Shooting the wedding, planning for CF card failure

[joe_rych]

Ok here's the question. While I would love to have a D3, I cant afford one yet so the D300 will be my camera body

choice. What contingency plan do most of you non D3 photographers use to ensure you will have most if not all of

the wedding photo's in the event of card failure. I have heard arguments on both sides of the fence on this one.

 

Some people say swithing too often wears out the parts and you could lose it (the card). On the other hand alot of

people say it would not be wise to entrust a single card with your entire wedding.

 

A word on my shooting style. I usually wear 2 bodies when shooting, one with the 17-55 and one with the 70-200 so

than I can cover a large range of focal lenght.

 

 

Let us assume that for this wedding I did not have a second shooter, only me. For the ceremony I am wearing 2

camera bodies as described above, most of the shots for the ceremony are probably on the camera body with the 70-

200 though. For the formals I have one body on a tripod in the aisle and a second on a nearby pue and with each

pose I take on the tripod camera I shoot another with a similar lens on the backup camera just in case. Formals is

the only place I will have this kind of true rednudancy. Same deal as with the ceremony for the reception, 2 camera

bodies with different lenses and occasional switching out to a fisheye on one.

 

When would you change cards? What size cards would you use? 4, 8 or 16?

[andrew_gale]

To ensure that card failure is as small a problem as possible, use 1 or 2 gig cards. Just get a pile of them. It might be more expensive, but worth it. Forget about the people who say switching cards wears out your camera, thats paranoia. As long as your not ripping them out and cramming new ones in you should be fine.

 

If you take 1800 photos at the wedding

If you have only 200 photos on a card, and just one fails, you still have 88% of what you shot. If you have them all on one card, guess what, you have 0%.

 

I would switch cards every time there is a change. So shoot the ceremony with a new one in each camera, etc etc, that will help you organize later.

 

On losing the cards, dont, if you are smart enough to be a photographer, your smart enough to take care of some tiny cards.

[Jerry_]

As long as you "always" make certain the write light go out, off, and is no longer on, you should not have a card failure. And be certain to keep some distance from the DJ's speaker system at the reception. You may also consider taking time to exchange your CF card after 150 images....if you attempt to 'squeeze' just one more image on the card [that is nearly full] in the camera, you may discover the cause of 'card failure.'

[geoffcauble]

I shoot with a number of smaller cards it used to be 512MB-1GB but now with larger files and moving to raw I find 1-2GB is about right. The weddings I shoot are rarely so action packed that I can't change cards every 75-150 images. I keep track of how many images I have remaining on a card and make sure I don't get stuck with a full card at a critical point. I remember shooting MF before digital and having to deal with swapping 120 and 220 backs with dark slides and sticky release mechanisms. Changing CF cards is no big deal in comparison.

 

Related, just like with film, you number and track you CF cards and you make sure you don't lose them. I've never lost a roll of film or a card. Lastly, you write a contract that covers loss of CF card and CF card failure.

[jc5066]

1. Shoot wireless.

2. Use 1G cards to reduce the amount of pictures being lost. I remember when film guys wouldn't use 36 exposure rolls because it was too many pictures on one roll. Now we feel fine putting a few hundred in on one card.

[steve_hovland]

I can get more than 900 shots on a 4 gb card using jpeg. For me that's plenty for a day's shooting- I did about 750 at

the last wedding.

 

I eject and reinsert the card at the start of the day to make sure the contacts haven't corroded, then reformat.

 

Before using my card I made sure that it would fill correctly.

 

I only use manufacturer-recommended cards, in my case Sandisk in Nikon and Canon.

 

If you are shooting solo, I think it's a good idea to shoot two cameras throughout the day, particularly during the

formals.

[daverhaas]

Change cards early and often. Take key shots with both bodies. Format all cards before the wedding. Also I bring along an Epson portable device to backup the cards to immediately. My cards go from right pocket - formated / ready to use to left pocket exposed, not yet backed up to camera bag - backed up and don't use until i get 2 good copies on my computer and external drives.

 

I've shot several weddings / events this year with D300's and had no issues with card failure. By the way having a D3 doesn't guarantee that you won't have a catastrophic card failure, it minimizes the risk since you can write to a duplicate cf card, but still both could, in theory fail.

