What size memory cards for sport shooting

[Procarlos]

Just wondering what size memory cards people here use when doing sport photography? I use 4 1gb cards for a game of football. but i find that even if im constanly deleting images i run out of space quickly. I was thinking 2gb or 4gb cards. People tell me i should get more more 1 gb cards than bigger cards just in case they fail.

[defordphoto]

I use mostly 1g cards. I also have a 4g and love it. I also recently added a 2g SD card so now I can go out into the field with 6gigs in the camera. I am not paranoid about cards failing. I have never had one fail and do not lose sleep over it.

IMO for sports shooting 1gig is minimum.

[Jon, The Elder]

Pretty much agree with RFMSports - I shoot horse events and use 1Gb cards. Every once in a while I wish for a 2Gb.

No matter what - sooner or later you have to swap out. And sometimes it is just at the WRONG time no matter what. Photographers luck !

I have had one bad and one 'iffy' card in the last year, thus my practice of using 1Gb units - based on the odds that they ALL won't go bad on the same shoot.

[MTalley]

Lots of variables here, including RAW vs. JPG and which camera/mode.

The RAW vs. JPG is pretty obvious. Need about 2x the memory for RAW.

Camera: 6, 8, 11, 16 MP?
Mode: Single shots, 2.5 FPS, 5 FPS, 8 FPS?
Are you shooting single frames, trying to catch that peak action with one snap, or using 8FPS and machine-gunning various plays to make sure you hopefully captured one great image?

With all that said, I have a 300D, usually shoot in JPG (large/fine) and, while I'll leave the camera in continuous shooting mode, I typically only take single shots and try to catch the peak action as well as I can.

I shot kids soccer a couple weekends ago, for about 4 hours, and filled one 512mb card and half-filled another. If I were selling prints, shooting for newspaper coverage, etc., I might take more pictures, but I'm basically practicing at the moment.

[Vegas Poboy]

I Carry 9GB of memory & that includes 2 512's, 2- 1gb & the rest 2gb cards & it covers every event I shoot with hte exception of boxing. I've been waiting to pick up some type of portable hard drive and just waiting on the market to settledown during the holidays. When on assignment I shoot RAW/Jpeg higher action sports jpeg only. SO to answer your question depends on what the photo is going to be used for and how much coverage of the event you need. Be careful deleting cards in the camera, I've messed up a couple of good photos that way, get enough cards and delete on the PC.

[IndyJeff]

I have never been a big fan of large cards. Last week I was doing my weekly hs football gig. I started as usual with a 512. It was senior night so the first 33 images were of seniors and their parents. When a break in the action came, that card was down to 7 shots. I changed cards and switched to a 256. About midway thru the 4th quarter I put in another 256.

I get home, eat some pizza and sit down to the laptop. Pop in that 512 and no folders are in the DCIM folder. I pop it out and try it again, still nothing. I put in a 256 and there are folders there. So I take the 512 put it in the camera and NO IMAGE is displayed on the back when I try to pull one up.

I ended up downloading Photo Rescue and retrived about half of what I had shot. Of the 28 seniors shots, I could only find 17. It wasn't a total loss but, still it put a damper on things.

That was my first card failure. I have known others who have had it and that is why I won't gamble an entire shoot on one card.

[kenyc]

I've now got (I think) 5 - 1GB cards of various speeds and a 512K The only time I've even come close to running out was the day I shot a softball tournament (4 games) skatepark shots and landscape shots. I always shoot sports in jpg. I think you'll also find that as you "get better/more experienced" you'll shoot fewer pics but more good ones.

I've never had a card failure, but it's certainly a possibility. 1GB seems about right to me for what I do.

KAC

[theflyingkiwi]

I have a total of 4 gb. At this stage of the game I have yet to use it all in one day. However if I had a new 1 series camera then I would look at getting more. The way that I see sports storage when shooting is take more than what you need. You don't know how the day is going to end up.

and no I have never had a card fail on me

[KennyG]

I work with the MK-II shooting RAW, 2 x 2GB CF's and my P2000. I use 2 x 1GB CF's in my 1D MK-I, again RAW, and also dump them to the P2000. Works for me and the P2000 to PC download is better then stuffing CF's in the card reader when I get home. I have a dozen 1GB CF's that I keep in my bag, just in case, but they have not seen the light of day for many a month.

[Pinto]

I get home, eat some pizza and sit down to the laptop. Pop in that 512 and no folders are in the DCIM folder. I pop it out and try it again, still nothing. I put in a 256 and there are folders there. So I take the 512 put it in the camera and NO IMAGE is displayed on the back when I try to pull one up.

IndyJeff, Would you be kind enough to tell us what brand of cards those were?
Regards,
Pinto

[OnlyDigital]

I recently attended a Sports Photography Workshop this past summer and this very question came up for discussion. The majority of those in attendance pretty much used 1gb cards and 40x-80x and the overwhelming preferred media was Lexar.

[blinking8s]

yup, 1gig here, although id take a 2gig too...

[IndyJeff]

IndyJeff, Would you be kind enough to tell us what brand of cards those were?
Regards,
Pinto


It was a PNY card. I have never had a problem with it before nor since. I would buy one again if it were on sale as this one was. I also have San Disk and Lexar. I see very little difference between the different manufacturers, well except for pricing that is.

Personally, I would rather shoot smaller cards, such as 512's and 256's, just for the loss of images that can happen. It doesn't bother me to change cards, hell I used to have to change film every 36 shots so getting 80 some shots or more out of a CF card is great. Changing cards is just part of the process.

Now imagine your shooting a 1 gig card. You fill it up and put another one in. You slip the other card in your pocket, or bag. You get home and start to edit. Suddenly your missing that first 1 gig card. You look everywhere but it is no where to be found. Whatcha gonna do? Hopefully, if your smart, your name and contact info is on the card. Somebody lost a card at the Brickyard this year. Another photographer found it, he asked me if I lost one or knew of anyone who did. I said I didn't, nor did I know of anyone but I would let him know if I heard of anyone who did. I doubt that it was anyone shooting as a professional because their name would have been on the card. So it had to be somebody in the crowd, a very sorry somebody at some point during that day when they discovered it missing.

[primoz]

I'm using 1gb cards only... 2-4 of them/event (depends on event) plus 1gb sd card which is in my 1dmk2 just in case if something goes wrong at wrong time. I don't know why but I just don't like bigger cards. With smaller cards I have stuff separated to more cards, so if one fails I can still hope I have winner on at least one other card. But on other side... with having all first few placed guys or girls on card which failed (or I lost somewhere on skiing track... yeah it happend already) doesn't help much even if I have another 10 cards full of photos... noone cares for people around place 20 :)