Does anyone buy high capacity memory cards?

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john stevenson
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As a beginner 4GB maybe 8GB seems like plenty of capacity too me. I can't see any reason for going to these larger capacity cards, speed yes, capacity no. Is it not best to get them off the card as soon as possible and onto some other device?
 
I shoot in raw and use 4GB CF cards.

I don't go above that as I don't wish to lose 8GB worth of images in the ufortunate event of any failure.
 
Personally I wouldn't go higher than 4GB, don't put all your eggs in one basket and that. 8GB is probably for video use more than anything? I guess higher mega pixel cameras produce bigger files too though, so its all relative.
 
I've just bought some 16Gb cards for my 7D but that's because a) I shoot raw (approx 20mb+ per image) and b) with a 12wk old son the video function is going to get plenty of use (330mb per min).


But, you are right, it is better to get your shots off the card and on to something you can backup as soon as possible.
 
I use 16Gb cards in my 30D / 50D. I shoot motorsport & I like the ability to have a whole day of shooting without missing *The Shot* because I'm changing cards.

When I started, my first camera used massive 32Mb cards, technology moves on..........
 
32gb Transcend, have done for a year. Its 133x speed but thats plenty for most things in my D700.

Get 850+ shots at max res, JPG and RAW at the same time.
 
I have a selection of 4Gb and 8Gb, I tend to use fast cards. Prob got about 6 or 7 in total.

Still touch wood, never had a problem with the cards, as I buy pro branded.
 
Bigger cards = more pics = big losses if card fails, simples:)

Considering how cheap and small extra cards are, there's really no need to get more than 4GB cards, IMHO
 
mrgubby said:
I use 16Gb cards in my 30D / 50D. I shoot motorsport & I like the ability to have a whole day of shooting without missing *The Shot* because I'm changing cards.
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That's where I'm going too. Very shortly the smallest card I use will be 8GB and that's the second choice
 
I use mainly 4GB cards with one 8GB that I use if I'm travelling light! Having had a card fail on me (a cheap, unbranded one), I don't want to risk losing too many pix in one hit should another fail.

I also shoot motorsport sometimes and find that the breaks between races give me plenty of time to swap cards as and when necesssary - if I'm not sure I've got enough space left for the next race, I swap before the card's full. With a card swap taking only a few seconds, it's usually possible to do the swap whyile there's no action near me, even in mid race.
 
I shoot mainly football now and find 4GB more than enough (thats shooting JPEG though) as i upload at half time. For wildlife (shooting RAW) if i was to shoot more i would buy a couple of 8GB cards and have the 4GB as backup

HTH

Andy
 
I have two 30mb/second 8GB Sandisk SD cards and then two 4GB ones.

Although im going on holiday next month and I think im going to need alot more :)
 
matthew_rk said:
Personally I wouldn't go higher than 4GB, don't put all your eggs in one basket and that. 8GB is probably for video use more than anything? I guess higher mega pixel cameras produce bigger files too though, so its all relative.
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Depends on what you shoot. If you casually go for a stroll or shoot landscapes you aren't going to take hundreds of shots in one hit. If you are a wedding/sport/wildlife photographer then you are way more likely to need that extra capacity. So it's really down to what each person shoots to judge if they need extra space or not - or how fast the card is.

People seem way too afraid of loosing images when these threads come up. Not really sure why, I've never lost an image on a memory card and neither have any of the people I shoot with. Not saying it doesn't happen from time to time...but lets not forget there are plenty of accounts out there of cards still working after going through the washing machine or being dropped in a puddle too.

A non-photographer friend of mine even formatted her card once by mistake but using software I got all the images back. People really do worry too much about loosing images due to card failure I think.
 
I use 4GB cards which work well for me, for the time being anyway. I don't shoot video, and don't take enormous numbers of images on any particular day, so I'll stick with the "spread of risk" theory.

OTOH, I do know a couple of people who reckon the risk of losing a card, or bending the pins replacing the card, outweigh the risk of corruption/failure, assuming good quality cards in the first place. I've also heard of people who download from the camera to avoid removing and replacing the card, for similar reasons. I've never had any problems like this, but I suppose it's possible. It's a personal choice and doesn't really matter.
 
I have 4 x 16Gb cards and 4 x 4gb. The smaller 2Gb and 1Gb I've given to my son for his 400D. All Sandisk Extreme III's

I mostly shoot sports on a 50D, which gives me 750-800 shots per card, which is enough for a rugby game or motorsport event, however I usually swap cards at some point during the day before they are totally full.

4Gb cards just means running the risk of missing a shot as the card fills. With a larger card it's one less thing to worry about.
 
treeman said:
Bigger cards = more pics = big losses if card fails, simples:)

Considering how cheap and small extra cards are, there's really no need to get more than 4GB cards, IMHO
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How many people have had genuine branded cards fail though?

This has been the same argument since the dawn of time, back when I splurged £79 on an 8mb (megabyte not gigabyte). Same again when peeps went from 128mb to 256/512mb chips :D

I'd get about 100 or so shots on a 4GB card which isnt ideal (I got a Extreme IV card with my D700 last year and have used it about 3 times since).
 
