The large memory card vs multiple MC question

<p>I've never had a memory card die on me. I once had a file because faulty, many years ago, so got rid of that card. But since then, never had a single problem. Yet I use multiple cards at weddings, breaking everything up "just in case"... it's not really a problem, so perhaps odd to ask the question.. but I'm curious what others do these days? I was talking to a few people recently who were using 32-64GB cards, saying they rarely change it ever... it just seemed like a lot to risk to me...</p>

<p>Do you use one great big $$$ memory card or many smaller ones?</p>

<p>I'm no 10 year veteran.. however in my 2 year career doing weddings I can tell you that I've had a card fail on two occasions.. both times however, they were recoverable as I stopped shooting immediately and replaced it with another card and continued.<br /> Once home, I imaged the corrupt card using some tools and recovered most files.<br /><br />That said, I use multiple 8 gig cards, just seems a lot safer to me. Takes 2 seconds to change out once you're full (I try change it before it's completely full) <br>

This is just how I do it, I feel a lot safer knowing that if something was to happen to one card... I still have others worst case scenario.<br>

Also.. buy from a retail store where you know the card is real.. I've heard from numerous photogs that Ebay cards are 80% fake... not sure if that's true.. but not taking the chance on buying a crappy fake.</p>

<p>I think I must have shot over 100,000 images on, pretty much, the same set of cards these past 4-5 years and they have yet to fail. However, having said that, I too shoot on dual cards whenever I shoot for a client and when I travel (meaning I do not have the luxury of "wasting" cards for backup purposes - travelling for a month across Africa means you have no access to additional storage anyway!) I never go with cards over 16GB, so any potential loss is as small as possible.</p>

<p>I will agree that you should buy from a reputable dealer and you should stick with cards that offer a lifetime guarantee.</p>

<p>Coming from a film background where 36 exposures (unless you had a roll back) was about all you had before changing film or cameras, I tend to use smaller cards and change them often. I have had rolls of film lost or destroyed. All I would lose is what is on that roll.</p>

<p>I use 4 gig cards and change them often. Often times I will only fill a card to 50% before changing a card. Even at that I get 75+ images, 150+ on a to fill up a card. If I lose a card (physically or logically) I do not lose the entire ceremony. For me several smaller cards works better than a larger card for something as important as a wedding. And yes, I have had a couple of cards fail, Sandisk cards which were replaced under warranty.</p>

<p>I do have a couple of 32 gig cards and a couple of 16 gig cards. Those I use when I am doing sports where the loss of a card is not a disaster. I just lose my work and there are others that have images. Now I only use Lexar cards and have yet to have one of those cards fail.</p>

<p>With the reliability of cards from top brands, such as Lexar, I don't really think that card failure is that big of an issue. My use of smaller cards is more of a comfort level. Each person needs to do what they feel works for them. For some just carrying extra cards is more of a risk for loss than a large single card. There is no right or wrong answer.</p>

<p>I use 32gb cards on the 5D2s. I get about 1200-1400 (RAWS) per card, and as a result have never needed to change a card in the field (2 times on site, but <em>always</em> in controlled conditions (the car)). With the next camera set, I'll definitely factor in replacing those w/ 64gb cards. I've never had a CF card spontaneously fail in a way that resulted in the loss of more than a couple images (corrupted -- maybe the card, maybe the camera), and only twice in that respect (after which they were removed from service). Personally, I advocate for the use of very large, high quality cards, because the risk of continuously changing cards (especially in weather, the field, or other uncontrollable circumstances) is <strong><em>vastly</em></strong> <em>higher</em> than the risk of a spontaneous card failure.</p>

<p>For example, if you have to change cards 3-4+ times every wedding, the chance that you'll butterfinger a card into a puddle, get bumped into while changing cards (especially at a tight venue, or raucous reception), or loose a card, or do something else causing loss or damage to a card, is <em>on an order of magnitude higher than the chance that your card will spontaneously fail </em>-- especially in such a way that would destroy it (and it's data) utterly... bottom line? the safest (by far!) place for a CF card is in your camera.</p>

<p>Personally, when I buy a new card, I fill it w/ RAWS on burst, as fast as possible then download, to 'test' it, and, assuming no problems, put it into service. I recall the card specs, for write/read, and if <em>anything</em> seems out of order, it doesn't go into service. I don't advocate a particular brand, but make sure it's a <em>highly</em> reputable manufacturer, and the card is genuine (I've gotten fakes before, and it impacts speed (particularly) and (presumably) reliability).</p>

<p>Of course that's all a result of personal experience, how you shoot is of course up to you... but to me, loosing even a single card w/ say a ceremony on it seems ridiculously risky.</p>

