How big can it go?

[Gollum]

Time to purchase more CF cards for my Canon 350D. What I don't know is what is the maximum capacity card that can be installed. The SanDisk site tells me that 16GB is my max, but some of the third party sites tell me 64GB.

Who do I believe?

[Dan Gamble]

You should be able to trust the advice of the AP sponsors that specialise in storage media. ;)

http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/forumdisplay.php?126-Site-Sponsors-and-Advertising

[PH005]

It all depends on how many shots you think you will take on an outing and how often you will download. I personally would sooner have 3 or 4, 4GB cards than just 1 16GB.

[rwg717]

I'd be a little careful buying anything bigger than 16Gb, some cameras were never designed to accept anything above a certain amount of capacity. I have an old Pentax K100D that won't accept anything greater than 2Gb.:eek:
Richard

[jbee]

Personally I would rather s couple of 8's or four 4's than a 16.
16 is to many eggs in one basket if you should loose the camera or have a fault. It takes only seconds to change a card and is well worth the extra cash buying a few smaller cards. You can fit a he'll of s lot on an 8

[peterking]

When I had mine I used 3 x 4GB and from memory the largest recommended was 8GB. I found it very hard, even on the largest images sizes to fill up one card. The only day I did I took over 400 images.

[ZedEx]

For what it's worth, my 5D (classic) was released at around the same time as the 350D (I remember lusting after the 5D at the time that i purchased my 350D :p).
My max is 8gb. 8gb, at 12mp, in RAW, nets me almost 500 shots which is the maximum that i'd ever want to fit on a card. If I were you, i'ld just buy some sandisk ultra 4gb CF cards, that's all you'll need :)

[rwg717]

Personally I would rather s couple of 8's or four 4's than a 16.
16 is to many eggs in one basket if you should loose the camera or have a fault. It takes only seconds to change a card and is well worth the extra cash buying a few smaller cards. You can fit a he'll of s lot on an 8

Well said, thoroughly agree:th3:
Richard

[Gollum]

And the answer is:

With Firmware version 1.0.2 (the last firmware release was 1.0.3) the camera will see Free Space to 14.9GB (don't know if this is binary or decimal) on a 16GB CF card. The camera will only format to 7.9GB. I have not attempted to see if it will write to the card is see if it will use the full 14.9GB as this would be 1,800 shots, and that’s a very long time to wait.

The last firmware release may have made changes to the format card your limit, but there is nothing in the release notes.

So the answer is possibly 8GB but if you format the CF card on a PC you may be able go higher.

[Bercy]

The only reason to have massively larger cards is if the amount of information generated is much larger, in which case two things become critical, the memory capacity and the write speed. so if you have camera now (or one day) that generates a gargantuan file then it'll need a Tb card to cope with couple of hundred pictures - hypothetically. Of course the sensor will be the size a mouse pad and the camera the size of a Horseman.....I've taken my medication....4x4Gb cards are fine. :D