K10D 3 frame/sec until card full?? Not even close!

Anyone else try to see how many jpegs they can shoot until the buffer fills up?
I wanted to see how many photos could be taken on a full battery, and how many shots would fill up the card (on my istD the card read 450 shots, but actually held about a thousand. It simply was not very accurate on compression estimation)

Anyway, I think I got about 20-30 shots at full speed, then the rate dropped to an irregular rate of one to three frames per second.

I personally don't see where I would shoot 20+ frames in a row, but the K10D doesn't appear to live up to advertised specs.

Of course, I never heard the conditions of such tests?
2MP Jpegs??
64MB card?
All black image?

not all memory cards are created equal. Some cards are like Lambroghini's and some are like Lada's. some write faster than others.

Some images will reqiure minimal compression, and some more therefore the level of detial, and amount of subtle tones should affect how much calculations are required to compress the final jpeg from the raw data.

A shot of a grey card should compress quickly (to a smaller file)and a shot of a jar of multi colored beads should take longer( but not compress as much).

ps I could be wrong here but a black might induce a longer exposure and therefore kick in the noise reduction algorythims therefore increasing the calculation time.

Not that I can ever see me doing it real life but I just ran a couple of test:

DA16-45, f8 @1/60, Sandisk Extreme III 2gb = 168 frame in 1 minute = 2.8 frames/sec.

SMC-A50, f1.4 @1/1000, Sandisk Extreme III 2gb = 188 frame in 1 minute = 3.13 frames/sec.

I think you have to read the specs and interpret them correctly, page 222 of the manual say's "approx 3fos till card is full".

Spot on as far as I'm concerned.

I did this same test when I first got the K10D, also using Sandisk Extreme III 2GB set on manual at 1/1000s shooting jpeg's and mine will easily fill the card without slowing down.

I have a fast card, but not top end... and it is possible that it isn't even up to what it says it is rated.

Thanks for the info. I'll look for the better brands if I run across the need to run that many shots in a row.

Either way, I am still impressed. A lot better performance than the istD.