Probably like most of you, I have a plethora of different memory card sizes from 2GB up to 32GB. When I head out on a big shoot I tend to wonder if it would be better to use the smaller cards and spread the shoot out across a number of cards or shoot entirely with one. It seems every photographer has a different opinion on this one, here's what I think.
Those who choose to shoot with the smaller cards tend to all agree that they want to make sure and not put all their eggs in one basket. They would rather have 4-6 smaller cards than one large card with half or maybe even all the photos from the event. Those who shoot on the larger cards argue that they would rather keep the card in their camera the whole time and not take the chance of losing it. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages I see with each.
But before I list those I think one important component to consider is which camera you are using. My favorites are the cameras with dual card slots - which is one of the main reasons I upgraded to the Canon 5D Mark III the day it came out. As a wedding photographer it was very important to me to have a second card recording back up images the entire time as I was shooting. Knowing that I have a back up image going to a second card gives me the peace of mind that if something happens to one of my cards (get's lost or corrupted for example) I still have the images recorded somewhere else.
On a newly formatted card, using my Mark III I can shoot approximately 125 original RAW photos on an 4GB card, 261 on an 8GB, 512 on a 16GB, and about 1000 on a 32GB card. This number fluctuates as you shoot depending on the actual size of the images. The cost for a name brand decent 4GB card runs about $25 ($6.25/GB), 8GB for $29 ($3.65/GB), 16GB for $47 ($2.97/GB) 32GB for $85 ($2.65/GB) or 64GB for $138 ($2.15/GB).
Advantages of Using Smaller Cards
- Don't fear losing all the images to a corrupt card.
- Slows down your shooting style since you know card space is limited.
- Space out your shooting throughout the day on different cards to keep from losing an entire event if a card gets lost.
Disadvantages of Using Smaller Cards
- Greater chance of losing a card if you have a number of them to keep track of.
- Risk missing a moment while swapping out a new card.
- More wear and tear on your camera components removing and inserting cards often.
While shooting with smaller cards does have it's advantages I have personally chosen to instead shoot on larger cards (namely 32GB) when I am shooting weddings.
Advantages of Using Larger Cards
- Less risk of losing your card because it stays in your camera throughout the entire shoot.
- Better cost per gigabyte of space.
- Easier organization and importing of cards
- Less chance of missing something important while changing a card out.
- Less risk of damaging a component in camera while changing card.
Disadvantages of Using Larger Cards
- Big risk of losing most or all of a shoot. All eggs in one basket.
So which option is the best choice? It really is a matter of preference and as I mentioned above it also depends on the camera you are using and the functions it provides. The way I have it set up on my 5D Mark III is that I use 32GB cards and have the RAW files recorded to it. I then have a 32GB SDHC card inserted in the second slot that acts entirely as my backup. I record medium size JPEG's to the SDHC card. It fits about 7400 medium size JPEG's on the 32GB card so I leave it in there for a couple weeks at a time backing up each shot I have taken. Then after a couple of weeks I'll back that card up to a separate hard drive on my computer before formatting and using again.
Now it's your turn. How do you manage your cards? Large ones or small ones? Why?
When shooting sports, I prefer to use many smaller cards. I'd rather only lose a few photos due to a cfcard failure...which has happened. I lost an entire 1/2 of a game because of that before. Wire services aren't thrilled what that happens.
I don't shoot with anything over 8gb unless i'm tethered. I once had a 32gb kingston crap out on me after a shoot and the job was flopped. Never again!
I also keep a laptop (either in the car or in clients office) for quick backups in the field during luls or breaks.
I do that too, but unfortunately I was shooting red carpet wall for a charity event and only had 30 min to get all the images. I shoot great photos but when I put the card into the computer zap, nothing! Tested other cards they were fine, hoping that is was the reader. Took the card to a comp. forensics guy and they said the card was dead. Cameras won't even recognize it. Lesson learned, I now wifi out for backup always.
I actually connect the camera via USB and sync that way. I never use a reader (had a similar experience).
Large cards. I scan for bad sectors before the shoot to make sure they're dependable. Never once had an issue. If I'm feeling extra paranoid (aka bad weather), I have my camera transmit a backup to my phone's SD via WIFI.
It's not always the card though. I've actually had my camera completely go nuts on a cf card. It was an anomaly, but you can't count on just the card failing.
A lot of people use Drive Genius 3.
Maybe TechTool Pro can help you.
Large cards ( 32gb) in both slots of my D800, both recording small jpegs + lossless compressed raws.
Buying one new pair of cards before every wedding season.
^Good point^ cards are getting so cheap you can just buy new ones for every job
Maybe not for every job, but flash memory has a limited lifetime and maybe i won't photograph a paying wedding client on an eight years old 4gb card ;)
You're right, if you have these good jobs. But I have small jobs (for example wedding for $200-$500) and I can not afford to buy it for every job.
$200 Weddings? Uhm... But that's another point...
Updating my cards once a year to me is like paying an insurance for my data - In 2014 i'll be using my 2014 and 2013 cards
I understand. I'm living in small country, where average salary is only $900 (Big wedding is for $4000-$5000). I have normal job for newspapers and weddings are just extra jobs.
32GB cards in both slots, both recording RAWs.
Definitely the same, always in backup mode.
Never had a corrupt card (knock on wood). It's worth have a 16 g + a 32g in my opinion (have one of each in my D800 / D3s), if you buys quality cards it's less likely that an issue will occur so do some research and don't cheap out.
