Memory for D300

kbec

I recently bought a d300. I am not interested in video, just taking pictures. I need a memory card for it. The recommended on the Nikon site seem all out of production as they are old and slow models. What do you guys suggest? I have some sd cards, do the adapters work well?, and if so, what type should I get? I think they have CF I and CF II. I am ok with buying a real CF card too, but I am not sure as to what will work based on the new speeds are double to triple what is on the supported list.

Thanks in advance.

PB_PM

Any modern Sandisk or Lexar CF card (4-16GB) should work fine.

Photobug

I used a lot of different CF cards in my D300. As PB_PM staid, any Sandisk or Lexar cards will work, the faster the better. I never had the camera stop because the buffer filled. Avoid the entry level memory cards and go with the middle of line or top of the line cards from Lexar and Sandisck.

haroldp

D300 uses type 1 cf cards, type 2 were the fat ones that had micro disk drives in them.

Sandisk 30 mbs cards are cheap today, and are as fast as the port on the D300 can utilize, faster is a waste of money.

This would be about '200X' in a Lexar card.

Make sure you get them from a seller that buys directly from Sandisk or Lexar, and not a distributor (and nobody on ebay).

There are lots of counterfeits out there and even honest merchants who buy from distributors get caught in the supply chain.

I buy from B & H, Adorama, or Amazon (direct, not marketplace merchants using their site).

I do not recall the D300 as being finicky about flash cards the way some manufacturers (ne Leica ).

It is still a great camera, I see lots of them used still used at weddings. Good luck and good shooting.

Regards .... H

PB_PM

D300 uses type 1 cf cards, type 2 were the fat ones that had micro disk drives in them.

The D300 takes both type 1 and type 2 cards. It was the last Nikon body that could. The D300s does not because they added a SDHC card slot, which meant there was not enough space for the type 2 slot. Regardless you cannot buy type 2 cards anymore anyway.

mbs cards are cheap today, and are as fast as the port on the D300 can utilize, faster is a waste of money.

The D300 may not take advantage of it, but you sure notice a difference in terms of how fast the buffer clears compared to 30MB/s cards. I still have a D300 laying around and it gets more frames in a burst and clears faster with 45MB/s and 60MB/s cards.

Bokeh_Hunter

SD -> CF adapters can work ( I have one that does) but mine, nor any other I have read about does it well. Kind of like an emergency situation. I got mine for an eye-fi card and it worked some times, but many times it didn't. It was never worth the time to figure out why. BTW I have a D300.

CF type 1 or II - This distinction just doesn't exist in current world. New CF cards are all the same and just referred to as CF. Buy Sandisk or Lexar and go for Pro versions. By the look of things, prices of 16gb and 32gb are about the same.

I buy from B & H, Adorama, or Amazon (direct, not marketplace merchants using their site).

+1

Photobug

D300 uses type 1 cf cards, type 2 were the fat ones that had micro disk drives in them.

The D300 may not take advantage of it, but you sure notice a difference in terms of how fast the buffer clears compared to 30MB/s cards. I still have a D300 laying around and it gets more frames in a burst and clears faster with 45MB/s and 60MB/s cards.

I stand pat on my statement about getting the better cards. I just pulled out my CF cards. I had one 133x, two 300x, and one 400x Lexar Pro cards and as you said the buffer clears fast and the transfer to the desktop computer was very fast. Also used a SanDisk Extreme 60MB/s and it was fast. All mine were 4 or 8 GB cards.

haroldp

@Photobug

If you and PB_PM have recently tested, and determined faster buffer clearing with cards faster than 30mbps in D300's, I cannot dispute your conclusions

I tested when I first got my D300 (which I have not had for some time, I am exclusively FX now), which was probably around 2009. It is likely that 30mbps (sandisk extreme) were the fastest cards I had , and were considered very fast at the time.

My memory may also not be perfect, and I am happy to stand corrected.

I currently use Lexar 1066X (160 mbps) CF cards in my D800e and the buffers clear noticeably faster than with a 60mbps card.

Be careful reading flash card specifications, as I have seen vastly different read and write speeds on some cards but not all. The Lexar 1066X is rated 160mbps read and 155 mbs write. The Sandisk 160mbps read is rated 150 mbs write, Identical for any practical purpose, but the Sandisk 120 mbs read is 60 mbs write, the following is copied from the B & H web page.

SanDisk 32 GB Extreme CompactFlash Memory Card
B&H # SAECF32GBQ Mfr # SDCFXS-032G-A46
32GB Storage Capacity
Read Speed up to 120 MB/s
Write Speed up to 60 MB/s


Always read the fine print.

Regards .... H

Photobug

@harold: Totally agree with you about reading the fine print. When I was buying cards it took a lot of digging to get to the read and write speeds for the memory cards. But that is my engineering background showing...and the love for detail. It took a while to understand the difference between the SanDisk Extreme cards. I was always amazed at the memory card name and the huge difference in read & write speeds. You make a great point.

I am not surprised with your experience with the Lexar 1066X and the 60mbps cards.

On a side issue...the number of conversations I have had with photographers that buy cheap memory cards with slow read/write speeds is unbelievable. I found out those that don't shoot BIF or fast moving cars/wildlife never filled their buffers so it was hard getting them to understand why they should spend double the cost for a faster memory card. I had to take the approach about transfer speeds to a HD.

Any way good stuff in your above message.