not enough CF cards, portable drive reliable for weddings?

<p>There's a short thread on this question in the archives, but it's

over a year old now, so I thought I'd post a new one....</p>

 

<p>I'm shooting my first paid wedding in a few weeks, after a couple

of trial runs at friends' weddings. Here are some examples of my work:

<a href="http://gallery.kevinreed.net">http://gallery.kevinreed.net

</a></p>

 

<p>My problem is that I currently only have 2 1GB CF cards, which I

dump to a 40GB portable drive, reformat and then continue shooting.

This has worked fine for me for the past year and a half, but being

the official photographer and the responsibility that comes with that

makes me really nervous and I don't want to take any chances of losing

the images.</p>

 

<p>Ideally, I would just go buy a bunch of new CF cards. Problem is,

1) I'm a little trigger happy (tend to shoot 1-2 GB per hour) so I

would need a lot of cards, and 2) I'm completely broke and this job

isn't paying that much! </p>

 

<p>One possibility I've considered is to buy a second portable drive,

so I have at least two copies of the files before I format the CF

card.</p>

 

<p>Just wondering if anyone has any ideas. Thanks!</p>

<< One possibility I've considered is to buy a second portable drive, so I have at least two copies of the files before I format the CF card. >>

 

Are you being paid to copy files or to photograph a wedding? When do you plan to do all this file coping? Will you ask that the wedding be paused while you verify the contents of your cards copied properly? Logisticaly this doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If you can work it, more power to you, but it's certainly not the route I would go.

 

IMHO, either shoot less or buy more CF cards. 1GB cards are $60 a piece.

I'd forget the second portable drive. Just bite the bullet and get more CF cards. You're going to need them in the long run anyway, if you keep shooting weddings.

Yeah, it's pretty inconvenient to download the cards on location, but not impossible. I could also have an assistant do it.

I too,think you are better off getting more cards, even if you were dumping them into a flashtrax, I think you're better off keeping the cards freshly formatted and once full, saved till you get home. Also, examine why you are so "trigger happy". If you were working for a studio you'd have to be able to justify each shot, once you're working on your own you'll still need to wade through all the stuff to get what you want and if you are truly "trigger happy" it'll be distracting all day through, especially when shooting flash. As you gain more confidence and experience you'll likely be less "trigger happy".

You have been using your system for a year & a half...you tell us if it's reliable enough for a wedding.

This is my first time posting here, and I have to say, this is a great forum! Thanks to everyone who replied so far.

 

David, I do hope I can learn to shoot a little less, but I also think there's some validity to it. David Hurn in On Being a Photographer (awesome book!) talks about the process of shooting a bunch of frames leading up to the one keeper, recomposing a little each time, trying to get the right moment, expression, etc. Or if you've seen that image by Elliot Erwitt of the guy sitting on his stoop with the bulldog on his lap, so it looks like a guy with a bulldog head, he shot a whole roll of film leading up to one or two keepers. The workload isn't too bad, either. I use RawShooter Essentials, which makes it really easy to fly through the RAW files and pick out the ones I want to process. I definitely do tone it down a little when using flash, however.

 

Also, sorry for the slow website. I just resized and resaved the files at a lower jpg compression.

 

Mike, it has been a reliable system. It's just that I know in theory there is a certain amount of risk, which up until this point has been acceptable. Just wanted to see if anyone had a method of working that I hadn't thought of.

 

Thanks again for all the replies!

By the way, not trying to compare myself to Elliot Erwitt!

>"Are you being paid to copy files or to photograph a wedding? When do you plan to do all this file coping? Will you ask that the wedding be paused while you verify the contents of your cards copied properly?"

 

Kevin, I think if you have 2 good quality drives you'll be fine! Save your cash! Or, you'll always find people that will tell you how to spend it.

 

Lets see... Reach into the bag, pull out a portable drive, turn it on, insert card, press Copy button. In 15-20 minutes check for status "OK" message on the screen. Repeat this procedure on a second drive. Probably about 40 seconds total? Don't trust it? Why bother shooting with DSLR then? It's the same 0s and 1s inside!

 

I use two different brand portable storage drives. Works like a charm. I am paid to photograph a wedding but then also... I ask to be given something to eat (shame on me!) and I take a few short breaks to change my batteries, lenses, get some water, use a bathroom and the worst - to offload my CD cards to my portable drives! I don't even verify that every image got copied correctly! The device tells me "Transferred OK" and I am happy. Imagine that!

 

:)

Oh, I'd like to have 20GB of CF cards, too, but I think I'd rather spend the cash on my two kids!

 

Yes, there is risk. If your card fails you'll have to use rescue program on a computer at home to get anything out of it. Make sure you have at least 3 cards.

Kevin Erwitt sounds better than Elliot R., by the way.

 

Be trigger happy, but you pay for your thrills. Buying more cards is the fee.

