Review: 64GB microSDXC card in 1DsIII (apparent success)

[Peter Galbavy]

(As per identical dpreview posting)

I bought myself a 64GB micro SDXC (Sandisk Ultra Mobile Class 10 / UHS-1) primarily for my tablet but thought I would give it a spin in my 1DsIII. As I expected the camera doesn't know about exFAT and the built-in formatter can't cope.

However, formatting it as FAT32 using http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/ind...at32format.htm makes the card visible to the camera and the Format menu option can see the card but refuses to format and if you try you then need to power-cycle the camera to see the card again after the error. FYI The Format option reported 59.4GB size, matching the Windows reported size.

The camera showed 1,999 shots available in my normal RAW+Small (Q2) JPEG but dropped to a real number around 1,845 with RAW+Large (Q8) ISO200. I took about 70 shots before getting bored to make sure the files were reliably written and visible on my laptop in the SD slot and they were but I have not got anywhere filling the card up or passing anything like a potential 32GB barrier.

So, even if I bought it for movies and music, I am going to give it a try in the camera and carry a couple of my usual 32GB Lexar microSDHC cards "just in case" while having a 128GB Delkin, that I also just bought, in the CF slot which is going to have all the same shots on anyway again "just in case".

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Peter,

What's the special need or value of the MicroSDXC compared to SD cards for the 1DX. I don't have one of these cameras so it's not a question for me yet. However, I am thinking of getting a tablet. I presume it's not an iPad you have. What I'd like to know is how to easily get real lightweight storage for an iPad!

Asher

[Jerome Marot]

Originally Posted by Asher Kelman

What's the special need or value of the MicroSDXC compared to SD cards for the 1DX.

None, except the size. There is no difference for the camera between the 3 sizes of SD cards.

[Peter Galbavy]

As I said the "micro" part was intended for my Asus Transformer Prime but I have been using micro SDHC (i.e. FAT32 up to 32GB) in adaptors for a while now. It allows me to pull the tiny card and put it into my tablet to review / upload images without needing the full sized SD slot in the keyboard dock. Also, I can keep up to 8 of these tiny tiny cards in a credit card sized storage thing in my wallet.

As the 1DX has dual CF slots I think the focus there is on speed and CF with UDMA is always going to be faster than the current industry standards for available SD and related cards - there is an SDIO 3.0 standard that allows for very high speed access but it's still new and only just matches fast CF cards anyway.