With the D3 you have two card slots. I use mine as a back-up. I'm shooting RAW files to both cards. I now use a 16gb in slot two and use 4gb in the other two slots. The chance that both cards become corrupted are so minimal I don't worry about putting all of my eggs in one basket.
Studio58 wrote:
Hmmmm... that has got me thinking. If I could pick up some cheaps 16gig SD cards I could use them as a backup to the CF cards in the MK3's.
2 copies of every file shot....... you could record them as small RAWs & still be safe... cool.
If you're not doing this already, then you're missing out on the primary reason to shoot with the Mk3 over the 5D. Set "Record Function" to "Record Separately", then program the SD slot to record Medium JPGs or SRAWs, and leave that card in the camera all night as your instant backup.
Lucky_Dog wrote:
I bought a "fake" Sandisk off ebay.... it takes twice as long to write the file. I keep it as a last ditch backup disk if I run out of cards.
I bought a fake Sandisk card off of eBay also, and when I got it home and plugged it in to download, the message I got was "Card Not Formatted"... Ironically it was Sandisk's Rescue Pro that recovered the images... So now I either buy Sandisks from B&H only or Calumet's new "Pro" line cards.
ChrisDM wrote:
I bought a fake Sandisk card off of eBay also, and when I got it home and plugged it in to download, the message I got was "Card Not Formatted"... Ironically it was Sandisk's Rescue Pro that recovered the images... So now I either buy Sandisks from B&H only or Calumet's new "Pro" line cards.
Chris M
www.imagineimagery.com
I would never use that fake card for a wedding.... I bought a bunch of 2G cards when Office Depot had a special so I have plenty, now. I should probably throw it away before I screw up and use it by accident.
Lucky_Dog wrote:
I would never use that fake card for a wedding.... I bought a bunch of 2G cards when Office Depot had a special so I have plenty, now. I should probably throw it away before I screw up and use it by accident.
I didn't realize it was fake until after it crashed. I re-learned that lesson again, the hard way. All CF cards are not created equal. Buy quality... I also used to be an IT consultant, and can attest to the fact that memory is only manufactured in a handful of fab plants in the world. The same is true of hard drive platters. But these chips/platters etc are just part of the product. There are many, many different companies buying these and placing them on their own circuit boards, cases, etc... And this is where quality control varies greatly. And in this case a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so it is so very important to buy quality for something as important as wedding photography. And then do an instant backup with your professional camera in the dual card slot. Otherwise you're rolling the dice at a game you definitely do not want to lose.
I have 1, 2, and 4G cards. The more pixels, the bigger the cards. With my 10D I used 1G and that was X images; 30D, X images on 2G; now with 5D, the same X images with 4G. Basically I want the capacity to stay constant, and to get the same amount of images from each camera before I have to change cards. So yes, in time I will probably be putting stuff on 16G cards, when the newest and shiniest camera requires it.
To me it's not so much about chances of corruption as being able to shoot as many images with a newer camera that I used to with an older camera. Like someone said earlier, 256MB cards just aren't the same anymore
Counterfeit eBay cards and cheap no-namers are not the same thing at all. The eBay ones may be labeled as Sandisk or Lexar and retrieved from the trash bin behind the factory and cleverly relabeled.
I'm sure some else has responded to this, but still... This logic is so off and I've heard this so often that, for the sake of the newbies reading these things, I feel like I need to say something.
Losing and damaging cards = preventable. Being responsible and careful with your equipment will all but eliminate the possibility of these losses. Also, to whoever said "rate of recovery" is greater with corrupted cards than with lost/damaged cards, I think you're just making up numbers. Damaging your cards puts you in the same boat as corrupted cards. And write "REWARD, CALL ###-###-####" on your CFs and I bet the rate of recovery of those, if you still manage to lose one, is quite high.
Cards randomly going "bang" is NOT preventable by any amount of responsible behavior. If someone is trusting me with their wedding, I'd like to keep the cards (no pun intended) in my hands.
letenele wrote:
I have 1, 2, and 4G cards. The more pixels, the bigger the cards. With my 10D I used 1G and that was X images; 30D, X images on 2G; now with 5D, the same X images with 4G. Basically I want the capacity to stay constant, and to get the same amount of images from each camera before I have to change cards. So yes, in time I will probably be putting stuff on 16G cards, when the newest and shiniest camera requires it.
To me it's not so much about chances of corruption as being able to shoot as many images with a newer camera that I used to with an older camera. Like someone said earlier, 256MB cards just aren't the same anymore ...Show more →
This is a very good point. But don't jump ahead -- lentenele has the right idea. I don't feel that we are shooting MPs enough, at least with the average 5D, to warrant use of a 16GB card.
