Customer Reviews

SanDisk 16GB 60MB/s Extreme Compact Flash Card SDCFX-016G-A61 (US Retail Package)

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I started in 2005 with the Ultra II series and have continually sold & upgraded as my needs dictated. I'm now using a Canon 5D Mark II which has HD video (I think we all know that by now), but the camera also creates a 30mb RAW file every time I snap the shutter. So, write speed is very important. I WAS using the Extreme IV series cards (45mb/sec), and even with the slower 4fps in the 5D2, the camera would hang after a few shots to write the data. Now with these new 16gb Extreme cards I get to hold down the shutter button and record WAY more images before the buffer starts to hold things up. What an improvement! This new series is worth every dollar. Remember, faster cards also give you longer battery life since the data writes faster, so that's another plus to these new Extreme cards. They are UDMA level 5 which is nice (the 5D2 handles up to 6). BTW, UDMA simply means that the card does a lot of the file processing, which gets you faster write speed. Non-UDMA cards make the camera do all the work when writing images to the card. If you have a UDMA-enabled camera, by all means get UDMA-enabled cards.

One last thing to help clear confusion on the card naming format: the 133X and 300X and all that simply means the speed that the card can write data. SanDisk doesn't use that prominently in their marketing, they tend to say "30mb/sec" or "60mb/sec", like that. Lexar uses the ###X format all the time. So when shopping around, keep this in mind:

SanDisk Ultra II: 15mb/sec (the original version) - Lexar calls it 100X (this older model SanDisk is NON-UDMA)
SanDisk Ultra II: 20mb/sec (the updated version) - Lexar calls it 133X (this older model SanDisk is NON-UDMA)
(Thanks Uri for the correction in Comments!)
SanDisk Extreme III: 20mb/sec (the original version) - Lexar calls it 133X (this older model SanDisk is NON-UDMA)
SanDisk Extreme III: 30mb/sec (the updated version) - Lexar calls it 200X (this discontinued model SanDisk is UDMA enabled)
(Thanks David for the correction in Comments!)
SanDisk Extreme IV: 45mb/sec - Lexar calls it 300X (The discontinued SanDisk Ducati line is also 45mb/sec and UDMA enabled)
SanDisk's New Extreme: 60mb/sec - Lexar calls it 400X
SanDisk's New Extreme Pro: 90mb/sec - Lexar calls it 600X

Hope that helps understand all of this!

UPDATE (12-29-2009): I also wanted to mention that I've owned nearly 15 SanDisk CF cards since 2005 and I have never had ONE fail on me. I learned a trick from a pro: after you COPY (not MOVE) your images onto your PC, always format the card IN-CAMERA before you shoot again. Don't use Windows to delete your images off the card. The CF cards get grumpy for some reason (no matter what brand you use). I've shot 20,000 images on four different camera bodies, and never one card failure in four years.

UPDATE (3-30-2011): My two 16GB cards sre still my workhorse memory, use them almost daily, not one failure. This 60mb/sec line of cards is probably the best value for your buck, you get speed, reliability and storage room for not a lot of money (ha, you'd think I work for SanDisk, lol! Just a happy customer.)

UPDATE (7-12-2011): I did it... I splurged for a red/gold SanDisk 32GB Extreme Pro CF memory card - UDMA 90MB/s 600x (SDCFXP-032G-A91, US Retail Package). Wow, the write and copy speeds are even faster, amazing. It's been my main card these past couple months. But honestly, the red/black Extreme cards that are reviewed here are fast enough (even for video) and MUCH more affordable. As always, SanDisk cards are as stable as ever. Again, just make sure you COPY from the card to your computer, never delete images off the card using your PC. Then, format the card IN-CAMERA before each new use, and your cards will work and last a very long time. I know, I already wrote this in my first update, I can't stress it enough!

Okay, so when I recently purchased a new Camera (a Canon 7D, 18 mega-pixel stills + 1080p video camera) and I was convinced I needed the SanDisk Extreme Pro 90mb/s card to take full advantage of the 8 pictures per second burst rate this camera had to offer... then... I started looking at the prices for those cards. *wince*

So, after I'd picked my jaw off the floor, I came across this card. It's still UDMA (where the card does some of the processing, not just the camera, resulting in better speeds), still faster than any of the older Extreme (and Ultra) series cards including the Extreme IV's by a noticeable margin, and my money buys me much more storage space, at significantly lower cost. But... would it be fast 'enough'?

Well, I was still hesitant... but at almost 1/3 the cost (and since having no memory card makes my camera a little useless), I decided to pull the trigger. I dropped it in, fired it up, and put it to the test. I was expecting shutter lag... or the dreaded "busy" light flashing at me when I really let it fly on full speed. Much to my pleasant surprise, this never happened! I was able to rip away at full speed without any issues at all.

If you're thinking about buying a memory card for this camera (or another high-megapixel DSLR) and you want as much memory AND speed as your dollars can afford, with out sacrificing camera performance... this series of card is for you. I, personally, see no reason to require the MUCH more expensive Extreme Pro for use in this camera... well... unless you have money just burning a hole in your pocket. :)

I had been using SanDisk Extreme III (30 MB/s) in my Nikon digital SLR, and while they were reliable and so on, I was never able to get the full high speed frame rate Nikon promises. Instead of the 5-7 frames per second, I was getting more like 2-3.