 

Dave

[geoffcauble]

I didn't mention it but I often use my laptop and have an assistant download the cards or when I'm alone I try to find a quiet 2-3 minutes where I can start a card downloading and let it run as I shoot. By the time I get to the reception the formals and ceremony are already on my computer as a backup. I never format a card and use it again until I have the images on the computer and backup burned to DVD.

 

Someone else mentioned brand name CF cards. I don't know what failure rates are for cheaper off-brand cards but I don't think CF cards are the place to try and cut corners. Buy the best you can.

[wedding-photography-denver]

Ok, firstly the issue of card failure.

 

Nearly every time this happens, it is related to an insertion into a card reader. If you place a card that you have thoroughly tested (several "write to full" and "in cam re format" cylces) in your camera and don't remove it, chances are you will never have that issue.

 

So, now to card failure itself. If this happens, I have not seen one instance where the card failed if

 

1) it was properly tested before hand,

 

2) it was not damaged in some way by user error (dropped etc.)

 

3) it was less than two years old.

 

If you don't remove the card, or at least limit that behavior, then you will likely not have to deal with this any how.

 

NOTE: check the methods of anyone who has had a card fail and they usually subscribe to the "don't put all your eggs in one basket" philosophy.

 

 

 

I use 16 and 32 gb cards only (unless the 200+ gigs don't cover the event, then I go to the backup 8gb's). I use 16gb's at events where the shooting time is less than 8 hours and 32gb for longer affairs.

 

All cards are tested and retested before being employed to do paying work. All cards remain in the camera from leaving the office till we return. I shoot with two bodies at all times and my second has one or two also (depending on who it is). When we shoot formals, I have my second shoulder shoot me for backup. This means she/he stands behind me and fires a shot off each time I do, and of the exact same pose. This works very well for safety and its the only time I do this.

 

I tried the D3 and the 1 series cameras (all of them bar the latest mkIII's), but can't stand the large form bodies. So, I currently use a few D300's and a D700 (soon to be two since my second thinks its only fair to share the loot, hmmmm). The don't have dual card slots but are very reliable (not a single lost image in any sense using my current methods).

 

I have shot around 1,000,000,000 digital images to date and not lost any when using the big card philosophy.

 

Now, when the come to market with the dual card D700 MkII, I will be getting a few of them and always using the biggest card they will take and that I can get my hands on.

 

?brand?

 

Transcend are said to be the best reliability by many and I have a few of theirs (including a couple of 32gb's). Mostly I use the Sandisk Extreme III's in the 16gb size.

 

Lexar are a no go for me, don't trust them any more. Ridata were great till the green labels. Now I don't buy them any more. SLC architecture is the better one to use too. Most of the Transcends are that way and the Ex III's are too.

 

So, that's my brief and controversial perspective.

[wedding-photography-denver]

opps, that number of images should read 1,000,000.

[dlakelan]

I agree with David Wegwart. By far, the card failures I've seen were caused by people trying to squeeze one more picture out of a battery, or slamming a battery out and putting it in, or switching cards too quickly, not turning off the camera etc...

 

Be calm about switching cards and batteries. Wait until all the data has been synchronized to the card, and make sure that you switch out batteries when it starts to read low, not after taking 10 or 15 more shots...

 

If you do that, test your cards before using them for real work, including reformat the card in camera before shooting... retire your cards after 2 or 3 years, and you will minimize your chance of corruption or loss. Swapping in and out doesn't so much wear out the card as increase your chance of interrupting a complete synchronization and thereby cause corruption.

[eric merrill]

Joe:

 

I believe you are more likely to lose your cards in a car accident before and after the wedding than you are to lose your cards through sudden failure. Card failure is not the weakest link in the chain.

 

 

Eric

[errol young]

I never remove my cf card. I have bent pins in the past. I use 2 bodies so can have 50% failure but I have never had a card fail on me. Am I just lucky or what. It just has not been a problem.

 

Errol

[joshua_shaw]

Speaking of trying to avoid card failure and minimizing loss of photos, does anyone know of any tools that can be used to identify whether a CF card is "healthy" or about to go bad? Computer hard drives have "SMART" indicators that can help warn whether a hard drive is about to go bad. But, I am not aware of anything like this for CF cards.

[marten_holmes]

I use a "Pocket Rocket" from thinktankphoto.com to hold my cards (10 x 2Gig) it holds the cards securely and attaches to a belt loop so it can't walk. Pretty much the best thing I've bought.