Hey guys,
I have a D700 on the way and am looking to get some compact flash for it. My question is should I get one 8 gig card or 2 4 gig cards? The cards I'm looking at are pny udma 266x cards. The 4 gig card costs around 50 bucks, and the 8 gig costs 90 bucks. Since I do not know how many pictures will fit on a card yet (I tend to shoot raw), and have not had any experience with the reliability of cards over 4 gigs I figured I'd ask you guys for some opinions.
Thanks

The old saying "don't put all your eggs in the one basket" certainly applies to Mem Cards. "Things" happen to cards! They become corrupted, they are lost, stolen, or damaged. And, some people even manage to accidentally reformat them before downloading the images (although if you follow the correct procedure, the lost images can usually be recovered).
It is often considered best practice to use more cards of smaller capacity than one larger one. This will cause fewer tears at bedtime. But of course, for a serious camera producing largish files, I would be using a couple of 4Gb cards and certainly not a stack of 2Gb ones.
I would not be able to relax if I was committing everything to just ONE 8Gb (or larger)card. But if you were using a 15-20 Mp camera, just up the size of the card BUT continue using more than one of them.
Bob

If you're shooting in raw mode, I'd get two 8GB cards. They'll give you more flexibility shooting on longer trips. I definitely wouldn't go with one. Although CF's are very reliable (I've never had one good bad), there are sometimes problems, and it's good to have a back-up.

Rick Walker

My photos:
GeoVista Photography

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Hi,

When I got my D700 I switched to 8GB cards. Loseless compressed 12 bit gives an estimated 403 images and no compression at 14 bits gives an estimated 310 images.

Enjoy!

Randy

>Hi,
>
>When I got my D700 I switched to 8GB cards. Loseless
>compressed 12 bit gives an estimated 403 images and no
>compression at 14 bits gives an estimated 310 images.
>
>Enjoy!
>
>Randy

Randy, what you say is correct, the bigger the card capacity, the more images you can save to it.
This may be more convenient, BUT, it also give a greater chance to lose more if something happens to the card (see my post above). Using several cards is a form of insurance and while it may be inconvenient at times it is providing that extra level of safety. Believe me, when something goes wrong, it is far better to be using several cards rather than just the one. I have seen on several occasions an incident has happened and the photographer was luckily using multiple cards. That procedure allowed "plan B" to come into operation and the loss was minimized. BTW, if disaster does happen (accidental format, card corruption, or whatever) immediately take the card out and put it in a safe place. Whatever happens, DO NOT use that card until the images have been recovered. Once you start to use that card again, you are overwriting the images already there and they then become irrecoverable.And that is when you are so please that you were using several (smaller) cards rather than the one humungous model!
Bob

Wow you guys must be shooting some great photo's!
I have never lost a file in 25,000 shots, if I was paranoid about losing any I'd be stressed to death by now.
Buy a card, get out there and have some FUN! It's a hobby forget stressing.

Of course if you are a pro then get 2 D3's a handful of cards and shoot in backup mode then save everything twice in 3 locations, I'm glad I don't have to worry that much

"Once you start to use that card again, you are overwriting the images already there and they then become irrecoverable."


I don't know if that is 100% true. I had formatted a card before I downloaded my pic's once and when I used a recovery program it recovered all my pic's from that day and tons more from other times before that.

Later,
David
http://davidthenikonuser.blogspot.com/

D700 | D300 | D60
28mm | 35mm | 50mm | 150mm Micro | 300mm
24-70mm | 70-200mm | 80-400mm | 200-400mm
TC1.4 | TC1.7 | TC2.0

>"Once you start to use that card again, you are
>overwriting the images already there and they then become
>irrecoverable."
>
>
>I don't know if that is 100% true. I had formatted a card
>before I downloaded my pic's once and when I used a recovery
>program it recovered all my pic's from that day and tons more
>from other times before that.

I think that the images you recovered from "other times" were on that part of the card that had not been overwritten. It is (relatively) easy to recover from a formatted card but my understanding is that there can only be one layer of info and once you have overwritten images with more data, then the layer below has gone to God, not to be seen again.
"Formatting" and "Deleting" usually does not destroy the data and is no more than "Upsetting" the table on the card that allows outside devices (ie cameras) to know where the data is being stored on the card. The recovery program searches the card for the data and allows the images to be "put together" again. (I hope that my technical terms make sense).
Bob

>I have a D700 on the way and am looking to get some compact
>flash for it. My question is should I get one 8 gig card or 2
>4 gig cards? The cards I'm looking at are pny udma 266x cards.
>The 4 gig card costs around 50 bucks, and the 8 gig costs 90
>bucks.

Despite Cyclone's rip on the idea of multiple CF cards for safety, I agree with Rick Walker (and others here). I always carry a pile of 4GB and 8GB CF cards. They're light, take up so little space and weigh nothing and the best brands last forever.

Personally, I stay away from PNY cards and other low-end brands. I've had a perfect run over the past ten years using Sandisk, Lexar and Kingston CF cards. I prefer Sandisk's Extreme III CF cards, Lexar's Professional cards, and Kingston's Elite Pro cards.