I have never had a failure either but I would not go to an 8 gig or 16 gig card because it will be that one time I lose a card and I just lost an entire wedding. I would rather loose 100 images rather than 1000.
play it smart and shoot smaller cards deal with carying them. they are small for christ sake.
paparazzinick wrote:
I have never had a failure either but I would not go to an 8 gig or 16 gig card because it will be that one time I lose a card and I just lost an entire wedding. I would rather loose 100 images rather than 1000.
play it smart and shoot smaller cards deal with carying them. they are small for christ sake.
its deja vu
this same argument has been around since digital cameras were first made available. 512mb are you out of your mind, thats soo much data loss
everytime there's a new size increase, your argument seems to slide along the scale to be 1-2 from the top.
I would make sure to fill the card at least one time before using it on a paid shoot. I had a new 4 gig that went dead about 3/4 way full. Had to send in for a recovery. 6 weeks lated got a DVD of the images. I assume if they work one time all the way full then most likely they are good cards. Will never use anything "new" without a run through first. Would Not be a issue with a camera like the 1D's backup system if used correctly.
Just think of it this way. If you NEVER take a card from your camera during a shoot, what are your chances of:
1) card damage in the connectors
2) card corruption from dropping/pressure/bending, etc.
3) Loss of the card
4) accidental reinsertion and formatting
5) stolen cards from your belt/bag etc.
I have never had a damaged or lost or stolen card yet. My card gets put in the camera before an event and formatted there and then. It stays there till a later DL to the comp. No issues so far other than one or two bad images which were due to either filling the card to capacity or erasing something while the camera was still writing.
The method of using larger cards to eliminate the need to swap cards mid stream is a valid one. It ensures a lot of possible ways to loose images and cards are gone.
So I guess the question you have to ask yourself is this.
Do I believe I am more reliable than the card when it comes to errors? Or, how often do you make mistakes versus how often does the card?
DavidWEGS wrote:
So I guess the question you have to ask yourself is this.
Do I believe I am more reliable than the card when it comes to errors? Or, how often do you make mistakes versus how often does the card?
It's not quite as simple as that .. we're really dealing with the possibility (however remote) of losing a lot more data if a large card with the whole wedding on it fails and you can't recover the data. And that would be a disaster, period. It's one thing to meet with a bride and tell her that her reception photos are corrupted and cannot be recovered but quite another to tell her that her whole wedding day photography is gone. Yes, I know this is very remote, but still the weight of such a catastrophe merits unusual caution.
But to answer your question in my digital years shooting sports & commercial work and more recently weddings I conservatively guess I've shot a quarter of a million million files and have not lost A SINGLE FILE due to my own fault (ie. accidental erasing, card loss, etc). BUT .. I have had cards fail and lost files due to that. So in my case I know I'm more reliable than the card.
yeah, that is a problem which is the reason I have been harping on at Canon/Nikon since I started digital in 03, to get two cards in all pro-sumer/pro cameras.
Nikon finally listened on one of their bodies at least, Canon do it but in two card forms (not a huge issue though). However, as many here know about me, I like the small form bodies. Don't care if they cost a few K either, but want that second CF slot.
I was told by a guy that does data recovery of cards and such that have been in fires, washing machines etc, that the data is recoverable in 99.9% of all cases (by him at least).
What I did learn about CF cards from his experience was this; CF failures happen in almost every case at one of two times.
1) when the card is new and gets filled for the first time.
2) when it is reaching the end if its reasonable life span (which he estimates to be about half that of the manufacturers).
The advice I got was this; buy a card, fill it and empty it by computer a few times. Then, RE format in you camera, shoot with it for non critical stuff till its full, delete a few images while in the camera and reformat. After this, if it works you are pretty well set to use it.
I have followed that advice and it has served well.
Every time I read about someone getting new cards the day before the wedding and using them, then saying AAARGGGHHH my card failed, I think about how that could have been avoided.
All this experience in life comes from just that, experience. I don't think anyone should have to worry about that aspect when shooting and they could probably reduce the risk of failure from a 1 in 10,000 chance to a 1 in 1,000,000 chance by doing some work ahead of time.
I appreciate what you say about not having lost any due to human error, but that is not usually the case I'm sure you will agree.
Anyhow, if you compare your experience of failed cards with what I learned about their failures, you may have the answer to why yours did so. Or a bad card reader, mishandled when inserting (another reason not to have to change your cards during a shoot) or a combination of those things.
Be interesting to see if anyone has had experiences outside of these parameters of use I dare say.
We all have a cross to bear, you have to choose if you will bear its entire weight or not I guess.
sots wrote:
I'm sure some else has responded to this, but still... This logic is so off and I've heard this so often that, for the sake of the newbies reading these things, I feel like I need to say something.
.
If you have basic logical thinking by comparing the failure rates of 16G card and 4G card, and the chances you lost and damage your 4x cards, you should be able easily to see the points
But don't forget the 16G card is manufactured by the better technology compared with the 1,2 4 G cards..
If you believe small CF cards are safer, do you think shooting 10D will be safer compared with shooting 1Ds Mark II or III, b/c the smaller sensor more reliable ? no way !
You have no data and facts to support that 4G card is safer than the 16G one, right ?
