Customer Reviews

Lexar Professional Series 16 GB 300x UDMA CompactFlash Memory Card CF16GB-300-381

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a photojournalist who bought the Lexar 16 gig UDMA card for my new Canon 5D Mark II. I've had occasion to use the card on a variety of assignments and for spot news during the Stanford Financial meltdown.

The card is perfect, never a hint of bogging down or image corruption no matter how fast I shoot. This is partly due to the camera, of course, but the fast write speed of the Lexar keeps up when shooting those massive 21 megapixel images or high def video. I also appreciate that Lexar lets you download "Image Rescue 3" for free when you buy the card.

Don't waste your money if you are using an older or "prosumer" camera; they probably will perform the same with a card costing half the price. Lexar designed this pricey bad boy for high-end pro cameras.

UPDATE: I notice Lexar has introduced a 600x that will empty the camera buffer twice as fast. (A completely full 5DII buffer will empty in eight seconds with the 300x card; it will empty in four seconds with the 600x card.) If you are shooting action/sports with RAW files, that might be the way to go. Otherwise, this 300x card will handle anything you throw at it.

As in my review of the generally similar Kingston Ultimate 266x card in the 16GB capacity, I use these high-speed cards, as opposed to the 133x class, in order to maintain as much shooting speed as possible without getting halted by buffer fills. This Lexar card serves well, as all Lexars have for me, with never a problem of data corruption or formatting quirks. I gave it four stars instead of five only because it costs so much more than the Kingston Ultimate, though I cannot perceive a performance difference, despite the fact that 300x implies more speed than 266x. No doubt the Lexar product is carrying a "name-recognition fee" due to the loyalty of professional shooters. I *can* say that either one is definitely better than the 133x-class cards in accepting a long burst of shots from my Canon 5D.

I bought this card to use in my Canon 5D Mark II, which requires not only a lot of space to save large images, but also consistently fast write speeds for video.

If like me, you're weighing a name brand card like this Lexar vs. a cheap alternative. After all, other brands are available for less than half the price of this card. However, this price isn't just a brand premium -- this card really performs. With UDMA support (any device that can read/write a CF card will work with this card, but devices that support UDMA will do so faster) in my camera, I see a very big difference between this card and even my older "pro" level CF cards.

Compared to the older pro cards I have with 100x - 133x write speed, this card (rated 300x) really is about 3 times faster. Compared to a few cheap cards that claim to be 100-133x, this card is 6 times faster.

It's too soon for me to give a reliability rating for this card -- but given the card lives up to its claims for speed, I'm willing to bet my images and video on its reliability. And that's exactly what you'll likely be doing too!

I have used Lexar cards for over five years and have never had a failure. I have shoot over 100,000 images and say these cards are bullet proof.

This card has given me fantastic results ... when I am in my car I keep the camera (Nikon D700 ready and set for multiple shots high speed ... have gotten some really good shots just having some one hold the camera and shoot ...

Great transfer speed .. have no complaints

Will be using it extensively over the next 50 some days while traveling from Canada to the Bahams ...

With CF cards it is about price to capacity and write speed. This card is very fast in my D700 (i can fire pretty much continuously without any buffer delays except of course for when I use long shutter speeds and the D700 Noise reduction kicks in) and the price on Amazon was excellent for a 16GB card.

This is certainly the best card I've ever used in the 9 years I've been doing digital photography. I bought this and a Kingston 16GB 133x Compact Flash at basically the same time. The Lexar card never misses a beat on my 5D Mark II. The Kingston (as I expected when I bought it for really really cheap) is quite often too slow to do video. The lexar is lightning fast and when combined with their firewire 800 reader, I couldn't be happier.

In light of my recent upgrade from the old 5D to the new 5D Mark II, I thought I might need a faster card for the larger file sizes, and THIS IS IT! I'd been using an old Transcend 133x card which was fine on my 5D, even though the buffer would fill after 4-5 RAW shots. That didn't seem to bother me much since I mostly shoot nature/landscape and macro.

This card makes me want to shoot action. It seems to write as fast as I can push the shutter. But even with a card reader, the large files take some time to transfer to my computer but that may just be my reader.

It is a pricy card, but I feel like I'm getting my money's worth. Action/movie shooters will appreciate how fast it is.

I have used other brands of CF cards and have been disappointed. But I have never regretted any of the Lexar ones. Yes I used to get Walmart consumer grade 1 GB and 2 GB as they were so cheap and never had a problem with them (these 10 CF cards are still around if I really need them), but I now have 6 8GB UDMA 300X and one of the 16GB UDMA 300X and will never use anything else. Thousands of images with my Canon 5D with never a problem all over the US and in Canada. I love fast downloads with these and an UDMA reader either express card or USB. This combination isway faster than anything else.

This UDMA card has extremely fast transfer rates for my use. I bracket shots on my Canon D5 at full resolution raw and all three shots finish writing in a couple of seconds. And when I transfer from this card to my computer using a firewire 800 card reader, it finishes in a fraction of the time of other cards. It's a lot more expensive than I'm used to paying for CF cards, but in time saved, it's worth it to me.