Rikki said:
How many people have had genuine branded cards fail though?

This has been the same argument since the dawn of time, back when I splurged £79 on an 8mb (megabyte not gigabyte). Same again when peeps went from 128mb to 256/512mb chips :D

I'd get about 100 or so shots on a 4GB card which isnt ideal (I got a Extreme IV card with my D700 last year and have used it about 3 times since).
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Totally agree with what you are saying, I think its silly to buy lots of small cards, there is more risk of loosing a card if its not in the camera. I normally use an 8gb which is enough for a days shooting in the 50D (just over 300 raw files) but I keep my 4gb card attached to the camera strap just in case I need more room. Before I bought a portable backup device I was considering a 32gb card or even a 64gb card for when I'm away from home.
 
treeman said:
Bigger cards = more pics = big losses if card fails, simples:)

Considering how cheap and small extra cards are, there's really no need to get more than 4GB cards, IMHO
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It depends what camera you have, and if you shoot in Raw or not.

On the 5Dii, shooting in Raw can only get about 290 pics on a 8G card. I had 5 of those on me at the last shoot and they weren't even enough. Going to 4G cards means i would be changing cards far too often.
 
I'm using a mix of 4GB and 8GB now. But I've no doubt that I'll move over to much larger cards eventually.
 
I have x4 4GB cards and recently bought a 16GB card for use with my 5D.
I'm also confused about the concerns about failing cards. After all, if we were all that paranoid, who'd need a card above 1GB?
More to the point, my guess is that the highest probability of the card getting damaged is when being removed/re-inserted into the camera. Having a larger card reduces the amount of card accessing and also hopefully reduces the chances of damaging the camera body itself.
 
I currently have a 4Gb, an 8Gb and a 16Gb. The 4Gb and 8Gb cards are both San Disk Extreme III whereas the 16Gb card is a cheaper card that to date I have had no problems with but if I were to ever fill it and have a problem then it'd be a lot of shots to lose. At some point I'll get rid of the 16Gb card and replace it with 2 8Gb Extreme III cards for the extra piece of mind.
 
PsiFox said:
I shoot in raw and use 4GB CF cards.

I don't go above that as I don't wish to lose 8GB worth of images in the ufortunate event of any failure.
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exactly what i do, i have 3 four gb cards and a couple of 2 gb cards that all live in my bag - all various ages and speeds but it got the capacity just wouldnt like to loose a whole days worth of pics, half a day is bad but liveable.......
 
I'd love to get an idea of how many people (even out of the people on this thread) have had a genuine card fail....

Personally I've never had a card fail, and currently shoot with two 16GB and an 8GB.
 
I'd much rather have all my eggs in one basket than to try and juggle several baskets of eggs. I've never, ever, had a CF card die in the camera (and the first one I bought was a masive 8MB, yup that's 0.008 GB - so I've been using them for a long time). However, in the days when I couldn't afford big cards I did manage to lose one (put it away 'somewhere safe' in the heat of the moment and didn't find it again). Earlier this year I was shooting with a friend who only uses 8GB and 4GB cards. She got into a major panic when she realised she'd just swapped a full card into the camera and formatted it!

Now I have two 16GB cards. One is just carried around as a spare - just in case. The other lives in the camera and only comes out at the end of the day to transfer pics to the PC. Then it goes back into the camera and formatted, ready for next time. The only way I can lose that card is if I lose the camera.
 
davekiddle said:
I'd love to get an idea of how many people (even out of the people on this thread) have had a genuine card fail....

Personally I've never had a card fail, and currently shoot with two 16GB and an 8GB.
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Granted it's not that common however, if I was doing a paid shoot for someone would I rather risk losing all the shots on a 8GB or larger card or just a portion if they are split over 2 or more. For me the choice is as I have said.

Also it takes less than 10 seconds to change a card and I frequently do so before it is full, if there is, and there always is, a lull in whatever the proceedings are.
 
Snownation said:
Can anyone tell me the point of having higher speed memory cards?
Is it the difference between camera write speed, or transfer speed to the PC?
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I shoot in jpeg and bought a 8GB card so it would last all day, but bought a class 2 card (about the slowest speed of card) and whilst my camera (D80) has a 100 shot buffer, with the slower write speed I notice my camera pausing when taking a number of shots back to back.

So back to my Ultra and Extreme cards now and the 8GB lives in my point and squirt Canon these days
 
I had an 8Gb in the D200 but my D700 came with a posh 4Gb which I am using instead. It gives a lot of shots! I think I would rather use multiple 4Gb cards myself BUT if I had a D3 with dual card slots I would probably go for 2 16Gb cards as you have your duplication (that is so long as someone doesn't nick the camera)
 
I shoot raw + jpeg, so that gives me approx 130 shot's from a 4GB, i missed a couple of really good shot's on Sunday through having to change cards in a hurry, although i still think this could happen with any sized card if your taking lot's of shot's and not keeping your eye on it, i think the secret is to change cards when you have a lull in your shooting,even if you have say 10 left on the card, it's worked for me in the past, unfortunately my head was elsewhere on Sunday :bang:
 
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