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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
How big of cards do you use?
Max Gersh, Student/Intern, Photo Editor
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St. Louis | MO | USA | Posted: 11:32 PM on 04.29.07 |
->> I just recently purchased a Mark II and I am quickly realizing that my 3gb of memory is not enough. I was planning on purchasing a 4gb Extreme III card for roughly $70 but I just looked on B&H and the 8gb Extreme III is right around $110. For that extra space, it sounds worth it.
I have heard people tend to not get the really big cards because if it crashes, you lose more images. I completly agree with that, however, I have never had one of my Extreme III's crash (although I'm sure it happens).
How big of cards do you shoot with? I always shoot in RAW or Large fine so at most I get around 160 shots on a 1gb card.
Also, I now have the ability to record onto SD cards as well. Are those as stable as the CFs tend to be? Who uses both and why? I am not as worried as backing up my images as I am of storage without having to haul around extra gear to dump my cards.
Thanks in advance.
-Max Gersh- |
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Jack Megaw, Student/Intern, Photographer
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West Chester | PA | United States | Posted: 11:44 PM on 04.29.07 |
->> One reason that I don't use big cards is how if it crashes on you you'll lose so many images, but also what happens if you leave that card on a table in a press room, or it slips out of your pocket, you'd still lost that 8 gigs of photos.
As good as this deal seems, I personally wouldn't mind spending the extra $30 to get the two cards and cut down on the risk factor.
-Jack |
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Jack Howard, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Somerville | NJ | USA | Posted: 11:52 PM on 04.29.07 |
->> They're about 1.75" x 1.5" x .125"
I find this size fits best. |
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William Maner, Photographer
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Biloxi | MS | USA | Posted: 1:43 AM on 04.30.07 |
->> I'd have to agree with the "smaller is more prudent" crowd. I'm new to digital SLRs. I'm an old film guy, so I'm slow to adapt to new technology. I recently bought a "classic" 1D. I'm slowly learning how the camera operates. So far, I've been very impressed.
I snagged a SanDisk Ultra II 2GB card from an Amazon.com vendor a couple of weeks ago..The card cost $28, brand new.
I have my 1D set for large JPG files. I'm not sure what to make of RAW files. That's not an important issue for me now. I couldn't help but notice that the frame counter said that I could get 800+ photos on the card. That shocked me..
In all my years as a college public relations photographer, college newspaper photographer, newspaper/magazine photographer, freelance sports photographer, I don't think I ever shot 800 pictures in a single day. I don't think I've shot even 400 pictures in a single day. I was a very "efficient" photographer. I still am..
I don't think I'd want to risk putting a lot of images on one large card. People might say "well, if you have to handle several cards at a time, you might lose a card"... That's true, but I think it would be prudent to have several cards and use one card per assignment rather than try to cram several assignments on one card. |
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Mark Smith, Photographer
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Elk City | OK | USA | Posted: 2:35 AM on 04.30.07 |
->> I have a bandolier of 36 128mb cards....sure, I have a callous on my thumb, but...
jk |
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Jody Gomez, Photographer
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Murrieta | CA | USA | Posted: 3:55 AM on 04.30.07 |
->> Max, I use a 4gb, and a couple 2gb cards. I also have four or five 1gb card and a couple 1gb SD cards. All are San Disk, and I haven't had any problems so far (knock on wood).
Jody |
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Nic Summers, Photographer
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Mount Prospect | IL | USA | Posted: 8:56 AM on 04.30.07 |
| ->> 2 at 4gigs, 4 at 2gigs and 4 at 1gig. |
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Greg Francis, Photographer
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Rochester | NY | USA | Posted: 9:09 AM on 04.30.07 |
| ->> Big today is tommorrow's small card, whatever the size. |
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Curtis Clegg, Photographer
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Belvidere | IL | USA | Posted: 9:36 AM on 04.30.07 |
->> Well I am going to buck the trend I guess and admit that I generally use the largest cards I can. My working theory is that the greater danger can come from processes involved in changing cards. For instance:
* Having more cards out of the camera means that's more cards that you can leave on the table in a press room, or that can fall out of a pocket, or that can get run through a washing machine, or get formatted by mistake, etc. I feel the safest place for my cards is in my camera, and the fewer I have to keep track of the better off I am.
* Incidence of corrupt files will increase the closer you get to filling a card to capacity. If you have a handful of cards that you are filling to 95% (or more) of capacity, you are asking for trouble. The closer you get to filling a card (or computer hard drive) to capacity, the harder it gets for the camera/computer to look for blank space to store data.
