD/CF + card reader exclusively. However, I cannot ascertain the reliability of the test!

Hope you find it useful!

1. hjreggel
   • Card review site
   • Homepage
2. "The CF/SD Performance Database is back" by Rob Galbraith

[Frog]

SD/CF cards used to be quite a major investment but the prices are quite reasonable now and just about all the brand names work quite well. The high speed ones don't take pics faster, or not so you'd notice, but download faster.
Card readers are so inexpensive that if you get one that doesn't work, just spend a couple of bucks and get another. I have one around somewhere but the readier on my desktop works just fine.

[blazing fire]

The high speed ones don't take pics faster, or not so you'd notice,

True but there are other factors, which some consider significant. I'm not one of those.

• Frame rate - Initial frame rate
• Number of frames - Number of frames in a burst (until buffer full)
• Buffer full rate - Frame rate if shutter release held down after burst (buffer full)
• Next burst - How soon after the burst the buffer has emptied / CF compartment light goes out

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond3x/page13.asp (D3x)
Burst of RAW images (14-bit NEF, FX / Full Frame Mode)

Timing	Time, secs (8 GB SanDisk Extreme IV)	Time, secs (8 GB SanDisk Extreme III)	Time, secs (16 GB Lexar UDMA)
Frame rate	2.0 fps	2.0 fps	2.0 fps
Number of frames	30	22	30
Buffer full rate	1.1 fps	0.8 fps	1.1 fps
Next burst	16.2 secs	29.1 secs	15.8 secs

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond3/page13.asp D3
Burst of RAW images (12-bit NEF, FX / Full Frame Mode)

Timing	Time, secs (4GB SanDisk Extreme IV)	Time, secs (4GB SanDisk Ducati)	Time, secs (8 GB Lexar UDMA)
Frame rate	8.9 fps	8.9 fps	8.9 fps
Number of frames	17	17	17
Buffer full rate	2.1 fps	2.7 fps	2.2 fps
Next burst	8.0 secs	6.0 secs	7.0 secs

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond700/page13.asp (D700)Burst of RAW images (12-bit NEF, with MB-D10 and EN-EL 4a)

Timing	Time, secs (4GB SanDisk Ducati)	Time, secs (2 GB Lexar 133x)
Frame rate	8.1 fps	8.1 fps
Number of frames	16	15
Buffer full rate	2.2 fps	1.2 fps
Next burst	11.0 secs	21.0 secs

Burst of RAW images (12-bit NEF)

Timing	Time, secs (4GB SanDisk Ducati)	Time, secs (2 GB Lexar 133x)
Frame rate	5.0 fps	5.0 fps
Number of frames	19	17
Buffer full rate	2.2 fps	1.1fps
Next burst	11.0 secs	21.0 secs

[Photo-John]

Rob Galbraith is a professional photographer and I trust his testing more than most other sites. Testing memory cards is a pretty straightforward business, though.

[blazing fire]

Rob Galbraith is a professional photographer and I trust his testing more than most other sites. Testing memory cards is a pretty straightforward business, though.

That's a good point.