Lexar Pro 1066x UDMA7 and 5DmarkIII

[cjflet0]

I just purchased two 64gb  Lexar Pro 1066x UDMA7 cards from B and H.  I was a little excited to play with the burst on a 5D mark III to check the buffering lag time. However when I checked the cards, I was unable to format them. I chatted with Lexar and they are having me format the cards using their software.  It is taking 40 mins to complete.  

1. Anyone else having this issue?

2. Is there another way for me to format the card other than using their software?

3. Is anyone avoiding this Lexar card and just going with another company?

Thanks 

Jon

 PS. I have just completed the secure format using the Lexar software and I am still unable to use the card.  It is late now and I will contact their customer service tomorrow by phone. Does anyone have a suggestion?

[ebiggs1]

No. 

But I don't use, and have never used that card. Cards that are over 16B are a bad idea.  I prefer smaller cards and changing them often.  It is much safer.

One thing for sure, you are asking for trouble if you don't use the camera itself to format the card.  It should work, however.

[RobertTheFat]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

No. 

But I don't use, and have never used that card. Cards that are over 16B are a bad idea.  I prefer smaller cards and changing them often.  It is much safer.

One thing for sure, you are asking for trouble if you don't use the camera itself to format the card.  It should work, however.

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I don't think large cards are a bad idea; it's using them unintelligently that's bad. I rather like 32GB cards, because I can usually leave the pictures from several photo shoots on the card until I'm absolutely sure that they've worked their way through a couple of cycles in the backup system and that I didn't accidentally delete, in post-processing, a picture that I should have kept. But I'm very rigorous about getting images off the card and onto a disk drive as soon as possible after a shoot. And since I'm usually using two cameras, I don't have all of my eggs in one basket. (That mattered a lot on one occasion when I stupidly went into a shoot with a new camera and lens without first checking the autofocus microadjustment.) Yeah, I should probably change cards more often than I do anyway, but that isn't really dependent on the size of the card.

[Skirball]

Well that's odd, my whole post got flagged for review.  Wonder if its because I mentioned going to that other Canon website for more information.

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@RobertTheFat wrote:

I don't think large cards are a bad idea; it's using them unintelligently that's bad. I rather like 32GB cards...

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Agreed.  And something I commented on in my first post.  I fully see the point of swapping out cards (and cameras) when event shooting, like weddings.  But that doesn't apply to everyone, and most people that shoot weddings are well aware of that.    I have never, ever, lost data from a card, so I consider the chances of data loss pretty low.    It could be argued that it's just as dangerous to remove a card from your camera mid-shoot; it could be lost, or stolen, or damaged.  Regardless, most the people that come on here looking for advise are casual shooters that just leave the card in their camera anyway.  I understand the draw of using a bigger card.

To the OP:  I searched around a bit and there are several reports of people having trouble with UDMA7 cards, with all the major brands.  Unfortunately it looks sporadic, which makes it tough to identify the source.  Try doing a search, some good information out there. 

Me personally, unless I absolutely needed to shoot large quantities of photos at my cameras fastest FPS, I would not use UDMA7 cards until the issues were resolved.  Reliability of my cards is far more important to me than sustained FPS.  But that depends on what you shoot I suppose.

[ebiggs1]

"I don't think large cards are a bad idea; it's using them unintelligently that's bad."

Bob from Boston,

And that is the difference between a pro vs a hobbists.  I just did Yearbook photos for four different classes.  Each class got about a dozen photos.  Each class is on a differnt CF card.  It would be nuts to use a 64 GB card but I suppose one could do it. But why spend all that extra money for the huge card and not use it?

Hey maybe your way is better but I am too old to change now.    And I am still not going to reccommend anybody use big cards.  It is just too risky when you have to produce.

[MotownJG]

Interesting discussion.  I see the value of smaller cards - forces you to change cards more often during a trip/shoot and insures against a catastrophic loss of all your photos should a card go bad.

I did buy a 64g card after upgrading to a 70d.  I was concerned that there wouldn't be enough room for movies of my new granddaughter (of which there will no doubt be many).

Then there's the reality of not shooting at the largest image size when the most I'd enlarge is 8x10.   That took a long time for a hobbyist like me to realize I didn't need maximum size for my purposes.

But I'm learning. Like I said, good discussion.

[Skirball]

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@MotownJG wrote:

Interesting discussion.  I see the value of smaller cards - forces you to change cards more often during a trip/shoot and insures against a catastrophic loss of all your photos should a card go bad.

I did buy a 64g card after upgrading to a 70d.  I was concerned that there wouldn't be enough room for movies of my new granddaughter (of which there will no doubt be many).

Then there's the reality of not shooting at the largest image size when the most I'd enlarge is 8x10.   That took a long time for a hobbyist like me to realize I didn't need maximum size for my purposes.

But I'm learning. Like I said, good discussion.

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There's always two sides to every story, and usually more.  We're all just coming from our own opinions on this, nobody is right or wrong.

There's always a chance a card goes bad, but from my experience it's extremely rare.  Theft is probably a far more realistic threat than anything else.  While on a trip anyway.  And hobbyists are far greater targets for this than pros.  I always carry a laptop with me when I travel, and I download my photos frequently (and upload them to my website).  One card or a half dozen doesn't matter, I never fill them up.  But I back them up as often as I can.  I back up my computer(s), and I backup my backup (literally).  Redundancy.

Image Size:  Memory is cheap.  64 gigs is a lot of photos.  I recommend shooting as large as your camera can.  You can always shrink it, you can't enlarge it (without compromising quality).  Don't shoot smaller sizes.  Really I recommend shooting RAW and post processing, but I understand that's not for everybody.  But you're missing out on a lot of what you paid so much for with that camera by not shooting RAW.

[MotownJG]

Thanks Skirball. Good advice.

[ebiggs1]

A little further thought on this subject, you bought one of the best cameras in the world.  It doesn't get much better than a 5D Mk III.  WIth today's post processing software availible like Lightroom and others, even the ?DPP?, RAW conversion is seamless.  You indicated you want 8x10's so post is in your work flow.  HD realestate is cheap.

All of this considered, why on earth would you want to shoot in anything but the very best?  Shoot RAW, man, and the biggest file format it can.  Go for the gusto!