* Changing cards more frequently can increase the odds of removing a card while data is still being written to it (causing corrupt files) or getting water/ debris in the card slot, or bending the pins in the CF slot (not a real common occurrence, but it does happen from time to time, especially when photographers are changing cards in a big hurry).
Also, I make sure never to let my camera's battery get so low that the battery level indicator blinks. You can run into trouble if your battery dies while the camera is trying to write data.
I hope I'm not jinxing myself here, but so far this has worked for me. |
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Peter Aiken, Photographer
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Manhattan | KS | USA | Posted: 9:55 AM on 04.30.07 |
| ->> I have (2) 4gb cards, (1) 8gb card and (4) 1gb cards. |
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Chuong Doan, Photographer
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Kansas City | MO | USA | Posted: 9:57 AM on 04.30.07 |
->> I agree with Curtis. The downside to using multiple smaller cards is that you have more cards to worry about.
For editorial shoots, one 8 gig card holds an entire take in RAW on my 5D. In an entire day, that one card stays in the camera until I'm done and ready to upload. No worries about keeping track of multiple cards. |
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Mitchell Clinton, Photographer
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Carlsbad | CA | USA | Posted: 10:02 AM on 04.30.07 |
->> A few 2 gig, a few 1 gig, and a hand full of 512's as a last resort.
I don't want a to big of a card because everything will fail someday and I don't want to loose too much. I just had my first 512 die hard and was very glad there was not a lot lost. |
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Ian L. Sitren, Photographer
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Palm Springs | CA | USA | Posted: 10:11 AM on 04.30.07 |
->> I have been coming around to more of the ideas that Curtis has expressed here. I just shot at an event and watched a very experienced photographer fumble around with the 'what card he put where' kind of thing. That probably accounts for more lost images than anything.
Even the problem with the Lexar cards a while back for me were recoverable and to some extent possibly caused by my own in camera editing which was a bad idea. I have had no card problems since.
As file size increases I am now adding 4 gig cards for most of my typical shoots and 8 gig cards for medium format digital. I expect that I will not be using any 2 gig cards at all before too long.
And for the event where my buddy was fumbling his cards, I used 4 gigs cards. One in each of two bodies during the afternoon and the same during the evening. I never had to change cards and all went well. |
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Andy Mead, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Durham | NC | USA | Posted: 10:32 AM on 04.30.07 |
->> I tend to use the size that'll generally hold a period of whatever sport I'm shooting. Since I'm often downloading or processing between halves or periods, it doesn't make sense for me to buy a bunch of 8GB cards.
But I'm not going to use bunch of 256MB cards, either - just in case I lose one, or one "crashes". I mean, I've never had a solid state card crash. Microdrives are (or should be) gone. I do know that the solid state cards can go bad, or so I've heard, but it's pretty rare. And frankly, if I've got a pocket full of cards, I'm far more likely to lose or misplace one than if I've just got the one in my camera and one in my pocket to worry about. And with a bunch of smaller cards, I'm far more likely to miss a shot because I'm changing cards.
I think there's a happy medium between bigger is better and 24 shots a roll.
Personally I tend to carry a couple of 2GB cards with my primary body and 1GB cards fill in the rest, but I am planning on buying a couple of 4GB cards as I'm shooting more in RAW, and the next time I buy a new camera, the images will have even larger files. |
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Bryan Rinnert, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Raleigh | NC | United States | Posted: 10:34 AM on 04.30.07 |
| ->> At this point in my 1D Mark II, I'm at one 4GB, two 2GB, four 1GB and two 256MB for emergency, which I have a feeling will soon be sitting in my desk drawer. I plan on switching to mostly 4GB soon, seems like a good size where I can shoot almost all day and not need to change. Also, 4 GB is basically 1 DVD to back up. With the larger sizes I can shoot RAW or RAW+jpg and not need to worry about running out of space. Oh, I also keep a 1GB SD in my camera as I kind of emergency backup if for some reason I can't change out my CF cards. |
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John Plassenthal, Photographer
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Vandalia | OH | USA | Posted: 10:41 AM on 04.30.07 |
->> I use a 4gb in each body as the main card and have a 2gb and 1gb cards as backups in the event those get full before I dump to the laptop. I too prefer not to be fumbling with cards during the event. There is a risk that if something happens to the card you loose more, but as file sizes keep getting larger this risk will reduce over time. As Curtis mentioned, every time you remove and insert a card there is a potential for damage to occur. I've seen a guy changing cards drop one through a drain grate. Before I got the 4Gb card, there was an occasion where I wasn't paying close enough attention to the space left and missed a shot.
