What is the largest Compact flash card that can be used for D2xs?

[glen_fujita]

As of now I've only used 8gb Compact flash for my D2xs. Now that they've came

out with 12gb, 16gb, and even 32gb compact flashes, I was wondering if any of

these larger size cards would be compatible. I've tried calling nikon directly

and they don't even know the answer, really silly. Any info would be

appreciated.

[ShunCheung]

Theoretically, even 32G CF cards should be compatible on the D2Xs, but not all brands and all models have been officially tested by Nikon. Therefore, officially, they only support a few Sandisk and Lexar cards. If you call Nikon, they should only give you the official line.

[ellis_vener_photography]

"they don't even know the answer, really silly. "

 

Why is that really silly? They aren't making the compact Flash Cards after all. My anecdotal experience is that I have no problems with a 16GB SanDisk Extreme III in D300, D3 ,and Canon 1D mark 3 bodies , but my 1Ds Mark 2 won't recognize more than 8Gb on the same card and it stubbornly refuses to let me update its firmware.

[RCRogers]

16GB according to the Sandisk website. The D300 and D3 with UDMA can take the larger cards.

[mike_sea]

I am no expert but read somewhere in my travels that the architecture of the d2(s) can only handle up to 8 gig. What that means I don't know or why. The d80's, yes an amateur body can handle the cards "when the come out" which obviously they have as they were designed later in the evolution.

 

 

Please don't hold me to this as I can't recall the full context of the story

[ShunCheung]

The D2X, D300 and D3 all support FAT32, which theoretically means you can use memory cards that are up to like 137G. As Ellis points out, the D2X works with 16G Sandisk Extreme III cards, but other brands have 32G CF cards.

 

UDMA merely means faster memory access. That is, the camera can read and write faster to the card. UDMA does not affect the storage capacity.

[dcphotography]

I wouldn't use a large card anyway.. imagine if you lost the card with a bunch of images on it. or it broke on you.

[mike_sea]

David Chu's point was the one I started to write as I read down the page.

 

The only possible use would be if perhaps u used two 32 gig cars and wrote to both [concurrently] in the D3.

 

Mike Sea

[tom_luongo1]

Has anyone ever heard of one of these cards physically breaking? (I think that's what David Chu is talking about.)

 

And a card that size doesn't have to come out of the camera, so it's unlikely to get lost.

 

And even if someone uses smaller cards, they usually keep them in a wallet. Can you imagine if you lost the wallet?

[joseph_wisniewski]

"I wouldn't use a large card anyway.. imagine if you lost the card with a bunch of images on it. or it broke on you."

 

In that case, what you should have said is "I will use the largest cards possible".

 

There are three principle modes of CF image loss.

 

First is electrostatic damage to the card or camera. The card is vulnerable to a zap when you put the card in the camera, a storage wallet, or a reader attached to your computer. Having cards large enough so that you do not change them in the field, only controlled environments, reduces this form of loss dramatically. It is also possible to zap the camera during a card change, especially under field conditions. In that case, you've ended the shoot.

 

Second is damage to the card connector. A small, hard object enters the socket on the card, and bends or pushes back a pin in the connector of camera or reader. This typically renders the card unreadable, but the data can be recovered by the card manufacturer. More importantly, it puts the camera out of commission until repaired. Reducing the number of card changes reduces the chance of damaging the camera with a contaminated card. Reducing the number of cards in a "wallet", as well as reducing the number of times the wallet has to be opened under field conditions, further reduces the chances of fatal contamination.

 

And last is the actual loss or destruction of the card due to mishandling. If your workflow consists of loading a large card into the camera, and only removing it when necessary to archive data, you've eliminated los of wallets, cards in the laundey, cards dropped into deep snow (been there, done that), lakes, oceans, etc.

 

In short, it's safer to keep your eggs in one basket than to keep moving the egges from basket to basket unnecessarily.

[Ed_Ingold]

You have to consider more than just the memory size. I have a 2G Simpletech card which the D2h will not recognize. The same card works in a D1x and D2x, and a 4G Sandisk card works in the D2h. Go figure!

[aaron l]

I've had cards die before. I loaned my D70 out and the card was pulled before the camera was shut off and the card became unreadable. Sandisk recovery software saved the images but the card acted funny after that, so it went in the junk heap.

[andy_smothers]

<p>Old thread...but wanted to update this by saying that the Kingston 32GB work in my D2Xs body but they are significantly slower than my Sandisk Extreme III 16GB cards which work perfectly.</p>

 

[milan_sabata1]

<p>I purchased 16GB Extreme III SanDisk card and used it in my D2x during my So.American trip. I knew I won't be able to download my images for couple of days at the time - so I figured, I will get a large card, load the card with photos and download them once I get back to my hotel. After about 2 days of shooting, the card displayed "This Card Cannot be Used". I lost all my shots. So I would be very careful before you use that 16GB card.<br /> <br /> My D2x continued to work just fine with SanDisk 2GB and 4GB Extreme III cards immediatelly after this incident and for the duration of my trip.<br /> <br /> Just to let you know, how SanDisk stands behind its product: Once I got to working computer in LaPaz, Bolivia, I immediately sent several message to SanDisk Help Line to advice me as to what to do and how to retrieve my photos. Even though my emails were marked as "Urgent" and "Help needed" and "Please, Help" - I have never heard back from SanDisk.</p>

[scottelly]

<p>I use 2 and 4 GB micro SD cards, because many items will not take CF cards now. I use them in a microSD to SD adapter. The speeds seem to be the same, but the cards can be stored in smaller spaces. I can put 3 in the same card holder that I would use for just one SD card. I use an SD to CF adapter for cameras that require a CF card, and the microSD cards seem to work just fine in this "multi-adapter" environment. One thing that's nice about using smaller cards is the fact that if one gets "burned" or lost, I only lose a small number of photos. I started using 4 GB cards because I started using a camera that could handle the new higher speed microSD-HC cards, and I wanted more capacity, because the camera shoots at higher resolutions and it shoots video too.<br>

-<br>

The 4 GB cards work fine in the newer cameras, but I will be getting a D70 or a 1Dx soon, and I will use my old 2 GB cards for that/them.<br>

-<br>

PS. I have had a number of SD cards "break" but only one microSD card fried/burned (when I put it in a new Nikon D5000. I guess the newer cameras use high power circuitry for writing at faster speeds to the new cards or something. I never had a problem with that card in my Canon 5 D or my Sony R1. Interestingly, the Sony R1 will handle the new SD-HC cars if it is in the right SD-CF adapter, but the Canon 5 D will not. At least the Sony R1 worked with my Ridata 4 GB microSD-HC cards that way. I will check to see if the Nikon D70 or D1x will work with the larger faster cars in the same way.</p>