C300: c300 mark II and Lexar x3500 256G

krick

krick

Well-known member
Hi there!,

There was a time when canon was recommending lexar x3500 cfast 2 cards on their website for using the c300 mark ii.

Looks like that recommendation is gone, and lexar x3500 cards are not part of the certified card anymore. Any idea what happened there?

Do you guys use the x3500 in the c300mark ii, a few reviews of corrupt clips and cards are making me a little nervous....

Any thoughts?

Thank you!
 
Lexar was bought out by a Chinese company after-which it is unclear of what the quality of the new cards coming out are, is my understanding. That may have had an effect on the approval.

I've been using 3500x cards. Had one shoot where the client took a card, put it in their (stupid) Mac, and it wouldn't recognize the card. I was dual recording (why on earth would anyone not triple (+ proxy) record on these cameras?!) so I then took the second card, copied it to my (PC!) computer, and later to theirs, with no issues. Other than that, I've had buffer issues on about three occasions; it would stop recording mid-take and say it was buffering, sometimes corrupting the current clip. Canon, Lexar, and Sandisk all recommend using the "Format and Refresh" software tool on the memory cards to avoid buffer issues, so since I've been using that, I haven't had buffer issues.

The Lexar 3600x cards haven't had any issues in my Amira, and while they were never officially approved for the C300s, I started using them as the backup recording on the C300s and haven't had any issues. On the flipside, the Arri camera won't even accept recording on the 3500x. I recently got a couple Sandisk 256 as well and haven't had issues, but haven't been using them as long.

Going forward if I need to buy more CFast I'll be sticking with Sandisk primarily because they work and are approved for with both the Amira and C300.
 
Last edited:
krick said:
Hi there!,

There was a time when canon was recommending lexar x3500 cfast 2 cards on their website for using the c300 mark ii.

Looks like that recommendation is gone, and lexar x3500 cards are not part of the certified card anymore. Any idea what happened there?

Do you guys use the x3500 in the c300mark ii, a few reviews of corrupt clips and cards are making me a little nervous....

Any thoughts?

Thank you!
Click to expand...

Or you can just try the EgoDisk inexpensive cards. I just shot a documentary for the past year using their 256GB cards in the C200 and C300 MKII with nary a whimper, worked great. The Sandisks are obviously good cards but are they worth double the cost of the EgoDisks? Up to you but for me, no, the proof has been in the pudding.
 
I've discovered two issues while shooting on Transcend cards that may be universal to other cards. On the CFX650 cards, I would end up with corrupted video files even when I never encountered a buffer issue. It was almost like the camera was unable to properly finalize the file after recording was stopped. On the CFX600 cards (slower and cheaper) I will sometimes get buffer issues and the card would stop recording. Luckily, I always have the backup and the files can be repaired using the camera. Doing regular formats of the CFX600 cards using the mac utility high security erase feature helps with reducing buffer issues. In any case, I stopped using the CFX 650 cards due to the weird corruption issue. It seems that the C300 can have problems with cards that has nothing to do with the speed of the card.
 
cpreston said:
I've discovered two issues while shooting on Transcend cards that may be universal to other cards. On the CFX650 cards, I would end up with corrupted video files even when I never encountered a buffer issue. It was almost like the camera was unable to properly finalize the file after recording was stopped. On the CFX600 cards (slower and cheaper) I will sometimes get buffer issues and the card would stop recording. Luckily, I always have the backup and the files can be repaired using the camera. Doing regular formats of the CFX600 cards using the mac utility high security erase feature helps with reducing buffer issues. In any case, I stopped using the CFX 650 cards due to the weird corruption issue. It seems that the C300 can have problems with cards that has nothing to do with the speed of the card.
Click to expand...

I know, right? It's weird too because the C300 MKII only writing 410Mbps whereas the C200 is writing at 1Gbps but it seems as if the C300 MKII overall is more picky with it's cards.
Some users are even humming along with the C200 and ultra cheap Freetail Evoke 3700X cards at $179.00 each. It is nice that the cost has fallen on the Sandisk cards, but still, I can't
see paying almost twice as much if other cards work as well.
 
Freetail Evoke 3700X has worked perfectly for me for a few months and several shoots. I ended up ordering another.

I also really like my ProGrade Digital cards. They’re really reasonably priced as well.
 
Been using Transcend CFX650 128g cards for two years without issue. Bought some ProGrade 550 MBs 128g cards this year, also without issue to date.

But since you mentioned it, will be dual recording, with a ProGrade in one slot and a Transcend in the other...
 
klk said:
Been using Transcend CFX650 128g cards for two years without issue. Bought some ProGrade 550 MBs 128g cards this year, also without issue to date.

But since you mentioned it, will be dual recording, with a ProGrade in one slot and a Transcend in the other...
Click to expand...

I was having trouble with two CFX650 256GB cards. Mind you, it could have been just bad luck with those two cards.
 
cpreston said:
I was having trouble with two CFX650 256GB cards. Mind you, it could have been just bad luck with those two cards.
Click to expand...
Maybe 128g is more reliable than the 256g version? When I bought the Transcends, I believe B&H listed them as their "approved" accessory for the C300M2- or the sales person said they would work. I think I bought one, then a handful more after tests. Did the same with the ProGrades, bought one, test, then a handful more.
 
Along the lines of what Eric said, it's possible something changed in the manufacturing process and the cards do not perform/work as well as they did previously with certain pieces of equipment or under certain situations. I've seen it going back to the early days of off-board recorders. CD had a published list of CF cards approved for the NanoFlash and they kept it updated when things would change. All of a sudden, a lot of Sandisk cards were no longer on the list and it was noted on there that there had been a change in the manufacturing process of those cards and they were no longer reliable in the Nano.
 
The same thing happened with the original BM URSA at a time (2014) when they were pretty much the only option along with Lexar.

One day on, next day off...no longer reliable according to BM. That was one of the only times I was burned with gear as the 120GB card cost me $1,199 (but I managed as it did still work in 4K here and there...definitely was okay with all HD options).

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(Sandisk eventually released a newer/updated version which made it back on the list.)
 
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