Memory cards for D800

[jared_youtsey]

<p>I'm still waiting on my D800 to arrive. I have a 64GB SanDisk Extreme III 90 SD card. I'd like to have some CF backup as well. What are you shooting in your D800? What would you recommend? I've thought about a 32GB as a JPEG backup for the 64GB SD Raw primary. What speed do I really need for these monster files? It'll only do 4fps so I doubt my cards will be the real issue, but you never know.<br>

400x, 1000x, so many numbers!!!</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>Check this recent thread: <a href="00aBZc">http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00aBZc</a></p>

<p>I would recommend minimum 32G cards for the D800, perhaps 64G is better. IMO you don't need those fast 1000x cards for the D800; it is intended to be a slower, medium-format type camera on which you can't really shoot "machine gun" style. Essentially you need more space for those large files, but not speed.</p>

[paul_coffin]

<p>Jared,<br>

In anticipation of getting my D800, I did exactly what you are thinking. Two Lexar 32g 400x compact flash and one Lexar 64g 400x SDXC. I agree with Shun on the speed with the possible exception of video, but I don't plan to shoot alot of video so price trumps speed.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>For video, Nikon recommends class 6 for faster SD cards. Most SD cards on the market are now class 10 except for the really cheap ones. Therefore, you don't really need to do anything special for SD cards even though you need to shoot video.</p>

<p>I recently bought a 32G Lexar 400x CF card for about $100. A 1000x card would cost about 2.5 times as much. IMO, you are better off with more space and less speed.</p>

<p>I shoot lossless compressed, 14-bit RAW files. They are around 45M each from the D800. Therefore, space adds up quickly. Now I delete the bad images quicly to conserve hard drive space.</p>

[jared_youtsey]

<p>Thanks, everyone. I guess I'll go a bit slower on the cards and get more space.</p>

[olakiril]

<p>1000X is VERY useful for D800 if you are shooting in live view. <br /> Live view stops until the image is written on the card (around 2 sec for 14bit compressed raw on a 60MB/sec sandisk extreme) . During that time you can shoot blindly but that means waiting even longer. <br /> check this:<br /> <a href="http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1021&message=41035742">http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1021&message=41035742</a></p>

[bill_brooks]

<p>Manolis, I was afraid I had gone overboard getting a 1000x CF card.. but thanks for confirming my hunch! I noticed fast recovery in live view with this card. (Lexar Pro 1000x 32GB UDMA 7). It ain't cheap! :-)</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>I have been wondering why the LCD blacks out for 2 seconds after each live view capture on the D800. But I guess I can wait 2 seconds instead of 1 second.</p>

[shineofleo]

<p>I was also thinking about the memory cards for D800. My idea is this:</p>

<p>* CF card for photos. So high speed is not necessary and I can save some money on it. How about 30 MB/s sandisk card? I have them from D3 anyway.<br>

* SD card for video/backup/flowover. I find that high speed SD card is cheaper than CF. Sandisk got extreme pro SD card at both 45 MB/s and 95 MB/s. It is said that full HD 30fps can be 45MB/s data rate, so I decide to get 95 MB/s version. Perhaps it is an over kill, but I just want to make sure.</p>

<p>By the way, for HD video, due to the 4G limitation, only near 20 minutes for a continuous recording is possible. I am wondering when Nikon can break it by not using FAT32? </p>

<p>About the capacity, of course the bigger the better. 16-32G may be proper I think. So I really want a USB 3.0 solution - fast card, fast reader and USB 3.0 port on my PC - to make the transmission a bit faster. D800 have the USB 3.0 interface but I guess more people prefer card reader? </p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>A few days ago, I posted the following image after testing each one of the memory cards in the image on the D800. Every one of them works fine.</p>

<p>If you think DSLRs depreciate rapidly, it is nothing compared to memory card depreciation. Let go through the CF cards in the image:</p>

<ol>

<li>I bought the 256M card in 2002 to use that on my then brand new Nikon D100. I paid $100. That card can now hold a grand total of three (3) RAW files from the D800. That is not a joke.</li>