Avoid a corrupted card and do NOT delete individual images from the camera while reviewing. Also do not pull the card if the buffer is not empty. Common sense. Twin 64gb cards in camera mirroring images.
Hi Steven, What effect does deleting individual images from the camera while reviewing have on the card?
Without getting too technical, I'll simplify it by saying that non-volatile memory (cards, disks, etc) have a maximum amount of writes it can take. Each time you delete an image, it's actually doing a write-operation to the card - marking the "slot" as empty. Doing this too often would be like adding wear and tear to the memory.
It's often recommended that you format the card while it's in camera. That way the card is formatted in the most optimal way for its purpose.
Yes. And when you delete images it causes fragmentation that causes more delay in writes that can cause the corruption.
Well, I'm not sure if fragmentation plays any significant role here. There's no moving parts, so nothing needs to spin and hunt the data down.
Either way, don't mess with the individual images on camera. Just keep shooting, go home, dump all the images, back them all, maybe discard ones you don't want, and file the card away. In that order. Better yet, back it up on-location if you have the means.
I generally don't even format the card(s) until the night before my next shoot. I've heard people get burned by whacking the photos on the card too soon, and then finding out that the copies on their computer weren't good. Yikes!
fragmentation is your biggest enemy if your card fails and you need to use computer software so restore it. its my biggest reason for not deleting individual images
Thank you Tam!
Thank you Steven!
Welcome!
http://digital-photography-school.com/13-tips-for-using-and-caring-for-m...
Its better to keep shooting and delete later. You are messing with the file system if you delete in camera.
32GB Cards in both slots both recording RAW on 5dmkIII. We shoot weddings as a two photographer team, and each of us have 2 cameras. So that's 4 cameras with 2 cards each. Lots of redundancy. :)
Last year, many articles have talked about don’t use SD cards with a Canon 5D Mark III if you care about speed because SD card slot does not support high speed standard.
You are absolutely correct CoolADN. I have just noticed that the speed issue is really not an issue unless you have your camera on high speed shutter and you don't let up. It's only been a few times that I have ever even noticed a buffering issue and it only took a second, but usually I never even shoot fast enough to get it. But knowing that I have a second copy of the priceless wedding photos is the most reassuring thing - definitely worth slowing down the shutter trigger for.
32Gb Sandisk EXTREME cards (45 Mb/s) Best for Magic Lantern and Hd video recording on Canon DSLRs.
Have found that 45Mb/s SD card in my D800 a little slow.
So I'm going to upgrade to 80MB/s
(Still Extreme not Extreme Pro - didn't realise they make these in different speeds)
Often very little price difference
45 MB/s : http://www.mymemory.co.uk/SDHC/SanDisk/SanDisk-32GB-Extreme-SD-Card-%28S...
80 MB/s : http://www.mymemory.co.uk/SDHC/SanDisk/SanDisk-32GB-Extreme-SD-Card-%28S...
I also have a pair of those 80Mb/s but haven't seen any actual upgrade in my canon t2i or t3i, neither in the file transfering to my pc and the price gets too high for almost no difference so I recomend the 45Mb/s instead because of the cheaper price.
How are you transferring? I had been using the port on the side of my MBP and was still not having good transfer rates, even with my new 64gb 95 MB/s SanDisk card..
My friend told me that the built in card reader likely has a terribly slow cable and I should invest in a card reader to lightning cable.
i always use 2 cards, 1 raw 1 jpeg
Two cards 32 GB in my Mkiii and D3,both recorded to them RAW files.But i'm planning to switch for Jpegs on the backup card,as lately,i cant cope with Hard drives storage.
I always use SanDisk ExtremePro cards 32GB or bigger
Just curious, how many people have had a high end brand name card fail? If so, how old was the card? Fortunately for me, I've yet to have an issue with my Lexars or SanDisk Extremes. That said, I'll always shoot 32gb or 64gb on both slots duplicating each shot.
I had issues with Lexar and Transcend. Once I also had issues with Sandisk Extreme SDXC. But overall, Sandisk cards are fast and more reliable (Shockproof, waterproof, magnet, X-Ray, temperature etc) so I stick to Sandisk.
Normally use Extreme Pro - never an issue.
Chanced a Lexar Pro (32Gb) and had issues - would loose something like 1 photo in 5.
Sent it back and went back to Sandisk.
I always use 2 cards (32/64/128GB), CF and SDHC/XC in backup mode, both recording RAW. If I have my laptop with me, then after a pair of card gets full, I backup one of them to an external SSD (Reliable than HDD), and keep the other card as it is. Then I go on to 2nd pair, and do the same. I always ensure I have 2 copies. Always.
Wait what... external SSD? Isn't that kinda useless?
In addition to speed, SSD's are solid-state, so it is MUCH harder to damage and destroy the data held within.
Not really. Rather than buying too many memory cards and keep backup which shortly becomes very expensive. So I have a SSD in my laptop, which is a lot more reliable than mechanical HDD. For example, a 960GB SSD will cost the same as a 128GB Sandisk Extreme Pro CF. Since SSD is a flash device too, I just empty one memory card from a set to SSD and keep the other memory card as it is. So I have redundancy and not worry about data loss.
I've just bought a 128GB! usually 16/32GB are enough
I just bought two 128GB cards too, CF and SDXC. More space to shoot and less card swap, and I get to have backup.
Really, what's new here?