6 replies to this topic

[dshombert]

I've just purchased a used D700, it's arriving tomorrow.  I know that the camera takes Compact Flash cards, and I saw in the specs that it cannot use "Type 2" CF cards.  Not sure what Type 2 means, I'm only familiar with SD cards.  Anyway, I want to have a card ready when the camera arrives so I went to Wal-Mart and bought the one and only CF card they had, an 8 GB Ultra CF card.  Nowhere on the packaging does it say "Type 1" or "Type 2"  or anything like that. The word "Type" does not appear on the package.  Since I paid over $40 for it, I'd like to be sure it's right before I open it.  So I emailed SanDisk's Customer Service dept., but so far I haven't gotten a coherent answer. The first guy told me yes, it will work, then proceeded to tell me that the camera takes SD cards.  Even I know better than that. I wrote back and tried to clarify it, but no response yet.  I'm hoping someone here can confirm - a card that is packaged as "Ultra Compact Flash" is going to work in a D700?  Thanks in advance.

[Adam]

If it's a sandisk card, it will certainly work

[dcbear78]

What is better, CF or SD?

[Merco_61]

CF Type II were 5 mm thick mechanical MicroDrives and are totally obsolete today. Type I are 3 mm thick, solid state and the D700 can use any version on the market.

 

As to which is better, there doesn't seem to be any difference anymore. Up to ~2011, CF cards were faster and had more capacity but SDHC have caught up. Both interfaces have their weaknesses in that the fingers in the SD slot can lose their "springiness" and both the fingers and the contacts on the card can oxidize while it is possible to bend a contact pin in the CF slot if you are heavy-handed. Neither problem is frequent in normal use.

[yauman]

At the camera shop I work in with an inhouse camera repair facility, we have had NO cameras coming in for SD slot problem but we do get a camera in with CF card slot problem at least once a month.  It's always the same problem - bent pins.  If they are lucky, the tech can just straighten the pin but many times straightening out the pin will cause it to break - so the whole card contact sub-logic board needs to be replaced which required the camera to be dismantle - and that's a $250 repair bill.  

So, if you have CF cards, please be gentle - press the card in at the middle of the card with 1 finger - do not use 2 fingers, one on each corner - you'll end up rocking the card and pushing it in cockeye.  If you feel any resistance while pushing it in, STOP - remove and try again!

 

Not all the pins are in use, so if you bent a pin that is not in or one of the many ground pins, it will still work - we just have to break the pin off to let the card seat properly.  So, do you feel lucky!!!

 

Because of this, CF cards are now used only for high-end "professional" level cameras.  We have an old Nikon CoolPix 5700 (circa 2002?) that use CF Cards - yes a point and shoot.  Fortunately all new non-pro cameras use SD cards which do not rely on the pin and socket type connection. The design of the SD card contact is quite fool proof and is "self-cleaning" ie every time you slide the card in, the contacts are "wiped" to make good contact so do take out and re-insert your SD card frequently.  We had a customer come in with a Canon with a "card error" - checked it in for repair. When we removed the SD card, there was some corrosion where the camera spade-lug makes contact with the SD card contact - very unusual. All we did was remove and reinsert and the camera worked (we did end up cleaning the contacts.)  When the customer picked up the camera (easiest $10 income for the shop) we asked when was the last time she removed or changed cards - her answer: Never! Yep, that card has been in the camera for 5 years - the length of time she had the camera!!! 

From the design logic point of view, the CF card will always be faster than SD cards.  SD cards have come a long way and that's due to the enormous effort by the SD card consortium to make it the standard of the industry. They succeeded in killing the Xmd, the Memory Stick, and many of the other competitors (remember when there were something like 8 different cards?) CF cards are still around because they are bigger and thus potentially can have multiple chips in it so will have high capacity but more importantly the interface is bit-parallel and byte serial - ie each clock cycle of data transfer moves 8-bits of data at a time (parallel transfer) while the SD card is Bit-Serial - ie each clock cycle transfers 1 bit. So, an SD card will have to clock at 8 times the speed to compete with similarly clocked CF card.  Thus, high end stuff still opts for CF cards.  

[TBonz]

Peter is correct on the CF card - I actually have some CF cards that were measured in megabytes vs. gigabytes today and I've never owned a Type II.  I really should try sticking that in my D4 to see what happens !

 

Yauman provided a much better and more detailed response than I would have regarding the difference.  But I will add that in addition to the speed of the CF that is needed on the pro bodies, many pros that I have spoken with have said that SD cards are just not robust enough to last in their world.  The CF cards are bigger and thicker and the pros don't want to worry about accidentally breaking the thin SD cards that might have very valuable photos on them.  With the CF cards, they basically don't have to worry about that issue.  One less thing to think about. 

 

I will be interested to see if the XQD card eventually replaces the CF card.  It seems to have a bit of the best of both the CF and the SD and it is faster than the CF from what I've read and my own basic tests.  Other than the cost of the XQD cards, I'd be perfectly happy to have both slots as XQD.  My gut says Nikon is phasing them in so as not to make the pros trash all their CF cards and give them time to build their stock of XQD cards.  Not that I expect the SD cards to go anywhere, but it wouldn't surprise me if the XQD became the primary card at some point for DSLRs. 

 

Of course, all the card types are a temporary solution anyway.  We will eventually be wirelessly transmitting our images (securely ) in real time to our tablet / phone / computer where we can edit and wirelessly send them off to whomever we want them to go to.

[dshombert]

Thanks for the informative responses.  I did eventually get a coherent response from SanDisk, also.  The camera arrived and everything works great. Thanks to all.