At work trying to manage my short-term and long term digital media needs. I’m jone’sing for a big network attached storage (NAS) device to store all of my precious data, but really just need more compact flash (CF) for my Nikon D70 to take more raw photos of my baby at this point in time. I’ve been shopping around for both but always get confused with CF speeds as they don’t always market their read/write speeds in a uniform manner. Some give you how fast in times (ie. 133x or 300x) while others tell you in mb/s. There is a way to deciper from one to the other. The magic multiplier is 6.66… So if I have the 30mb/s, I’ll just multiply it by 6.66 and get 200x. Here is a simple chart:

45 mb/s = 300x
40 mb/s = 266x
30 mb/s = 200x
20 mb/s = 133x
12 mb/s = 80x

The key here is when you’re shooting RAW or *.NEF (for Nikon users) photos, their sizes are big. My camera produces RAW photos that are around 5mb on average. Thus, if the camera writes faster to the CF card, I can shoot more quickly than with a slower CF; catch more of those special moments. Not to mention that these newer dSLRs shoot in rapid-fire bursts that require a need for speed. Another advantage is read times when reviewing photos as well as downloading them to my computer. I hope this conversion explanation will help some of you who are shopping for digital film.