D700 buffer filling up too quickly.

[photowerkz]

Attented a trackday today with a lot of cars out at the same time, and I had constant troubles with the buffer filling up on the d700. I'm using sandisk extreme III cards (30mb/sec speed) and shooting 14 bit nef files.

Has anyone got any experience with faster cards or anything else that might help? I've read about people getting their D3 buffer upgraded, is something like this available for the D700? Or is the D3s my only hope?

[eddie_dane]

I shoot with the extreme 4 cards (45mbs) and I haven't had that problem. I shoot in 12 bit NEF though which may have some impact.

[Paradox]

12 bit = 2^12 = 4096
14 bit = 2^14 = 16384

It does indeed have an impact.

[K1W1]

14 bit NEF's is the problem.

Do you really NEED to use 14-bit for cars at a track day?

[eddie_dane]

12 bit = 2^12 = 4096
14 bit = 2^14 = 16384

It does indeed have an impact.

well, there you go. I knew it didn't justify (for my purposes) the difference from a storage size so that totally makes sense.

[photowerkz]

14 bit NEF's is the problem.

Do you really NEED to use 14-bit for cars at a track day?

Yes, I really need that

[Elisha]

Since you are only using a 200x card, maybe it is time to try a 533x or a 600x card so that at least you eliminate one of your bottlenecks if a buffer upgrade is not available for the body!

[photowerkz]

I'll see if I can find someone with a extreme pro card and do a test. But I have a vague recollection of reading somewhere that the camera can't take full advantage of the speed of the card :-/ But it's worth a try. Cheaper than getting a D3S

[Elisha]

According to the specs it is UDMA compatible but no mention of what mode.
Either way it should be able to use at least the 300x cards which are ~45MBps.

[K1W1]

The problem is the cameras ability to process the data and move it out of the buffer no the speed of the card.
I've never heard of anybody shooting 14 bit RAW in a high speed sports situation before but I guess there must be some others out there somewhere.