CF Cards

[Liz22012]

I have been considering picking up a 7D and was wondering if the CF cards will be an issue.  What I mean by this is in time will we not be able to purchase the cards.  Seems like less stores carry them and makes one wonder if the will be phased out.

Any thoughts?

[Skirball]

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@RobertTheFat wrote:

Presumably the reason would have to be that they considered the SD slot to be a gimmicky add-on that serious photographers probably wouldn't use.

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I doubt that.  Dual card slots are anything but gimmicky.  If they considered using SD cards gimmicky then they should have just used dual CF slots; it's too important of a feature to muck up with a 'gimmick'.  That said, I don't think SD cards are near as "non professional" or "non serious" as some people on the internet make them out to be.  Speed is the only fundamental difference in the two technologies, and that gap has closed to a point where it's arguable if it even makes a functional difference.  Everything else is subjective.

[RobertTheFat]

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Skirball wrote:

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RobertTheFat wrote:

Presumably the reason would have to be that they considered the SD slot to be a gimmicky add-on that serious photographers probably wouldn't use.

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I doubt that.  Dual card slots are anything but gimmicky.  If they considered using SD cards gimmicky then they should have just used dual CF slots; it's too important of a feature to muck up with a 'gimmick'.  That said, I don't think SD cards are near as "non professional" or "non serious" as some people on the internet make them out to be.  Speed is the only fundamental difference in the two technologies, and that gap has closed to a point where it's arguable if it even makes a functional difference.  Everything else is subjective.

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The only other reason I can think of is that Canon couldn't stand the cost of a better SD reader. The 5D3 was already coming out at a price point far higher than the user community expected. (I, for example, immediately abandoned any thought of buying one and settled for a second 7D.) Maybe they didn't dare force it any higher.

[Skirball]

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@RobertTheFat wrote:

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@Skirball wrote:

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@RobertTheFat wrote:

Presumably the reason would have to be that they considered the SD slot to be a gimmicky add-on that serious photographers probably wouldn't use.

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I doubt that.  Dual card slots are anything but gimmicky.  If they considered using SD cards gimmicky then they should have just used dual CF slots; it's too important of a feature to muck up with a 'gimmick'.  That said, I don't think SD cards are near as "non professional" or "non serious" as some people on the internet make them out to be.  Speed is the only fundamental difference in the two technologies, and that gap has closed to a point where it's arguable if it even makes a functional difference.  Everything else is subjective.

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The only other reason I can think of is that Canon couldn't stand the cost of a better SD reader. The 5D3 was already coming out at a price point far higher than the user community expected. (I, for example, immediately abandoned any thought of buying one and settled for a second 7D.) Maybe they didn't dare force it any higher.

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That could be.  Also, remember that manufacturers start designing equipment long before it hits the market, and often it's not a simply matter of swapping out a part for a new technology.  Add into that - I don't know how much the slower speed actually affects the average photographer.  Personally I don't fill up my buffer all that often, even on my slow 6D.  Most the people that I would expect to fill the buffer on a regular basis would probably own a faster camera like the 7D series.

[TCampbell]

I have a 5D III.  Most of the time I use the CF card exclusively.  It's faster.

But if I'm traveling and I don't have my computer with me, I will shoot to the SD card so that I can import images into my iPad or laptop.  It's nice to be able to convert formats on-the-fly like that.

I also tend to shoot in RAW pretty much exclusively... but the iPad can't read a Canon RAW.  Fortnately the 5D III has menu options to migrate data between cards and also has a built-in utility to produce JPEGs out of the RAW files (in-camera... so if I shoot RAW and realize I should have shot JPEG for compatibility with the iPad, I can convert after-the-fact by using the in-camera menu.)

[Skirball]

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@TCampbell wrote:

I also tend to shoot in RAW pretty much exclusively... but the iPad can't read a Canon RAW.  Fortnately the 5D III has menu options to migrate data between cards and also has a built-in utility to produce JPEGs out of the RAW files (in-camera... so if I shoot RAW and realize I should have shot JPEG for compatibility with the iPad, I can convert after-the-fact by using the in-camera menu.)

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Isn't there an iPad version of DPP or something that can convert it?  I really hate to move to the Adobe subscription model, but I'm getting tempted, and that iPad version of Lightroom would be quite nice for travel.  Of course, then I'd need an iPad since they don't seem in any hurry to issue a version for Android.

So, are you saying that you can shoot RAW only, and the 5d3 will do the conversion to jpg in-camera?  That's a nice feature, I never feel like dealing with RAW + JPG shooting.

[TCampbell]

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Skirball wrote:

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TCampbell wrote:

I also tend to shoot in RAW pretty much exclusively... but the iPad can't read a Canon RAW.  Fortnately the 5D III has menu options to migrate data between cards and also has a built-in utility to produce JPEGs out of the RAW files (in-camera... so if I shoot RAW and realize I should have shot JPEG for compatibility with the iPad, I can convert after-the-fact by using the in-camera menu.)

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Isn't there an iPad version of DPP or something that can convert it?  I really hate to move to the Adobe subscription model, but I'm getting tempted, and that iPad version of Lightroom would be quite nice for travel.  Of course, then I'd need an iPad since they don't seem in any hurry to issue a version for Android.

So, are you saying that you can shoot RAW only, and the 5d3 will do the conversion to jpg in-camera?  That's a nice feature, I never feel like dealing with RAW + JPG shooting.

To my knowledge there is no iPad version of the Canon utilities or DPP (just the EOS Remote utility which supports WiFi-enabled EOS cameras.)  There may be 3rd party utilities. 

I have PS Touch on my iPad, it supports JPEG, GIF, PNG, and PSD (with the caveat that if you bring in a "layered" PSD they compress all the layers into a single layer and they recommend you save layers off to invididual files if you don't want to do that).  But they don't have RAW support for any camera.

Apple makes two different accessories for iPad... one is an SD card reader, the other is a USB dongle.  Both are designed specifically for cameras (you can't use the USB port for anything else.)  I have used both to transfer images from my cameras and both work well.

The caveat is that if I import RAW images, they'll import and I'll see the embedded JPEG thumbnail that most RAW images have inside... but the image can't be opened because none of the software I have on an iPad can natively support RAW.

When you use the Canon built-in converter (my 5D III has it.. my 5D II does not), you get a screen that lets you configure everything you would normally have used when shooting JPEG... e.g. there's an option to set the white balance, color space, picture style, compression level, etc. etc.  and it'll convert the images.

I'll typically pick the best images and just conver the ones I want rather than trying to do the whole card.

If you knew you were going to do this ahead of time, it'd be faster to put the camera into the dual-card mode... save the RAW files to the CF card and save the JPEG version to the SD card.  That way you could drop the SD card into the iPad's reader and just import the whole thing... knowing that nothing needs converting and it'll read everything on the card.