I am likely (my employer will pay for it as "Continuing Ed. materials"...and, if I don't use the funds, I lose them) to get a Canon Digital SLR.   Either a Canon Rebel or Rebel XT (depends on how much funds are left).  

In doing a bit of research, I came across a statement that (to paraphrase) "in Digital SLRs, the speed of the flash media is not as important as in lower lever Point-And-Shoot cameras because the SLR has a buffer system".  

Has anyone found this to be true?

If my employer will get the camera (and some digital media at the same time)...do I really need to get the 100x Compact Flash cards (or 40x, or 66x, etc--all of which seem to be more expensive.), or will the standard media (cheaper, therefore I could get more of them with the camera) work fine?  

Thanks!

AFARR

you might ask these guys

ARFcom photography

I use Sandisk Ultra II 2GB card in my Canon and the speed is fine by me. I don't even know if it's the slow or fast card but it wasn't expensive and my main reason for getting it.
I use a reader to transfer the pics.

It all depends what you need the camera for. For freefall we need fast fast fast.

Most people wont .

Quoted: I use Sandisk Ultra II 1GB card in my Canon and the speed is fine by me. I don't even know if it's the slow or fast card but it wasn't expensive and my main reason for getting it.

I have the same thing.  But I can get my XT to shoot multiple shots without difficulty.  

Quoted: Quoted: I use Sandisk Ultra II 1GB card in my Canon and the speed is fine by me. I don't even know if it's the slow or fast card but it wasn't expensive and my main reason for getting it. I have the same thing.  But I can get my XT to shoot multiple shots without difficulty.

I looked again and it's the 2GB card but I can't see any speed listing. No problems on multiple shots though.

Quoted: you might ask these guys ARFcom photography

I wish these DSLR's would shoot 24fps

Here's a Crazy amount of info on Compact Flash Cards in Digital Cameras ... Select the camera you want to see data on from the pop up menu on the top righ side of the page, and there's more info tham you'll ever need.

Overall it's not a bad idea to have the faster cards. Even though the cameras (the good ones) have a buffer, it still has to write from the buffer to the card ... faster that gets written to the faster the buffer frees up again.

And on the flip side, when you're downloading the images to your computer, faster memory will take less time.

If it's just for occassional photography, I'd probably say, it's not necessarry to spend your money on the best/fastest CF cards, but don't get the cheapest thing ou can find either ... Go with a reliable brand like SanDisk or Lexar ... Stay away from WalMart off brand specials.

Quoted: In doing a bit of research, I came across a statement that (to paraphrase) "in Digital SLRs, the speed of the flash media is not as important as in lower lever Point-And-Shoot cameras because the SLR has a buffer system". Has anyone found this to be true?

Yes, up to a point. Most current high-end cameras have enough built-in buffer memory to shoot at least several images in rapid succession. Those images are then gradually transferred to the CompactFlash memory at a slower rate.

The maximum number of pictures that can be stored in the buffer will depend on both the size (resolution) of each image and the size of the buffer.

BOTTOM LINE: As long as you don't shoot too many pictures in quick succession (and/or use too high a resolution setting), you will never overflow the buffer before it can transfer the images to the CF card.