Having said this I'm not ready to go to the 8GB card yet since my bodies aren't setup to format larger cards. Having to format them first with a PC is a solution for limited capability and I'd rather not push it till the firmware is ready to handle larger cards in native mode. You may want to check what your body is set up for first. |
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Max Simbron, Photographer, Assistant
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Phoenix | AZ | USA | Posted: 12:19 PM on 04.30.07 |
->> I'm in the same camp as Curtis and Ian. I've used 8gb cards primarily since last X-Games, and there was a certain freedom in not having to switch out cards til the end of the day.
Using Photo Mechanic to do incremental downloads, the 8GB cards worked just fine, and as long as I went back to the photo room, I would never lose it all, only whatever happened between the last visit to my laptop and the moment of incident.
I've been lucky that I've not had any problems, either having a card go bad, or losing a card phsyically.
Max |
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Thomas E. Witte, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Fashion Heights | OH | USA | Posted: 2:04 PM on 04.30.07 |
->> I typically carry 20 2GB cards split in to two different colored wallets. Before I use the second wallet it's stored in a special pocket in my fanny pack and it trades places when the first one is full. Keeping track of the cards within the wallet is a simple matter of putting the full cards back in upside downso I don't accidentally reinsert it and format.
My concerns are over a corrupt card or stolen camera. I'd rather not have my entire day lost. (Though yes, I could also lose the entire wallet too.)
As for the excuse about missing photos because your fumbling with cards, that's hogwash. Maybe it's from growing up shooting film, but you learn when to change out your cards at the right time, or carry two cameras so you can pull the second one up to shoot. |
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Daniel Bates, Student/Intern
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Taylor | TX | United States | Posted: 2:08 PM on 04.30.07 |
| ->> I have two 4 gigs and two 2 gig cards. I use the 4's in my two bodies, and keep the two 2 gig cards as backups in the (very unlikely) event I go through six gigabytes of data (the other camera is a Mark I). |
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Andrew Smith, Photographer
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Ross-shire | UK | Scotland | Posted: 2:20 PM on 04.30.07 |
| ->> For most jobs and hobby shots I just use a 2Gb card, but I also have 14x 512Mb cards for weddings, so of course I also use those cards on other jobs when I've filled the 2Gb. I'll probably be adding a few more 512Mb cards soon. |
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Stephen Lam, Student/Intern, Photographer
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San Francisco | CA | USA | Posted: 2:21 PM on 04.30.07 |
->> i use 4x 1gb card, a 512mb, and a 30mb.
the 30mb sits at the bottom of my card wallet, it's good for 3 photo. heh |
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Landon Finch, Photographer
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Colorado Springs | CO | USA | Posted: 2:38 PM on 04.30.07 |
->> Buy the 4 gig card.
1) Don't fill it up if you're afraid of losing images
2) When you upgrade cameras to the new 20MP camera a year from now, your cards won't be outdated/useless
3) Fill up the card when you're in a crunch and need the room
4) The price difference at this point isn't much so I see no need to buy a 2 gig card and have it obsolete in a year or two.
5) 512mb (or even 1gb cards)...are you kidding me? Too much wear and tear on the camera, not worth it. |
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Landon Finch, Photographer
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Colorado Springs | CO | USA | Posted: 2:39 PM on 04.30.07 |
| ->> Sorry, buy the 4 OR 8 GB card. |
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Jim OConnor, Photographer
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Scotch Plains | NJ | USA | Posted: 5:33 PM on 04.30.07 |
| ->> All my cards (8) are 1gb Lexar Professional. I have had one problem in the last 5 years and used Image Rescue to recover. |
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Debra L Rothenberg, Photographer
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New York | NY | USA | Posted: 10:52 PM on 04.30.07 |
->> I hate having too many cards. I was using the 2 gig cards for a long time, then the 4 gigs all last year and recently upgraded to 8 gig cards...both Sandisk and Lexar. Knock on wood..no problems!
Debbie
never had to use image rescue WHEW! |
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Jim Leary, Photographer
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| NY | USA | Posted: 11:22 PM on 04.30.07 |
| ->> I like the 2gb and 4gb cards because I like shooting RAW for most shoots. I have a Mark II and do not plan on upgrading my camera body anytime soon. The 2 & 4 GB suit me fine and I agree with the philosophy that there's just too much to lose on the 8 GB card. Its ironic how we all used to stash 20-30 rolls of film in our bags for a full day of shooting and now we speak of "too many cards." I'll choose the inconvenience a few extra little digital cards over an abundance of lost images on one single card. Until I upgrade to a camera body that has such large files it can fill a 4GB card quickly, I will stick with my 1, 2 & 4GB cards. I say better safe than sorry. I keep up to ten cards in my bag and all combined they might take up the same area of maybe 4-5 rolls of film. I can live with that. |
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JohnPaul Greco, Photographer, Assistant
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Milwaukee | WI | USA | Posted: 11:24 PM on 04.30.07 |
->> I have 20 gigs of mostly 2 gig cards..