Despite the advertised claims, you will not get 266X throughput from a PNY CF card. PNY cards also have a failure rate typical of low-end/lower cost memory cards and the warranty requirements suck big-time. I know the Sandisk, Lexar and Kingston cards I've cited are notably more expensive, but you really do get much better value, seriously fast performance and vastly better reliability and long life out of them.

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Howard Carson, Managing Editor
Kickstartnews Inc. - http://www.kickstartnews.com

I'm not ripping anything, just saying there's no need to worry so much.
If you have a pile of cards, then good for you, use them, I would.
You have to admit worse things happen at sea... unless I'm not taking my FUN HOBBY seriously enough?

>I'm not ripping anything, just saying there's no need to
>worry so much.
>If you have a pile of cards, then good for you, use them, I
>would.
>You have to admit worse things happen at sea... unless I'm not
>taking my FUN HOBBY seriously enough?

Worse things certainly happen at sea - literally and figuratively.

I don't care how seriously you take your photography hobby and neither does anybody else. It's actually none of my/our business, although it's unquestionably great to hear from anyone who's thoroughly enjoying his photography.

I also think that backups are a great idea while on the road, on a walkabout, on a photography trip or project (literally at sea too) and so on. Ensuring that images are safe and that they're not all sitting on one big CF card has nothing to do with "worry" so much as it has to do with developing good, safe shooting habits. It's not a buzz-kill - far from it I think. On the other hand, losing or misplacing a lone CF card, or discovering a bad (lone) CF card is about the biggest photography buzz-kill I can think of.

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Howard Carson, Managing Editor
Kickstartnews Inc. - http://www.kickstartnews.com

Thanks for all the replies. I can see both sides of the argument as far as size of card. 4 gig makes it so if there is something wrong you wont lose as much, but the increasing memory requirements of cameras also mean you will have to switch cards more often if you are doing even photography. Ill probably start off with a couple more 4 gig cards, and when the price comes down on some nice 8 gig cards maybe pick some of those up as well.

Thanks for the info on the pny cards. I didn't realize they were considered lower tier memory manufacturer's. I will look more for kingston and san disk (from both of which I currently have cards).

Flash cards do fail, even the best brands. Over the years I've had two cards fail. The first was a 256mb Lexar Pro several years ago with images that were unrecoverable, even by Lexar. Fortunately, it was the last card at the end of an event shoot, which had relatively non-essential images. They replaced it with a new 320mb one, which I still have and use for Custom Bank settings BU.

The second one was a Sandisk Extreme III 2GB which failed about 1 1/2 years ago. Fortunately I was able to recover the images with Sandisk recovery software, and reformatted the card for further use. However, it continued to lock up and was returned to Sandisk who replaced it with a new card, but only after requiring a copy of the original invoice, which fortunately again, I always keep!

OldPhotos
"If everyone possesses some measure of this intangible quality called creativity, photography is unprecedented as an outlet for its expression." - Ansel Adams

>Flash cards do fail, even the best brands. Over the years
>I've had two cards fail. The first was a 256mb Lexar Pro
>several years ago with images that were unrecoverable, even by
>Lexar. Fortunately, it was the last card at the end of an
>event shoot, which had relatively non-essential images. They
>replaced it with a new 320mb one, which I still have and use
>for Custom Bank settings BU.
>
>The second one was a Sandisk Extreme III 2GB which failed
>about 1 1/2 years ago. Fortunately I was able to recover the
>images with Sandisk recovery software, and reformatted the
>card for further use. However, it continued to lock up and was
>returned to Sandisk who replaced it with a new card, but only
>after requiring a copy of the original invoice, which
>fortunately again, I always keep!

Your problems with the cards is exactly why I prefer to use "medium" size cards rather than the largest available. (Don't put all your eggs in the one basket!!)
It is most interesting that the cards that failed you are rated as top of the range brands. IF they are actually high quality, what happens to the cheaper makes and what about the imitation pirated copies? Maybe there are Nikonians with knowledge of those cards and who can tell us of their experiences.
Bob

In the camera club I belong to, I have seen more cards lost than data lost on cards.

I tend to go with fewer cards that are bigger.

ledmun

>In the camera club I belong to, I have seen more cards lost
>than data lost on cards.
>
>I tend to go with fewer cards that are bigger.

Sorry but I don't follow how larger cards are better when they are lost rather than corrupted/broken/damaged.
I would have thought it would be less traumatic to lose a card with 150 images than to lose a card with 300. I am missing the point.
Regards,
Bob

>It is most interesting that the cards that failed you are
>rated as top of the range brands. IF they are actually high
>quality, what happens to the cheaper makes and what about the
>imitation pirated copies? Maybe there are Nikonians with
>knowledge of those cards and who can tell us of their
>experiences.

It's possible the poster was a victim of problems caused by poor quality knock-off cards, especially considering that SanDisk and Lexar fakes are all over the place.

Rob Glabraith's web site contains lots of great information about identifying brand name cards, CF card speed comparisons across a couple of dozen brands, and an excellent description of the solid state memory industry.

My Nikonians Gallery

Howard Carson, Managing Editor
Kickstartnews Inc. - http://www.kickstartnews.com