D300s buffer

[brian_hooks]

<p>I have been very happy with my recent purchase of a used D300s but recently found myself hitting the buffer at a youth track meet. I was shooting jpeg fine and had comparable cards in both CF and SD slots but I was wondering if the buffer limit would be higher if I removed one card and just shot one or the other. I am not sure exactly how the buffer works if there are separate (drives) for each card or if one drive must write to both cards?<br>

Thanks much<br>

Brian</p>

 

[ariel_s1]

<p>What cards are you using, and what is your write setup? i.e. do you write simultaneously to both cards? The D300 has a buffer of 18 RAW images, I'd imagine that it's well double that for JPEG fine. Either change the way you shoot, or consider a better camera (D3s).</p>

[kohanmike]

<p>I'm using an 8 GB Delkin Cambat CF 625x (90mb/s) UDMA card ($60 US from Adorama last year) in my D300s and write to only that card. I just did a quick test shooting my computer screen, light from 2 overhead bulbs, set for JPG fine, ISO 800, a Tamron 17-50 VC at 17mm, f4, 125th, AF center, Continuous 1, and it shot 26 very quickly, then continued somewhat slower until 97 when it paused a bit.</p>

[elliot1]

<p>The Buffer's capacity is listed here:</p>

<p>http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/microsite/d300s/en/reliability/</p>

<p>You should be able to record about 44 JPG fine images before filling the buffer. How many were you able to record before the buffer filled up? </p>

<p>The buffer capacity does not change with one or two cards. But the time it takes to clear does. Having to write images to two cards take longer than writing to one card. The cards rated speed would also have an effect on how long it takes to clear the buffer.</p>

<p> </p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>The buffer size has nothing to do with the CF and/or SD card you use, but how fast the D300S can empty the buffer into the cards will depend on the exact cards. Until recently, SD cards used to be much slower than CF although all sorts of fast and slow cards exist.</p>

<p>Recently, I was shooting hummingbirds with a D800 with its RAW files going into both CF and SD. Since I was using a one-year-old SD card that is now considered slow, I filled the buffer quickly and could not shoot until the buffer was gradually emptied. Removing the SD card helped a lot in that case since my CF card is much faster. I have since added a new faster SD card. However, I am not sure that the D300S can take advantage of the latest SD technology (or for that matter the latest UDMA 7 CF).</p>

<p>I would say use an UDMA-compatible (not necessarily UDMA 7, which tends to be expensive at this point) CF card only and see whether that resolves the issue.</p>

[brian_hooks]

<p>Thanks for the info. I believe the SD card may have been the culprit as I only got around 12-15 shots before hitting the buffer. I will try removing it for sports and just using my Sandisc extreem III to see if that helps.</p>

 

[brian_hooks]

<p>After testing again I seem to get 22 shots before buffering using jpeg fine writing only to Sandisc CF.</p>

 

[elliot1]

<p>Brian, do you have your JPG preferences to size priority or optimal quality priority? This could affect your results.</p>

<p>(I don't have a D300S but I believe you should be able to take significantly more JPG images with either setting prior to reaching the buffer's capacity.)</p>

<p>Per Nikon's information in the chart i linked to: "Maximum number of exposures that can be stored in memory buffer at ISO 200. Drops if optimal quality is selected for JPEG compression, ISO sensitivity is set to Hi 0.3 or higher, High ISO NR is on when auto ISO sensitivity control is on or ISO sensitivity is set to 800 or higher, or long exposure noise reduction, Active D-lighting, or image authentication is on." - I suggest you check your settings.</p>