The rest are a 1, two 512's,.. The cost of a 512 a few years ago could get me 8 gigs today! ...I think I have enough..
JP |
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JohnPaul Greco, Photographer, Assistant
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Milwaukee | WI | USA | Posted: 11:41 PM on 04.30.07 |
->> I should have mentioned this in my previous post..
I have 20 gigs because I want a "redundant" amount of extra cards to have for doing two big jobs back to back which doesn't allow me to back up to more than one of my hard drives.. in the case of a job I did last summer where I downloaded the content of my cards into my iBook.. and reused two of the cards.. and reformatted them before everything was backed up... which turned out to be a huge mistake after my iBook's hard disc crashed! I had to run Disc Warrior, or send the HD out to have the data extracted at my cost,.. which would have been unexceptable to the client as far as how long that would have taken.. Disc Warrior worked.. but barely.. the disc was completely unusable shortly after I backed up that critical data.. Lesson learned... buy more CF cards to more than cover what I shoot. If I had more than enough cards, I wouldn't have had to worry about a thing..
Also,.. I have never had a card fall out of my pocket.. I take the time to secure the cards just like I did with my film, or my notes back in those old days.. & CF cards can be recovered..
I only wish Sandisk would come out with a "DVD Card".. meaning that one card would pretty much exactly fit the capacity of a standard 4.27 (actual space) DVD.. rather than a 4 gig card that really isn't 4 gigs.. IF they'd do that for me,...I'd only shoot with those! It would make things much easier on me.. :-)
JP |
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David Stluka, Photographer
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Oregon | WI | USA | Posted: 11:56 PM on 04.30.07 |
->> 3 4gb cards and 7 2gb cards... and a few 1gb cards... shooting all RAW takes up a lot of space. I do not like to run short on cards... having too much is much better than having too little. My next purchase will be 8gb cards... Does anyone remember when we used to shoot 36 frames on a roll... seems pretty insane now that we are used to 4gb cards. How'd we ever get by? I've been fortunate that I've never had a serious problem with cards... My memory lapsed once, maybe twice, but, my cards have been very reliable. I'm on the same page with Mr. Witte about dual card wallets. I keep them chained to my bag or pants, too. I had one fall out of my pack once... one of the scarest moments I've had on the sideline. Luckily, a video guy stuck it in his pocket. I try to keep one in my camera bag at all times... nothings worse than showing up with no cards. I also like to make sure I have at least 2 copies on hard drives before reformatting cards.
--
David |
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Scott Mussell, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Waterloo | IA | United States | Posted: 12:05 AM on 05.01.07 |
->> 2 x 8gb
2 x 4gb
4 x 2gb
I have an Ultra 2 4gb and a couple 1gb's for remotes if needed.
-ScotT- |
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Jim Leary, Photographer
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| NY | USA | Posted: 12:16 AM on 05.01.07 |
| ->> I used to have one of those photo banks where you can download your cards in the field. It was a Mindstor but its old now and the company is gone. I'm looking for another similar device but need to keep it reasonably priced. I don't need one with a screen to see the photos, just one that is reliable for storage and can easily transfer files onto my Mac Pro via USB or Firewire. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance. |
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Robert Benson, Photographer
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San Diego | CA | USA | Posted: 2:41 AM on 05.01.07 |
->> I have a 128 meg flash card, by Sans Disk. Does everything I need it to. Have that, and a 40 mg starter disk that came with my NC2000 camera. I'm living in the lap of luxury.
If they get full I just download them to my portable harddrive, which can stow 1 gig, no kidding! And get this - its portable and powered by batteries! Only weighs 1.3 pounds too.
