Memory questions

[Harry Settle]

I come from the old school of shooting where you don't run the largest cf card you can get, in case of a failure. Although most of the photographers in my area are using 4gb micro drives, I worry about losing that many pictures at one time. I am considering 1gb cf's or even 512's. I would really appreciate any input on this.

FWIW: "I use 4 gig drives and have never had a problem" isn't necessarily a convincing arguement.

[cmM]

FWIW: "I use 4 gig drives and have never had a problem" isn't necessarily a convincing arguement.
You just cut your number of replies in half :P

One user without a problem might not be a convincing argument, but 20 might be.
You should look for stats (start a poll) and see the percentage of failures.

[Harry Settle]

You are probably correct. . . I use it all the time myself. I do pay attention to the "I've never had a problem" answers, I was just hoping for some other reasoning. Good point though, thanks.

[Olegis]

You can squeeze about 200 high quality JPEGs in one 512MB card, I personally don't see a reason not to buy one or two of these. If you plan to shoot more or planning a trip - you can always add simple portable storage solution with some 20GB or more.
I use the VP2030 X's-Drive (http://www.vosonic.co.uk/vp2030.html) with 20GB of storage and it works great ! On my last trip to Europe I shot about 2000 pictures with my old Olympus E20 and still got a lot of place left in the device. There is VP2060 (http://www.vosonic.co.uk/vp2060.html) with USB2.0 support and a nice LCD screen providing the working status. These portable solutions are relatively cheap - about USD$200 for the 20GB version of VP2030, and highly reliable.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Suggestions for what we might recomend would depend on

A: the camera in question
B: The typoe of photography may also have influence

For a 10D I recomend multiple 512MB cards as the minimum usefull size. But I prefer a pair of 1GB cards. But this also assumes shooting in RAW and the need for a number of shots. It also assumes an "X-drive" type file storage to keep you shooting.

Recently I moved to a 1D MkII and 1 GB cards seem too d\small now\\\Regardless,. I allways recomend a pair of cards,. one to keep you shooting while the full one is downloading. No down time.

[blinking8s]

well, i did the n00b research back int he day and ended up choosing the scandisc Ultra II cf because two good friends who are amazing photographers told me it was awesome...and it is, i want a 2nd now...

but id take a larger membory in a heartbeat if it was offered to me

[MarkH]

Here's my opinion:

With a 10D (what I have)
For large fine JPEG - 2 x 512MB minimum.
For RAW - 2 x 1GB minimum.

Not enough storage? Buy a 3rd, maybe even a 4th 1GB card and/or buy a digital wallet (I use a X's Drive Pro with a 30GB HDD).

Personally I am not a fan of Microdrives, they are probably quite reliable but I prefer to put my trust in solid state, for my peace of mind more than anything.

By the way I use 2 x 512MB CF cards and have never had a problem.

[sGu]

The CF cards to go with my 10D are:

2x512MB Sandisk ULtra II
1x1GB Lexar 40x with WA
1x2GB Sandisk Ultra II(just bought it :D ) for RAW image capture

Sandisk Ultra II is definitely one of the best CF cards around, it's reliable and super fast, and it HASN'T failed on me yet, never say never :roll:

For portable storage, i use my powerbook.

[chris.bailey]

I have 4 Sandisk Ultra II 512's with my 10D which equates to about 100 RAW's. My argument (however poor) for 512 is that you can transfer them direct onto a CD, which I tend to try and do with important shoots. I can see that with a 1dMkII that 512's might be a little small.

[drisley]

You can get 60-70 raw images on a 512MB card, depending on the ISO.
I now have 2 x 512MB CF cards, and it's rather sad to think I can only get 140 raw images max! I ONLY shoot Raw too. :roll:

Atleast prices are dropping. :)

[Jon]

Checking one of my favourite computer shops, I saw a 4 GB card for about $1200, 1 GB for about $300, and 512 MB for $120. So you could get 5 GB worth of 512s for the price of a 4 GB drive. Is "bigger" worth it? Unless you shoot raw mode, you'd still get between 100 (1Ds LF jpeg) and 200 (ISO 100/10D/DReb LF jpeg) shots per card using Canon's numbers. You'd have more, smaller, cards which better fit CDs (which I also do, for everything), and you're not risking as many shots if the camera's lost/stolen, which is probably more of a risk than card failure.