<li>I also bought the 512M Viking card shortly after for $200, also in year 2002.</li>

<li>In 2004 I bought the 1G Lexar for about $240, which was a bargain then. </li>

<li>In 2005 I bought the D2X and needed a total of 8G of space per shooting day. I bought four 2G cards at about $200 each.</li>

<li>In 2006 I bought the 4G Sandisk at $210 after rebate.</li>

<li>In 2007 I paid $180 for the 8G Lexar.</li>

<li>In 2009 the 16G SanDisk cost around $100.</li>

<li>I just bought the 32G "slow" 400X Lexar for just below $100.</li>

</ol>

<p>These cards depreciate so rapidly that while I would buy sufficient space (and speed) to meet your current needs, I wouldn't buy any extra capacity. The memory card you pay $250 today will worth $100 by the end of the year. Worse yet, perhaps XQD cards will become popular in another year or two so that your CF cards could become useless on future DSLRs.</p>

 

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[allan_jamieson2]

<p>Also check out this website with reports on real life performance in different cameras of current SD and CF cards which has just been updated: <br>

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007<br>

The D800 section hasn't been finished yet but the D4 section has and there are quite a few cards tested with it that seem to have error messages when inserted into the camera. The performance data is interesting too, quite large differences between the top end cards and the also rans. Sadly, the card that I just ordered for my long ordered mythical D800 is one of those on the error list, the Kingston Ultimate 600x 32GB version! I think that I'll send it back and get one that is definitely going to work, I'd hate to have the camera and not be able to use it.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>Over the weekend, I was photographing hummingbirds with the D800, and I ran into the buffer full problem.</p>

<p>It turns out that while my relatively slow 400x 32G CF card (shown above) was fast enough, I set up the D800 to write to both cards simultaneously, and my 32G SD cards are very slow. As a result, the slower SD card dominates and buffer write was extremely slow for those huge D800 RAW files. Eventually I removed the SD card so that the camera only writes onto the CF card, and the problem was solved.</p>

<p>I bought those SD cards a year ago for the D7000. They have lost like 2/3 of their value after just a year. Newer SD cards tend to be faster and even 64G ones are now less than $100. I am sure those fast and new ones will also become much cheaper in no time.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>Rob Galbraith has added the D800 to his memory card performance database:<br>

<a href="http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/camera_wb_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-12451">http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/camera_wb_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-12451</a></p>

[janet_jeffers]

Shun, thank you for making that point about how quickly those originally-expensive memory cards have become obsolete!

I still have a couple of 256MB cards sitting in a box in a cabinet and they're worthless, despite having cost $100 each

once upon a time. I guess it puts in perspective to think about how much I would have spent on film and developing on

the same number of shots I got out of those cards, huh?

 

I'm patiently awaiting my D800 and eyeing my 4G and 8G cards I currently use with my D700. I have about a dozen, and I

hate to spend more money than I have to on cards. I'm going to check out those links you posted to help me decide what

to do.

[ShunCheung]

<p>As I said, I paid $100 for that yellow, no name 256M CF card 10 years ago when I bought my D100. That card can now hold 3 RAW files from the D800; it still works, though, if you consider changing cards every few frames working.</p>

<p>I bought those two 32G SD cards shown above a year and half ago when I bought the D7000. Those were close to $100 each around 18 months ago. Today, they are like $40 new and are extremely slow on the D800. It takes like 4 seconds to write a compressed RAW file from the D800 onto those cards. As we discussed earlier, in live view mode, the D800 has to completely write the file onto the memory card(s) before the image comes back on the back LCD. Therefore, cards that slow can be an issue. They can also lead to buffer full situations if you make a lot of consecutive captures.</p>

<p>I am getting a 64G SDXC card that is 45MB per second. That card costs some $82 now and has twice the space and is much faster than those $100 cards I bought for the D7000. It'll probably worth $40 next year.</p>