Compact flash cards HELP!

For the past few years I've been using my canon 400d camera with kit 18-55mm lens quite alot, but now I've recently upgraded to a canon 5D which I managed to buy second hand in immaculate condition with 400 shots on the counter for £800 which I thought was pretty good!.
However with my old camera my scandisk ultra 2 4gb card used to last me all afternoon shooting in raw but now as the new camera is that much more powerfull i find it lasts only about an hour before the card is full.

Which is the best card to get? Scandisk have so many on the market with ultra, extreme 2 and 3 models available. Whats the difference between them?. Would a lesser and cheaper known brand effect the quality of my shots?.

I'm off to Africa on Safari in a month for my honeymoon and I'm worried about running out of card space and missing that once in a lifetime shot.

Could someone please steer me in the right direction?.

All the best
Mal

[matt wilson]

I use scan disk all the way ultra and should be fine .I would advise getting more smaller cards I use 4 gig ones .just in case one ends up developing a fault.(if you think about not that long ago Ultra was the best card to have it's almost got to the stage that cards are theoretically faster than a camera could possibly write the data to them anyway)

If travelling one way around the problem is a laptop to store images on .or even storing via email.

Thanks for that. I think I'll just buy a few 4 gig ones as I dont fancy taking my mac laptop to Africa as its another thing to carry about and forget, knowing me!

[hssutton]

I've been using compactflash in my Canons for 10 years and never had one go "belly up" I usally take a number of 4gb and 8gb cards when on safari. More important than what size cards is, what size lens are you taking?

I usually take the following on safari 70-200 and 100-400, in the past I've also taken the 24-70 almost permanently attached to the 5D. This time I'll just be taking a 30D and 7D, so instead of the 24-70 I will take the 17-55 f/2.8.

Another point to bear in mind is which "Park" you'll be visiting. On the Masi the big cats will come within touching distance and such as the 100-400mm is to long, whereas on the Tsarvo the 100-400 is often to short.

Everything is a compromise when on safari unless you take a full range of equipment, but the three lenses I've listed should suffice, obviously the 17-55 will not work on the 5D. Just as a point of interest I use mainly Kingston compactflash, with the 4 & 8Gb cards being rated at 133X.

Have a great time.

Harry

[nickanderson]

Originally Posted by hssutton

...........On the Masi the big cats will come within touching distance

Harry

Er... I think this is the main point and the kit you need is trainers and a really big stick

Sandisk exsteme 3s are good. I use 8gis with my D300 and get 300 raws (no pun intended) per card.