Hi There

I have just seen a good special on Sandisk Ultra II 60x Compact Flash Cards. Both the 2GB and 4GB are on special. I currently have a 2GB Sandisk Extreme III 133x card. So my question is would there be any significant disadvantage to getting a lesser speed card. If so, in what areas?

Also, can someone recommend a card reader?

BTW my cam is a Canon 30D

Thanks in advance

Noeline

It only affects the read and write speeds, personally i try to go for the fastest i can afford but at the studio i work at we use Ultra II as shooting any faster than the buffer can write (even with a 30D and it's buffer - we use a 5d normally) will get bad shots because you dont give the flash heads time to reload.  You have to think what type of photography you are doing... i once did a test between extreme III and the ultra II (on my 30d) and the results are only noticeable when you do bursts and even then it is fairly minor like being able to take a 9 shot burst instead of an 8 shot (but that 9th shot could be the winner ).  So if you normally take your time over shots and arent trying to get a load of fast action shots then ultraII is fine i think. 

The other area is uploading the shots to your computer after the day is done and how fast the transfer is - for that i would probably recommend getting the sandisk reader... i have a packard bell one which is just bog standard and i dont see any reason to "upgrade" it does it's job and i am not pressed for time when uploading...

I've got my eye on a 4gb ex IV ... just because ;)

I see that KiwiMiss was wondering if,

someone [can] recommend a card reader?

On geeks.com, follow "Flash Memory / Card Readers" -> "Card Readers"
and you'll get to "Memory Card Readers" ... you probably want the $5.99 
 All-in-One USB 2.0 Card Reader ... but you should check that whole area. 

KiwiMiss also was curious about what effect the speed difference between
a 60X and a 133X would have on creativity ...

IMO, this would be more noticable if you shoot a lot of burst mode, or if you
shoot images in RAW mode.  Why not find out how fast your camera saves
an image on your current 133X CF ... i.e. as you take a picture, count the
seconds (one thousand one, one thousand two, ..) until the disk write indicator
stops flashing ... a 60X CF would take 2X time as the 133X. 

OTOH, doubtless others will have additional opinions. 

--
Martin

This site is a bit dated now....but shows a CF comparison database...select your camera model, in your case 30D, from the pulldown on the top right...it then takes you to the card performance tests for that cam.

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

Agree with folks here...unless you are shooting bursts...don't bother spending the extra bucks for the Sandisk "Ducati"...
You will notice some performance boost in reading the card in your PC  card reader though.

Martin is also correct regarding cam write speed........but many cams aren't even capable of writing as fast as the cards capability.  The newer, high end DSLR's can and will require faster CF cards to keep up in burst mode.

I'm still using the Ultra II's in sizes from 512 to 4GB...In both my D70 and D300.
The 2 and 4GB are available for a song now....I picked up some 2GB Ultra II's for $19 and some 4GB for $39 recently...I suspect they are even less now.  For interest...the first Ultra II 512Mb I bought several years ago cost me $90!
BTW, beware of purchasing these cards on "auction" sites....many fakes around....

I just picked up a 4gig ultra II, I do very little burst shooting and have the cards to handle that when I do.

Thanks all

Think I'll get some while on special then. It's from a well known NZ company and where I've got all my cam gear from to date, so there should be no problems :D

I use a 4gb Ultra II CF card,  I don't have any problems with it.