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CF Cards for IQ180

Bill Caulfeild-Browne

Well-known member
I have been using SanDisk Extreme IV (45mbs) 16 gig cards in my DF/IQ180 with no complaints at all. However, I now need to buy some new cards as I'm taking an 18 day trip without a computer and will simply store images on the cards until I get home.

What recommendations do my fellow Forum members have? Any cards I should avoid? Any that seem to function particularly well?

All advice will be most appreciated,
Bill
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Bill I use Sandisk Extreme Pro 32gb cards . I have also High Speed Transcends also that work too
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
As a contributor the supported card list, I can highly recommend using cards off that Phase One supported/tested card list with the 3.00.19+ version of firmware. The Hoodman 300x 16GB entry is now on the excluded list due to a problem I had using a card that every other manufacturer seems to have no problems with. Use the list and save yourself some grief sometime out on the road.

I'm now also using the SanDisk 90MB/s Extreme Pro 32GB cards with no problems at all. Ditto Lexar Professional 600x 32GB.
 

Kirmo

New member
I have been using Sandisk Extreme 60 MB/s 32 GB as the main card
and some 16 GB as spare ones with no problem.

Tried saving money and bought 2 Kingston cards and had to throw one away
as having problems with it (I used these only with Canon).

Bill, how any cards are you taking?

Kirmo
 

vjbelle

Well-known member
Can't say enough about the Transcend cards. I had one bad one which was replaced quickly by Transcend. I use the 600 speed cards which are plenty fast.

Victor
 

Stefan Steib

Active member
I have tried something else: on Ebay there are these SD -> CF card adapters. I bought a fast SDHC 32 card (133x) these are significantly cheaper and tada: in the Leaf Aptus 12 it works really good, of course slower than a 600x card, but hey if you need to get even larger sizes for these 80 Mpix stuff, I think for a non action shooter this is an alternative ! Price is about half and there are now SDXC versions which are pretty (up to 300x/Sandisk ) fast with 128GB (200 $) . Interesting in this connection: when you use a Camera like the Canon 5D MK3 which offer SD+CF Slot the faster card (mostly the CF) will run only at the SD speed anyway so if you plan to use your cards in your 35mm too, this may be a good way to go.

Regards
Stefan
 

dougpeterson

Workshop Member
I have tried something else: on Ebay there are these SD -> CF card adapters. I bought a fast SDHC 32 card (133x) these are significantly cheaper and tada: in the Leaf Aptus 12 it works really good, of course slower than a 600x card, but hey if you need to get even larger sizes for these 80 Mpix stuff, I think for a non action shooter this is an alternative ! Price is about half and there are now SDXC versions which are pretty (up to 300x/Sandisk ) fast with 128GB (200 $) . Interesting in this connection: when you use a Camera like the Canon 5D MK3 which offer SD+CF Slot the faster card (mostly the CF) will run only at the SD speed anyway so if you plan to use your cards in your 35mm too, this may be a good way to go.
I STRONGLY suggest against using adapters to use other card types in the CF card slot of a Phase One or Leaf back. This method is not (and will not be) in regular testing at Phase One as they revise firmware and should be considered entirely unsupported. Does that mean it won't work or that I'm saying it's not safe - no. In all likelihood it will work great.

But when you're talking about accessories you have two options:
- walk down the same path the manufacturer walks (list of thoroughly tested/vetted cards)
- make your own path into the wilderness

The last thing I'd plow my own path for is CF cards. I do NOT want to think about CF cards. I want them to be invisible. I never want to see a quirk, have a question in the back of my mind, or otherwise have any doubts about my card. I never want to see an error message.

To be clear, the vast vast majority of cards (any brand) will work perfectly for as long as - they are generally a very low failure rate device. I have no well-collected scientifically-vetted data but from experience I'd guess roughly that sticking to what the manufacturer tests lowers your chance of running into a CF card issue from 1% to 0.2%. That is to say for 99% of people there would be no difference. But that doesn't change my recommendation. I fear for the 1%! :)

If you can't afford (or can't justify) the latest, greatest, largest SanDisk or Lexar cards my suggestion would be to find last-generation SanDisk or Lexar cards and/or smaller capacities.
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
To second Doug's message about walking down the same path - with the latest fast buffering fw 3.00.19 I ran in to a problem with corruption of the last image in a shoot whenever the back powered off/on when using 'untested' cards that in theory were part of a family of 'supported' cards but not specifically stated. :mad:

Luckily I only lost a few LCC frames but that wasn't a minor incompatibility in my view, especially as it was destructive. The cards work perfectly with every other camera I have so there's a lesson here, regardless of whether you consider that a Phase One or card manfacturer issue.

I'm now convinced - I now only use cards explicitly ON the list. :facesmack:
 

Bill Caulfeild-Browne

Well-known member
I have been using Sandisk Extreme 60 MB/s 32 GB as the main card
and some 16 GB as spare ones with no problem.

Tried saving money and bought 2 Kingston cards and had to throw one away
as having problems with it (I used these only with Canon).

Bill, how any cards are you taking?

Kirmo
I'm thinking 144 gigs (2 x 32, 4 x 16 and 2 x 8) for 18 days of shooting. And I'll have the M9 as backup.

Bill
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
My livelihood is in these cards. Don't take risks here. I use Sandisk on my Phase only never ran into a issue.
 
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