I've been thinking of upgrading to the 512mg card and a Kodak 14n, but I think its more than I'll ever need. My Commodore 6400 computer's hard drive couldn't even hold that much info. |
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Dave Kennedy, Photographer
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Danbury | CT | US | Posted: 8:03 AM on 05.01.07 |
| ->> 1-1gig card, 4 512mb's...shooting with MkII and 20D. I had a handful of 256's as well but no longer.... |
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Dave Kennedy, Photographer
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Danbury | CT | US | Posted: 8:06 AM on 05.01.07 |
| ->> ...forgot about the 1 gig SD card in the Canon XH A1 for still shooting with the DV camera. |
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Randy Janoski, Photographer
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Washington DC & Nashville | TN | USA | Posted: 8:39 AM on 05.01.07 |
| ->> I like that tethering thing, you know the one that slides into your camera and then goes into the 500GB hard drive you can slip in your pocket. Hey I also use a 32MB card for those small assignments. |
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Jim Colburn, Photographer
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Omaha | NE | USA | Posted: 5:12 PM on 05.01.07 |
| ->> 2Gb cards on my Canon 5Ds give me 100+ (RAW) Pictures per card. Six cards = 600+ pictures. That seems to be enough. |
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Jim Comeau, Student/Intern, Photographer
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San Diego | CA | USA | Posted: 5:30 PM on 05.01.07 |
| ->> One thing to consider is card writing speed. The trusty card database at Rob Galbraith's site (http://robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007) shows a lot of 2GB cards as the fastest of the lot. I believe it has something to do with the internal architecture of the memory. Sure they're getting faster each day, but you'll likely get better performance with 2GB cards instead of 4GB cards. There are some 4GB cards that fare well too. Exploring that list might help you in your decision. |
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Chris d'Aquin, Photographer
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Lawrenceville | GA | USA | Posted: 5:33 PM on 05.01.07 |
->> I use smaller cards, and I have a system that prevents me from losing track of my cards. I use a hard plastic CF card holder that stores four cards. When I start a shoot, the cards are already formatted and have the SanDisk logo facing forward. If I fill up a card and have to swap, I pull out an empty card and place the used card in its place with the logo side facing down.
This way I know exactly what cards have been used and when looking for a empty to replace a full one is very easy and quick. The case stays in a zippered pocket in my cargo pants when I am not swapping cards.
Since going to this system I haven't had a single issue with my cards. Before the system I lost one card and something happened to the data during my upload sessions on two other cards. |
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Chuck Randant, Student/Intern, Assistant
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Bowling Green | KY | United States of America | Posted: 5:35 PM on 05.01.07 |
->> Lexar 2GB 133x gets just about 200 RAW images on my Mark II N or 30D.
times 3= about 600 images.
Works for me.
peace.
Chuck |
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Scott Mallon, Photographer
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Bangkok | N/A | Thailand | Posted: 9:57 AM on 07.16.07 |
->> 1 - 4GB
3 - 512 GB
2 - 256 GB
By all means, bigger is better. I've only had one problem with the disks I have and it was my own fault. |
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Pedro Diaz, Photographer
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Miami Beach | FL | United States | Posted: 10:32 AM on 07.16.07 |
| ->> 8 gigs cards, i don't like to change cards... |
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Walt Middleton, Photographer, Assistant
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Columbus | OH | USA | Posted: 10:55 AM on 07.16.07 |
| ->> One 8gb card, two 4gb cards, four 1gb cards... For the most part the 8gb card never comes out of my mk II and one of the 4gb cards never comes out of my 20D backup. I have only on very rarely ever filled up my 8gb card. I always shoot in Raw. All of my cards are Extreme IV cards. And lastly I've never had any problem with corrupted info.... KNOCK ON WOOD... |
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Fj Hughes, Photographer, Assistant
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Baltimore | MD | USA | Posted: 12:10 PM on 07.16.07 |
->> Jim Comeau wrote, "One thing to consider is card writing speed."
Great point Jim. Thanks. |
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Joel Kowsky, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Morris | IL | United States | Posted: 4:49 PM on 07.16.07 |
->> 6x 2GB Lexar CF
4x 2GB SanDisk SD
4x 1GB Lexar CF
2x 512MB Lexar CF
I would have to agree with those that shoot smaller cards to minimize data loss in the event of a card failure. I also have an Epson P-4000 that I've worked into my workflow. At football and basketball games I'll back up the cards I shot on the P-4000 between quarters or at half-time. The only downside is that it is a HD and is VOLATILE memory as opposed to the IN-VOLATILE flash cards. I haven't had any problems *knock on wood* and this system allows me to not have to worry about running out of space as I have about 40GB of available storage at any given time.
I also use 4 Gepe Card Safe Extremes to hold all my cards. They are watertight, float in water, crush proof, dust proof, and are anti-static. Plus they come in bright colors so you can easily see them if the case should happen to fall out of a pocket while covering an event. |
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Michael Moriatis, Photographer
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Santa Barbara | CA | USA | Posted: 4:52 PM on 07.16.07 |
->> Remember back when you were shooting film. How many of you claim that shooting on smaller cards prevents loss of images shot a 36 exposure roll of fim?
By your thinking we should have all been shooting only 12 exposure rolls of film. |
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