Also consider - unless your camera supports FAT32 disk structure, a 4 GB drive will waste about 32 KB per file or directory, while a 512 MB drive will waste about 4K per. And I can't recall any cameras that do support FAT32.

[drisley]

Yes, both the 300D Rebel and the 10D support Fat32.

Rob Galbraith actually tested both 4k clusters and 32k clusters on the 4GB
Lexar cards, and the 32k clusters were quite a bit faster.

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-6425

And since all the files on your card will be picture files that are quite large (not many files under 32k, right), I dont think you will waste much space.
I'm just assuming though.

[Harry Settle]

Thanks a lot, this is the kind of input that I find helpful. I don't own a digital other than my minolta Dimage 5, yet. I am doing the research right now. I am vassilating between the 10d and the rebel. I will mostly be doing my own nature and family shots, with an occasional wedding thrown in. Weddings would be all done in raw format.

[drisley]

For nature and family shots and the occassional wedding, I would recommend the Rebel if you want to save money. Then, use the money you save to get a good lens.
Other than the build (and colour) of the 10D being superior, the other features really wont make much difference for that type of shooting.
Most people covet the 10D for it's faster burst rate and 9 frame buffer vs 4 for the Rebel. That usually only helps for fast sports photography (although many Rebel users have been very successful using their cameras at sporting events).
Flash exposure compensation is missing in the 300D, but it is enabled in a hacked version of the firmware. Also, if you were planning on getting a 550ex flash, you can do that manually on the flash.
Mirror Lockup isnt needed on the Rebel since it has mirror dampening.

Oh, you can also use that money you save on memory. When shooting Raw (which I do exclusively) you will need all the memory you can get. You only get around 65 raw images on a 512mb cf card.

[Harry Settle]

Thanks once again for the information. 60 to 70 shots in raw is more than enough to satisfy me, and give me some peace of mind. Also thanks for the opinion about the DRebel. This has been a real brain-smoker. Rebel or 10D?

[drisley]

If you've got the money, get the 10D.
But, for what you are doing, it wouldn't be a big loss to get the Rebel.

Technology is changing so fast that the camera is somewhat "disposable".
But the lenses, they will stay with you for quite a while.
That is why I consider the lenses to be the most important investment.

You will get much nicer pictures with a Rebel and a 70-200F4L than a 10D and a cheapo telephoto lens. Eventually you will want one of those new fangled 16Mpixel cameras when they come out, but you will definately want to keep the L lens.

[Harry Settle]

Bingo! I just read a thread on another forum about someone losing 200 picts on a large microdrive. Only takes a couple of these stories to negate 1000 positive reasons for using large cards.

[JoeTampa]

I always get a laugh out of people who think they need multiple small CF cards to avoid putting all their eggs in one basket, then go and dump them all to a digital wallet. That thing can fail too, ya know....

BACKUPS. It's all about backups. I shoot with a 2G card with two 1G microdrives as spillover/backups. As soon as the shooting is done, they get dumped to the laptop. If I don't need to use the card again, I don't erase it - or, in other words, I always erase the card immediately before use.

As soon as the laptop gets home, the images get copied to the main editing machine, and will get backed up periodically to DVD-RW.

Oh, and by the way, the only pics I have ever lost were on the editing machine - corrupted files. That's why I keep DVD-ROM backups. I've never lost any on either the microdrives or the CF card.

Until I actually lose images on a CF/MD, I will go for the convenience of rarely, if ever, having to change cards during a shoot.


- Joe

[Harry Settle]

I hear you loud and clear about the digital wallets. . . btw, I've got two failed laptops in the closet. Nothing is 100% safe I guess.