Lots of data storage space, quickly - SanDisk 2-Gigabyte Ultra II CompactFlash Card

Having gotten myself the Canon Digital Rebel camera about a year ago and accumulating a few 1-gigabyte memory cards for it, I decided that a larger memory card that would hold enough photos in the camera's RAW format for a weekend long trip would come in handy. I’ve had good experiences with SanDisk in the past and so I decided that I’d go for the Ultra II 2-gigabyte CompactFlash memory card.

It offers double the space of my original 1-gigabyte card and has quicker read and write speeds for the data than a standard CompactFlash card, which is important when dealing with the large file sizes that my camera produces.

And at least for me, when you’re dealing with large file sizes, the quicker the better since no one wants to be standing there waiting for their camera to write the last picture while your next photo gets away.

Ultra II 2-Gigabyte Basics

Holding 2-gigabytes, this Ultra II card can hold a whole lot of data in a small and compact form.

In terms of storage capacity for your device though, it really all depends on what you are using the card for and how big the files you are storing on the card are.

With digital cameras, it all depends on your camera and the resolution that you are saving your pictures at. The total number of images you can save on your memory card changes based on the resolution and file format you are saving each image in. The highest resolution cameras pack a lot data into each photograph, while cameras with less resolution take pictures that are significantly. In addition you can generally take photos of varying resolutions with the same camera – so some photos may take up lots of space while others won’t. Not only that, but you can also change the format of your photo on some cameras, with options to save in a compressed jpg format, an uncompressed TIFF format and sometimes a completely uncompressed RAW format.

For me and my 6.3 megapixel Digital Rebel, two gigabytes of space on my memory card will hold about 300 of the highest-resolution JPEG images. If I am shooting in the RAW mode on the Rebel, I can take about 120 to 140 photos on this memory card.

If I took this card and put it into the 3.2 megapixel camera that I also have, I could store literally thousands of photographs since the resolution and total image size is significantly smaller than that of the Rebel.

SanDisk claims that this card offers a 9-megabyte per second write speed. In my completely unofficial comparison to an older standard CompactFlash card that I have, the data does write to this card significantly faster than a standard CompactFlash card. I’d estimate that it’s somewhere around half the time to write the data, if not even faster than that.

That’s why I think once you’ve gotten yourself one of these accelerated cards, you’ll never go back to a standard CompactFlash card. Especially with my Rebel, the difference between the write speeds is very noticeable and can really make the difference between almost continually shooting to having to wait while the data writes to the memory card. Plus if you go back to a standard card after using this one – the lag time on the writing will seem to be even longer and more unacceptable.

When you want to get the data off of your card and on your computer, the rated speed for the card is 10 megabytes per second, but it’s really based on the speed of the card, the speed of the connection you are using to download the data to your computer, and the speed of your computer.

If you are using an old USB connection (pre 2.0), you might as well go and brew a cup of coffee, drink it and make breakfast while you are waiting for the download because to move 2 gigabytes worth of data is going to take a very long time at that speed.

If you’re using a high-speed USB connection, then the data will still take time to get off the card just because of the massive amount of data, but it does move along quite quickly.

Other Details

CompactFlash cards are small and easy to carry (thought not as small as some of the newer flash memory formats). The card is around two inches wide and just under that high and weighs almost nothing. They are not quite as small as some other memory cards, but it’s easy to pack them and carry them.

While you can’t throw them around or step on them, in general CompactFlash cards can take normal use without any noticeable problems. They are not waterproof and shouldn’t be exposed to temperature extremes.

SanDisk does offer a limited lifetime warranty on these cards should the card fail. However this doesn’t cover damage to the card that is inflicted by the user, so you do need to be careful with the card.

Experiences

If you are working with the larger file sizes that are common with today’s higher resolution digital cameras, and you have a camera that takes CompactFlash memory cards, you should consider getting yourself one of these cards.

For me, the SanDisk Ultra II 2-Gigabyte CompactFlash memory card gives me quite a few bonuses over standard CompactFlash memory cards that make it worth the slight price premium.

Final Thoughts

Until I got myself the Digital Rebel, which at 6.3 megapixels, produces some really big images, I never really saw the need for ultra fast memory cards. But once I got the Rebel and started producing these big image files, the necessity of fast write speeds became readily apparent.

When it came to cameras with lower resolutions, the speed difference isn’t that great because the numbers are so small, but now that I am dealing with very large files, the increased speed of the Ultra II card makes the entire experience much better and makes taking pictures much easier.

For me, it comes down to the fact that I don’t want to be waiting for my memory card when there’s another photo opportunity coming up.

I’d recommend the SanDisk Ultra II 2-gigabyte CompactFlash card to anyone who needs plenty of storage space for their photos and also wants a quick read and write speed for data on the card.