Switching to the 60MB/s fixed that problem, and now I'm getting the full performance my camera is capable of...at least 5 fps under most conditions.

Interestingly, I also purchased a smaller card capable of 90MB/s, and saw no real difference, so I'm considering the 60MB/s version ideal - nice, since it's much less expensive than the faster cards.

Recommended if you need the best frame rate out of your camera.

Very fast card and Sandisk has always been reliable. This card is the fastest card that I have owned yet. I have had a regular card, an extreme II, and also an extreme III. I needed this card for the high speed burst shots from a 18 megapixel raw camera. Highly recommended. Just make sure you shop for the best deal as they range in price quite a bit and usually are the same thing.

I've done some write benchmarks of this card and others with my Canon 40D. Here are the results:

SanDisk Extreme 60 MB/s 16GB (400X)
17 RAW, 17 seconds to clear

SanDisk Extreme III 30 MB/s 8GB (200X)
18 RAW, 17 seconds to clear

Lexar 133X Pro 1GB
20 RAW, 16 seconds to clear

Kingston Ultimate 133X 4 GB
19 RAW, 21 seconds to clear

Kingston High Speed 1024 MB
18 RAW, 37 seconds to clear

For this circa-2008 DSLR, no card over 133X improves write speeds. No benefit was expected; cameras of this vintage max out at about 12 MB/s. All but two of the current crop of Canon and Nikon DSLRs perform at near full speed with a 200X (30 MB/s) card. These cameras reach 35 MB/s at best, so a 400X (60 MB/s) card offers only slight improvements, if any. Canon's 7D and 1D IV, both capable of 60 MB/s or more, will clear the buffer as much as twice as fast with a 400X card.

The bump from 200X to 400X has no effect on general shooting speed or movie recording. Movie recording at 1080p/30 takes about 5 MB/s or as much as 8 MB/s with custom firmware. Autofocus, turn-on speed, JPEG writes, image review, and so on are almost completely unaffected. The only benefit to the higher rating with a modern camera is reduced buffer clearing time with continuous high-speed raw.

There are, however, speed variances even among cards of equal rating. Size matters. Cards 8 GB and smaller tend to perform somewhat faster in-camera than larger cards of the same family. Brand also matters. Cameras from Canon, Nikon, and Sony perform best with cards from SanDisk and Lexar. Other brands, even if capable of rated speed in a card reader, tend not to rival those two in-camera. Rob Galbraith's CF/SD database, current as of early-2009, is invaluable in determining which cards work best with which cameras.

Card-to-computer transfer rates will be limited by the card reader interface or the camera. Most cameras directly connected to a computer send data at 10-15 MB/s. USB 2.0, the most common card reader interface, caps out at about 30 MB/s. Firewire 800 is about three times as fast and will max out this card, as will USB 3.0 and IDE/SATA converters. As well, all CF cards rated for 30 MB/s or more support UDMA, though this is of no consequence in-camera.

In short, this card is for you if you have a 7D or 1D IV and regularly hit a buffer limit in raw, or you shoot so much with any camera that card-to-computer times slow your workflow. Everyone else can spend less on the 30 MB/s version of same.

No complaint for this high quality CF card. Very satisfied. In the past, I used Kingston 4GB 133X but I was unable to do full-HD video due to the speed (mycamera can process HD-video for only about 5 secs then stop due to the fact - it cannot write the data in buffer memory to the CF card). That's the reason for me to purchase this expensive and speedy CF Card.

Build quality of this card is high, very solid with strong & good feeling on hand. Transfer rate was exceptional if i transfer directly from camera to PCs via USB 2.0 cable (around 15-20Mb/sec). I don't have a "fast enough" CF card reader to work with this CF Card but i will try to find one(that's why currently i do direct transfer between camera & PCs. It will save you a lot of minutes). For 16Gb of data of image, it will take me approx 33 minutes for the old Kingston 133x CF Card to transfer to the PC - while this one takes about 3-4 minutes.

This card is fast enough to keep pace with the Canon 7D in burst mode. We're talking eight .RAW frames per second without slowing down. That's fast and as much as I would want/need in a card. I wouldn't buy this card again though, I'd get the 32Gig. 16 Gb goes by far too quickly when you're shooting HD video :-).

At first I thought this card was busted. I formatted it on my Canon 5D and after the format it only showed 8Gs available. I popped it into a computer- same thing.

Turns out, it's a firmware issue. Canon has fixed the issue in a firmware update. I just installed the 1.1.1 Firmware update, reformatted the card and the 16Gs are back!

I wanted to put this out there in case anyone else fell upon the same issue!

I returned the card after getting intermitten memory errors on my Canon 7D. Reformatting the card didn't help. I have no issue with my Sandisk CompactFlash 8GB cards.

The fastest of my several SanDisk cards. I use it with my Canon 5D Mark II. It is excellent, fast, reliable, and has lots of room. This is especially helpful since the Canon 5D Mark II creates huge files. I am very satisfied and will be ordering another card tonight.