I am planning on buying a D800 body in the next few days and have a question about the memory card to use.

1)Since the D800 takes both CF and SDHC memory cards is there any adavantage to using one type over another? I see ScanDisk Extreme Pro
32 SDHC goes for about 65$ while the ScanDisk Extreme PRO CF 1 is over $90.

2) What is the fastest speed that a D800 can keep up with.With my D90 it was a 20 or 30 Meg card. Can the D800 take advantage of a 90 meg card in burst mode.

3) How many pictures in RAW can a 32G card hold?

Your comments are appreciated
Bob

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Take a look at this recent thread, which touches on some of the things you're asking about

Brian
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thank you.
I am still trying to determine the number of RAW pictures that a 32G card can hold .

Robert:

See page 436 of your D800 manual when you get it. There is a chart showing the number of images that can be placed on an 8 GB card, in all of the possible formats.

The 8 GB card will hold 103 Uncompressed FX RAW images at 14 bit color depth (74.4 MB per image). A 32 GB card would likely hold about twice that, or 206.

Regards,,

HBB in Phoenix, Arizona
Nikonian Team Member

Photography is a journey with no conceivable destination.

I think you meant to say a 32G card will hold about about 4 times as much--412

Thank you for your help

Bob

Bob:

Mea Culpa! Senior moment!

Nice catch, my fingers got ahead of my brain ... again.

Enjoy your D800 when it arrives. It is an amazing piece of equipment.

Regards,

HBB in Phoenix, Arizona
Nikonian Team Member

Photography is a journey with no conceivable destination.

I would suggest the biggest you can afford...remember, you can also take movies!

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I just pulled the trigger. Amazon had one new D800 for $2796 +$16 postage (for Jan 9 delivery). Also decided to go with a ScanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC 32G.

I didnt expect to get the D800 this quick but could not resist the $200 off.This is the lowest price I have seen from any reputable source.

I would like to thank people for their help.

Bob

Have fun with your new camera when you get it....!!!! Also I have that SD card and have tried it by it self for a few moments and didn't seem to really slow the camera down compared to the 32Gb ScanDisk Extreme Pro CF (90mb/sec.). So should work well.

With the SD card, the camera shows it will hold 399 pics. Now I shoot Loss-less RAW and from what I've noticed and seen on here is that when shooting Loss-less, figure about twice as much as what is displayed on the top LCD. So figure the 32Gb cards should hold around 800 pics in Loss-less RAW setting.

32Gb cards I feel are good for longer outings and you'll need the space. I'm thinking about getting a couple of the 1000x Lexar 16Gb CF cards for smaller event coverage and use my 32Gb ScanDisk Ex Pro SD(95/Mbs) as the back up card for both....

Anyways have fun and enjoy,

Chris

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You will get at least 400 RAW (probably closer to 450) images on a Sandisk Extreme Pro 32GB. I use the 16GB version and it is faster than the SanDisk Extreme Pro 16GB SDHC UHS-I.

Enjoy!

Randy

Is this too simple minded? If I set my D800 for 14bit RAW and put in a 32BG SD card, it shows 400 image capability. Ditto if I put in a 32GB CF card. I realize that that 400 is just an approximation, but it does give an approximate answer to "how many RAW images can I get on my ___ card?"

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No it's not too simple minded. That's what I get from my D800e too. The number shown is an absolute worse case. I found that I get 50-70% more images than shown on the indicator for loss less compressed RAW. This seems to be the case with all Nikon DSLRs.

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