Olympus C5050 Zoom Memory Card Write Speeds
This is a summary of a survey of the Olympus C5050 write speeds
to different memory cards compiled by Jens Birch. Most of the
write speeds were kindly measured and reported to me by the members of
the Yahoo discussion forum about this camera: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Olympus_405060/
. Some write speeds could be found in the archives of that discussion
forum and many data points were supplied by Andrzej Wrotniak.
The tests were made according toAndrzej Wrotniak's method
in the following way:
1) The camera was set in manual focus mode, with a short shutter
time, and the flash disabled
2) The memory card to be tested was selected
3) The card was formatted in the camera
4) The camera was set to save RAW pictures (gives an Olympus Raw
Format (.orf) file with a size of 7.292 MB)
5) Pictures were taken and the write times were measured manually
with a stopwatch, starting immediately after the exposure (shutter sound)
and ending when the "busy" red light went off.
6) At least three measurements were made and the average time was
calculated.
Explanation to the Tables:
Card Type: CF=Compact Flash, CF II=Compact Flash type II,
xD=Extreme Digital, SM=Smart Media
Brand and Model as written on the cards
Size in MegaBytes
Write speed: Measured as described above. Time values were
rounded up to closest 0.1 second except for a few cases where timing
devices with only 1 second accuracy readings were used. In those cases
the write speed was rounded up to the closest whole second and no decimals
are given in the tables. It should be noted that a considerable "operator"
dependent error is present in these measurements. The measurements may deviate
by approximately ±0.5 second depending on exactly how the measurer
interpreted the instructions for the tests.
Firmware: The firmware version of the camera used to do the
test as determined from the EXIF data in a picture taken with the
camera.
Reference: (a) Response to message #13980
in the Yahoo Olympus4040_5050 discussion forum
(b) Reports in earlier posts to the Yahoo Olympus4040_5050
discussion forum
(c) Earlier data obtained by Andrzej Wrotniak and presented
at his web page: http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/c5050/c5050-card.html
Any comments or questions can be mailed to me: 
Sorted by Write Speed:
| Cardtype |
Brand |
Model |
Size(MB) |
Writespeed |
Firmware |
Reference |
| CF |
Transcend |
30x |
512 |
3,8 |
77 |
(a) |
| CF |
Lexar |
12x |
256 |
3,9 |
78 |
(b) |
| CF I |
Transcend |
30x |
512 |
3,9 |
78 |
(a) |
| CF |
Ridata (Ritek) |
|
512 |
4 |
? |
(a) |
| CF |
Sandisk |
Ultra |
512 |
4,0 |
? |
(b) |
| CF |
Transcend |
20x |
256 |
4,0 |
? |
(b) |
| CF |
PNY (Toshiba?) |
|
256 |
4,2 |
76 |
(c) |
| CF |
Transcend |
30x |
512 |
4,2 |
? |
(b) |
| CF I |
Transcend |
30x |
512 |
4,3 |
77 |
(a) |
| CF |
Lexar |
40x |
512 |
4,5 |
78 |
(a) |
| CF |
Lexar |
4x |
512 |
4,5 |
78 |
(a) |
| CF |
Hagiwara/Toshiba
|
|
128 |
4,6 |
76 |
(c) |
| CF |
Lexar |
12x |
256 |
4,7 |
78 |
(a) |
| CF |
PQI |
|
256 |
4,8 |
77 |
(a) |
| CF II |
IBM Microdrive |
|
1024 |
5,0 |
78 |
(a) |
| CF |
Lexar |
12x |
256 |
5 |
78 |
(a) |
| CF |
Lexar |
4x |
512 |
5,0 |
78 |
(a) |
| CF |
Lexar |
4x |
256 |
5,0 |
? |
(b) |
| CF |
Viking |
|
256 |
5,0 |
78 |
(b) |
| CF |
Memorex |
|
128 |
5,2 |
76 |
(c) |
| CF |
Sandisk |
Ultra |
256 |
5,9 |
76 |
(c) |
| CF II |
IBM Microdrive |
|
1024 |
6,3 |
76 |
(c) |
| SM |
Olympus |
|
128 |
6,7 |
76 |
(c) |
| SM |
Olympus |
|
32 |
6,7 |
76 |
(c) |
| xD |
Olympus |
|
256 |
6,9 |
78 |
(b) |
| xD |
Olympus |
|
32 |
7,0
|
78 |
(b) |
| SM |
No name |
|
128 |
7,0 |
77 |
(a) |
| CF |
Viking |
8x - 15x |
256 |
7 |
? |
(a) |
| xD |
Olympus |
|
128 |
7,5 |
77 |
(a) |
| xD |
Olympus |
|
32 |
7,5 |
78 |
(a) |
| xD |
Olympus |
|
32 |
7,7 |
77 |
(a) |
| SM |
Sandisk |
|
128 |
7,9 |
76 |
(c) |
| xD |
Olympus |
|
256 |
8,1 |
78 |
(a) |
| xD |
Fuji |
|
128 |
8,1 |
76
|
(c) |
| CF |
Ridata (Ritek) |
20x |
256 |
8,2 |
78 |
(a) |
| xD |
Fuji |
|
256 |
8,2 |
76
|
(c) |
| SM |
PNY (Toshiba?) |
|
128 |
8,2 |
76 |
(c) |
| xD |
Olympus |
|
32 |
8,4 |
77 |
(a) |
| CF II |
Sandisk |
12x |
512 |
8,5 |
77 |
(a) |
| xD |
Olympus/Toshiba |
|
32 |
8,7 |
76 |
(c) |
| SM |
Sandisk |
|
128 |
9,0 |
77 |
(a) |
| CF |
SimpleTech |
|
256 |
9 |
78 |
(a) |
| CF |
Sandisk |
|
256 |
10,4 |
76 |
(c) |
| CF |
Sandisk |
|
128 |
11,1 |
78 |
(a) |
| CF |
Sandisk |
|
128 |
12 |
78 |
(a) |
| CF |
Sandisk |
|
64 |
18,3 |
78 |
(a) |
| CF |
FM Computer |
|
32 |
21,2 |
78 |
(a) |
I thank all those in the Yahoo Olympus_405060
forum who have contributed to this test survey and also those who have
encouraged me to carry it through.
Furthermore, I express my thanks to Andrzej Wrotniak who gave his permission
to include his data in this work.
Linköping 17/8 2003
Jens Birch