<p>I think the odds are greater that I would lose or damage the memory card in handling than they are of memory card failure. I feel better about keeping track of fewer cards, and I think they are safer in the camera than in my pocket, bag, or case. I have never had a card fail, although I do replace them regularly.</p>

<p>I agree with Matt Needham (and others): the risk of losing a card seems to be much, much greater than the risk of a card failing. Now, as it happens, I have had cards fail, and I've never yet lost one. This doesn't change my assessment of the risks. My experience is almost certainly a result of my taking extraordinary care not to lose cards, while there's very little I can do to prevent a card from failing (other than buying top brand cards, which I do).</p>

<p>If a card fails — stops accepting writes, or can't be read by normal means — it is still very likely that you can retrieve the info, as long the card isn't physically damaged. One more reason not to let the very small risk of failure worry you excessively. In my limited experience with card failure, I haven't ever lost photos.</p>

<p>I also hate having to change cards anywhere other than a secure spot. Hate having to change cards while shooting at a wedding. I usually use 8GB SD cards (in two different cameras) + 4 GB memory stick cards (ditto), both in their respective cameras at the same time. If I need to change, I do it in between wedding and reception, while I'm on my own. Only change I make. The cards are zipped into a little "purse" that hangs around my neck, inside my dress shirt.</p>

<p>Will</p>

<p>For those that had cards that failed, were those SD or CF cards? </p>

<p>I do a little of both. I have never had a card fail and I use the same set of cards many, many times, but I migrate slowly over time. I started with 4 1 gig cards and the largest I have now is a 32 gig, with lots of 8 gig ones. I keep the same set of cards for each camera I use, and format each card in the same camera. I am very careful with handling and following instructions re turning the camera off, etc.</p>

<p>I tend to think that a larger card is less risky, but I have plenty of extra cards, in case of card failure. More important (IMHO) is sensible handling of cards, whichever way you decide to go.</p>

<p>Green Photog - Yes... (I use D300,D700 and D40 / D7000) and I have had both types of cards fail. The SD card fail was at the beginning of a senior shoot - no images were compromised or lost. The CF card fail was at a wedding - I was chimping - and all of a sudden the camera (d300) decided that it could no longer read from the card. I pulled it right away and later managed to recover all of the images - except for 1 (and that wasn't even the image I was viewing at the time)</p>

<p>It's really a matter of choosing which poison you prefer - I've never dropped or fat fingered or lost a memory card - I suppose it is only a matter of time - but I am zealous in the guarding of my cards that contain images - I start the wedding with 10 cards (2 - 4 gb) in my right pocket. As I shot them - they go from right to left pocket. Periodically I check to make sure that between pockets and camera I have 10 cards. </p>

<p>I change out when a card is getting to about 20-30 images remaining or when we change events (ie Formals to Ceremony, Ceremony to After, After to Reception). In my view that does a lot more to mitigate any loss of images due to card failure as I will only have a single subject on any given card, and most likely will have multiple cards of the same subject - so at most I may lose 50-100 images. Again, though I have had 2 failures - I have only lost 1 image.</p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

<p>My gut tells me it would (with adequate research data) be easy to mount an argument that the<strong> loss, over-writing</strong> or <strong>physical</strong> damage of one of many (quality) cards being used, (pulled in and out and stored somewhere), is more likely, than one big (quality) card, which stays in the camera, failing.</p>

<p>I think the idea of spreading across many cards is still discussed now and perhaps hung onto by some, because THE CONCEPT of using MANY smaller cards came about by two key historical elements, the first a technological change, beyond our control; and the second a natural evolving mechanism of humans adapting to change:</p>

<ul>

<li>a) The fact that cards’ sizes have developed into being now big – i.e. at first we only had smaller card sizes from which to choose.</li>

<li>b) The fact that when we first cut over to digital, we (those who used film) and who are “belts and braces” anal retentive apropos redundancy and safety –were used to splitting the key shooting across different film rolls and having those rolls sometimes processed at different times.</li>

</ul>

<p>Certainly the above is true for me.<br>

This question, I recall, was asked a few years ago and I answered that I used 4gb cards and I shot using the cards like I shot film: I do not do that now.</p>

<p>Now I rather leave one larger card in each camera, (usually three cameras) for the entire event – and I think that is more sensible and overall, safer so to do.</p>

<p>WW</p>

<p> </p>

<blockquote>

<p>Again, though I have had 2 failures - I have only lost 1 image.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>David, if that's the case, I think using larger cards makes sense in today's environment. The worse nightmare is the whole card gone back and all images are lost. But if the worse you will get is losing 1, 10 or even 50 images on a 32GB card, I think it's worth taking the risk. </p>

<p>Over the years, I have not read about too many cases where files on a card that went bad were not mostly, if not all, recoverable, if you didn't do anything silly to the card after discovering it went bad. Given this fact, one should always have back up cards available, so that if a large capacity card goes bad during the day, you just take it out, insert the new card(s) and carry on--the 'bad' card to be recovered later at home.</p>

What would happen if those large cards got dropped, you turned the camera off before the last image was finished uploading, which will scramble all of your images. There are many other problems that can happen, broken lens broken camera, whatever.