 

Back up on the portable drive. Do not reformat until loaded on computer and burned a DVD, CD, whatever. Or however you archive your work.

 

I look at this from the client side. More likely for me than the wedding shooter side. It is your job to protect my pix as long as you possess them.

 

Hard drives cannot take the knocking around that flash cards can. I use a Nikon Coolwalker, which is a portable drive, but would give myself the same advice if I were in your situation.

 

Bill

Personal experience running a network of 1000+ PC's suggests to me that copying to portable drives is just not a good idea. I typically see hdd failure rates of 5%-10% within a month of deploying 500 machines. As a back up to the cards maybe, but formatting the cards and shooting over them would be outside my comfort zone for risk. CF cards are less than $100 per gig if you look around. Last I checked, portable drives weren't exactly cheap. How many cards do you think you will need?

 

Some nice shots on your site BTW.

This particular job is 4-5 hours, and I'm just estimating that I typically shoot 1-2 gig's an hour. I don't necessarily always shoot that much, but it would be pretty horrible to run out and be forced to stop shooting just because I didn't bring enough CF cards.

 

Thanks again for everyone's input.

Thanks for the valuable question, I have been wondering myself!

Find some way to buy more cards and either shoot less photos or do some chimping and deleting on site. Two 1 gig cards should cover a wedding in high resolution jpeg unless you're using RAW.

 

My method is this:

 

1. I shoot to the card, obviously.

 

2. When the card is full I put it in a small belt pouch and put a new card in the camera.

 

3. When I am done with the event and get home (I don't have a studio), I "copy" the images using a card-reader (I do not "move" them from the card).

 

4. I then make a CD copy of each card.

 

5. I also transfer each downloaded card to another external hard drive.

 

6. Only after I'm sure all images are secure and backed-up, do I delete them from the cards.

 

Am I paranoid? (^O^)

Todd, you're not paranoid. You know, I've gotten so used to shooting RAW that I hadn't even considered the possibility of getting more files per card by shooting JPG. I don't know if I can do it though. I obviously try to get the exposure right in camera, but still, it's nice to have the flexibility of RAW when needed.

Cards aren't THAT expensive....you were going to pay for a backup drive anyway. Just get

more cards.

 

They don't have to be 1GB cards to be useful. 50+ RAW shots on a 512MB card is

practical.

 

jmp

Compact flash is cheap, and it's about the only thing that's cheap in digital photography. <p>Buy more cards and save for a laptop, if you feel compelled to download on location. Dell was advertising one for $600 last week (and then you check your email, surf photo.net and play Solitaire, too :^)... t

Kevin, I suspect you have your answer. More cards or take a pass on RAW..... Bet you were hoping for a way to eat your cake and have it too, huh? :-)

You should carry twice as many CF cards as you anticipate ever needing. They don't cost much and last a long time. That will also prepare you for those back-to-back events that don't give you enough time to backup the cards. You don't ever have enough time to do this at an event, plus it increases the amount of equipment you carry (and potentially lose).

You should have the cards to do the job.

 

The portable drive should be a backup only.

 

when you're done with the shoot, you should backup to another drive and write a DVD. Then only clear the cards after verification of the data.

 

Regards.

I would agree with most posts here, get more CF cards.

Also, most the pictures on your website seem to be very unlevel? It is very distracting. Dominant things in the background such as wall moldings, pictures, other people, are way off level? Maybe it is what you are after? If not, maybe use a larger aperature to blur it out.

Good luck and have fun.

Kevin, if you can't afford more CF cards, you can't afford to shoot professionally. You are being paid to have a failsafe system of not losing the wedding images. Trusting a portable hard drive with those valuable images is eventually going to bite you. (byte you?)

Cards are getting cheaper all of the time. Buy some 2GB cards for about $140 a pop (depending on the vendor) and shoot RAW if you like to work that way. You should be able to invest in at least 10GB in cards to securely shoot weddings. Never - ever - format your cards after use during a wedding. Until you can download to your computer and make at least two other copies, you are going to risk some major headaches as time goes on.

 

When you shoot digitally, are you saving on the cost of film? Not exactly. You are saving on the cost of processing. Buy enough cards. Peace of mind is better than saving a few dollars.

 

All the best!

 

Lou

Kevin, sports is mainly my gig, but I shoot a lot on each day's outing (1000+ shots, normally RAW)... I was burning CDs in the field, which freed up cards, but was a pain in the backside, not to mention extra pieces to keep track of. What I went to last year was a Wolverine 7100 portable drive (you can buy them from B&H or many other places for around $300); it's 100GB, lets me slip a card in and press a button, and go on to shooting the next card, while it transfers the files. It stays right on my belt.

It has yet to fail me, and holds more than you'd probably need it at one time for. Just an opinion, but I'm pleased and will continue to use one as I do more weddings.