Buy name-brand, large-capacity memory cards (CF, SD, whatever you camera takes). In the case of the 5D, its 38Mbit video datarate works ou...
Buy name-brand, large-capacity memory cards (CF, SD, whatever you camera takes). In the case of the 5D, its 38Mbit video datarate works out to about 5 megabytes/sec, 4 and Canon recommends cards with a minimum sustained transfer rate of 8MB/sec. The 7D’s data rate is slightly higher, but you still won’t need UDMA cards (which promise 45 MB/s); however, you will still want plenty of datarate headroom and it’s a good idea to buy reliable namebrand cards rather than save a few bucks on generic junk that might ruin a shot (you’respending thousands of dollars on equipment, don’t risk data loss in order to save $30). I purchased Sandisk Extreme III 16GB cards based on the recommendations of others and haven’t had any dropped frames, but I have gotten buffer warnings — so if going with SanDisk cards I would recommend others get the newer, faster, larger version, the SanDisk Extreme 32GB 60MB/s CF cards. However on the forums the consensus top choice is currently the Kingston Elite Pro 32 GB 133x cards, which offer a great price/ performance ratio. On the SD side of things, the Kingston 32 GB Class 4 SDHC cards are very wellreviewed (be sure a Class 4 card will be fast enough for your particular camera; if not, step up to something faster). As for how much storage space you’ll need, it’s a matter of how much shooting you’ll be doing between chances to offload the cards; in the case of the 5D, my 16GB card holds roughly 45 minutes of footage, so calculate accordingly. So far there are no external-storage recording options for DSLR users, but memory cards are fast and cheap; be glad tape is dead.
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