 

I bought the 1ds mk 3 so I wouldn't have to worry as much about a card going bad, because you can put 2 cards inside the camera. Even so, I only use 2 gb compact cards, but use a 16 gb sd card - just in case as my backup.

 

Change your cards often, so you don't get sued. A few missing images is so much safer then 1000 images going bye bye. The odd's are slim, but you never know. A chance I'd never take.

 

I do agree that cards are a lot better. I had a small side job fixing broken cards. This your I only had to fix 4. Pretty darn good.

<p>I use the dual slots in my camera to manage this problem. First I started with raw in slot 1 on a 16gb card, with a jpg backup on a 4gb card in slot 2 as my plan for failure. During a shoot I swapped my 16gb card out and stuck it in my camera strap (black rapid) and the 4gb jpg card in my pocket. Long story short I didn't zip the strap back up and lost the 16gb card full of raw files. The jpgs though nice to have were not very useful when compared to the raw files I wanted. The good news is the 16gb card full of raw files was found and returned, but it really made me rethink.</p>

 

<ol>

<li>Shoot raw in both slots. If you are shooting raw its because you want raw.</li>

<li>Change cards infrequently, as human error is eventually going to bite you. I now shoot two 16gb cars both raw in both slots and only try to change one more time to another set of cards. When I take the first set of cards out, I put them in different places.</li>

<li>If you don't have two slots I still have to be in the camp of changing cards more often. Just as surly as you will eventually have human error, storage technology is also going to eventually fail. Which one comes first I don't know. I thought I was careful, but made a mistake. But I've also seen plenty of technology failures.</li>

<li>Before you leave your event, count your cards. If there is hope of getting it back, its going to be while you are there and you can search for it and talk to people. Being put into voicemail for hotel cleaning services is not very helpful. Also before you leave the building, separate your cards into two locations. Maybe one set in your camera bag and another in your pocket physically on you. You never know whats going to happen between the event and your house.</li>

</ol>

 

Well written Stephen. I forgot about computer uploads.

 

I also write on the back of the compact flash cards my phone number with a reward for the return of the card. I've never lost one but it's a godd safety practice. You have to use one of those Marks-alot felt type of pens, because most other pens won't stick to the paper on the back of the CF cards.

The only real reason why I change 1 and 2 gb cards is I can remember what shots were lost with a defective card. As already stated I use a 16gb SD card too. For the formals I always use 1 gb compact flash cards. These cards only hold about 40 images and I am confident that I can remember these lost pics. After the formals I usually switch to 2gb's with the 16gb cd card.

<p>First of all, I am of school of not changing cards. I would not shoot an important event with a card I bought that morning, but if you know the card and have worked with it, then it probably is not going to be the most likely point of failure. I would rate misplacement/damage/loss of these small cards as a bigger danger than computer failure. The room is dark, you just changed cards and a major photo opt pops up. You don’t secure the card and it falls, gets stepped on etc. I believe shooting a wedding is like combat, the KISS principal rules.<br>

I work with computers all day. One thing is for sure, nobody has mentioned that cards are magnetic media and fragile. Those little pins can break or get dirty. The more you change cards, the more likely they will fail. (As opposed to the card failing if it stays in the camera.) Nadine mentioned formatting the card in the camera you use. Great idea, formatting can renew the card and fix issues.<br>

When I get to the lab after a shoot I download the images and back then up and burn a DVD too. I work with RAID 1 drives, a server and a NAS unit too. BTW: I do like the dual card idea in the cameras but I have not tried it. Frankly there is no end to this.</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>One thing is for sure, nobody has mentioned that cards are magnetic media</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Actually, one thing that is for sure is that cards are not magnetic media. (Except for the now rarely used microdrives.)</p>

<p> . . . Crikey that was quick!<br>

<a href="http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4687/~/sandisk-cards-environmental-tolerance-(waterproof,-temperature,-magnetic-and">I was futzing around getting a useful link</a> and you got in before me . . .<br>

WW</p>

<p>I'd never use a 'large' card, too much of a chance at losing an entire day. Instead, I break the cards up based on what part of the day it is.</p>