Cold Weather and CF write times - DPChallenge Forums

11/30/2010 06:03:00 AM · #1

Anybody noticed a significant slowdown in write speed under cold temperatures? I was shooting today during a few climbs and it seemed like my buffer was HORRIBLY slow to clear. I normally shoot bracketed shots for this sort of thing because I don't like hanging around with significant exposure, high winds, and my camera outside of my pack, so this isn't the first time I've done this. I was shooting with a Sandisk Extreme IV with UDMA & ESP.
The ambient temperature was 21.5F according to my thermometer, with winds @ 35mph sustained, gusts to 60mph, so I mean it was cold but not THAT cold...
All other controls were normal speed on the camera.
Anybody else run into this?

TrollMan

Fujifilm X-T4

Fujifilm XF 35mm f/1.4

11/30/2010 06:40:47 AM · #2

That is only -6 celcius. We had -2.2F (-19C) here yesterday and I did an outdoor real estate shoot. I used my 5Dm2 and didn't not see any slowdown on anything although I was only outside for about 30 minutes and probably didn't fill the buffer. But I've shot series of shots of snow boarders before at close to 0F without noticing any slowdown.

Could it be that the display that tells you it is writing from the buffer to the card could be slow due to it being cold?

Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

11/30/2010 07:15:39 AM · #3

See, I thought I had shot in colder conditions, but I didn't have a thermometer with me on those trips, so I have no real clue how cold it was to compare. The actual buffer was full, it refused to shoot at one point, which is how I noticed initially. I then sat and waited until the CF write light went off (it's just a little green light independent of the LCD display).

xianart

Canon EOS-7D

11/30/2010 07:19:23 AM · #4

I've shot in -20C with no huge slowing down of my CF card.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

11/30/2010 07:55:21 AM · #5

There should be no reason that a CF card slows down in the cold. We use CF in some aerospace products, and during product reliability testing we take them as low as -70Â°C. Try that with your rotating hard drive!

Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

11/30/2010 07:59:01 AM · #6

Okay, well everybody has pretty much confirmed what I thought. Now I'm just wondering what the deal was then...
When it happened I did a panorama sweep, taking a photo once every 3-4 seconds or so and then a bracketed set of 5 I think?
Maybe my sense of time was skewed due to the conditions and I was overly impatient? Who knows...I guess I'll see if it replicates itself.

xianart

Canon EOS-7D

11/30/2010 08:00:47 AM · #7

Were you shooting RAW or JPEG? If RAW, after enough of high speed shooting, the card just has to slow down to assimilate all the information.