SD card adapters for DSLR

[The Gaffer]

Hi folks,

For several reasons I want to use SD cards in a DSLR camera which is built for Compact Flash cards.

Do any of you have any experience / advice on using an adaptor card to allow the SD card to be used in this way?

Any problems or makes / types to avoid?

I have seen some which can use 2 SD or Mini SD cards at once, do they allow one card to be removed for downloading while using the camera with the second?

All advice gratefully received

Thank you

Alastair

[smudge]

Positive points:

I used a 4th-generation one in my old 5D and with a Class 10+ SD card it was much faster than the 20 MB / s CF cards I had at the time.  It would have been even faster had the 5D supported UDMA.

Negative points:

Most ( all? ) of the adapters are Type-II CF form factor, the extra-thick double-layer style, so ensure your camera can accommodate that.  I haven't encountered the double-SD card ones but they must be packed *really* tightly.

The way they are designed you can't just pop-out the SD card, you have to remove the adapter first.  I found mine to be a tight fit and I was always mildly worried that I'd break the ejection spring in the camera with the force I had to apply to the ejection button!  I've also heard of some people damaging their camera by forcing the adapter in too hard, but I would say that's mainly user-error.

Some CF card readers don't work with the adapter, so just eject the SD card and put that in the reader.

Few SD cards will be able to keep-up with the new 1000x+ CF pro cards, but if you're not committing long sequences of shots then this might not be a problem.



PM me your real-world address if you to test the one I have.

[Angry Turnip]

Good advice there from Smudge,I have heard mainly bad things about those adapters,such as they,get stuck or the SD`s get jammed and can be very fiddly to remove.
That was one of the niggly problems (in my opinion)with Canon DSLR`s,that often when you wanted to upgrade your camera a newer model,it used a differnet storage system,they seemed to alternate between SD and CF cards,which is a bit of a pain if you have to replace the cards.
Other camera manufactures doubtless do likewise.