CF cards - 1GB or 2GB or 4 GB?

[DieselGirl]

Ok guys...what do you think?
I need about 8 GB worth of cards per shoot based on the type of stuff I am shooting. I have 4 1 GB cards right now and need to expand my collection so that I don't have to download and clear cards during my shoots.
I want to get 2 2 GB card but am afraid if something goes wrong, I will lose 2 GB worth of data versus just the 1GB. Heck, I want he 4 GB card but won't get it for the same reason.
Am I thinking logically? What would you do? I use the Ultra 2 Sandisk cards and love them.

[gasrocks]

No answer for the putting all your eggs in 1 basket question. I have 8 Gb of CF cards - 2 X 2gb, 3 X 1gb, 2 X 512mb. A nice mix. Lexar 80X, Lexar 40X, Sandisk Ultra II, and Kingston Elite Pro. All work well. I carry a portable 60 Gb hard drive/card reader for longer events. Gene

[Barb42]

Pick up a portable storage device and download the cards to it. Some burn to CD, some just store - up to 80G. Any card or device can fail - but if you are worried, keep the images on the cards and download to a device/cd as a backup.

[ssim]

I've only ever had one CF card go bad on me. It does happen.

If your concern is data loss then go with the 1 GB cards. It's really about your piece of mind and personal preference. I know some people that don't like the 1 GB cards because they take too long to download.

Just out of sheer curiosity, what are you shooting that takes 8GB in one shoot. That's alot of images, even at the highest JPG settings or raw.

[tommykjensen]

I have 3 x 2 GB cards (one is a microdrive) and 2 x 1 GB cards. And I just bought a Epson P-2000 to empty the cards on.

[pradeep1]

I'll probably start purchasing 4GB cards in the future. Currently, I have 1 GB cards, and they only give 83 shots in RAW+JPG mode on my XT.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Diesel,
You don't mention what Camera?

For me the 8MP cameras like 20D, MkII and the New RebelXT I like a 2GB card bare minimum for shooting RAW. I like the UltraII cards as well and have those in 2GB.

I also have two 4GB Micro Drives,. but I don't have them in camera as often as the 2GB CFs.

About MicroDrives.. ONLY get the Hitachi, IBM or maybe the new Seagate MDs...

DO NOT go NEAR the "MagicStor" or ANY MD labeled at "2.2GB" capacity. These are total trash and will guarantee heart ache and pain.

[neil_r]

I have always been a bit of a "belt and braces man" I carry 3 x 2Gb CF and 3 x 1Gb SD cards. I have one of each in the camera and tend to favour the CF. I also carry a panasonic toughbook to download the images to.


N

[Phil Hall]

I have 2 2Gb cards and 6 1gb cards, including 2 old IBM microdrives. I also have 3 512 k cards which I am finding useful for small projects...43 shots. I bought an Ipod to unload the cards using a belkin interface but never use it. I prefer to transfer the files to a laptop, although the Epson P2000 looks interesting.

Phil Hall

[R1 Kid]

What about a portable storage device (PSD)? Like the PD7X? It will transfer a 1 GB card in about 3-4 minutes while you continue to shoot with another card. One set of batteries will transfer like 30GB or so. The real plus is that it costs less than going and buying 4 or more CF cards roughly the cost of 2.5 good cards.

Now if you want to spend the money for the Epson P2000 then by all means go ahead as you will read almost everyone is very happy with the one they have. Personally I just want the storage and the quick transfer speed. Here is a link that you may have already read about on the "Best Memory Storage Tank?" (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=61953&page=1&pp=40)

But to answer your original question I would go with the 2GB CF cards at most. I fear the same as you although I've never lost any data yet (thanking the Lord). Plus the speed of writing to the card on the 4 GB is the slowest. The 1 GB is the fastest and the 2 GB is pretty close. There is also a thread in here somewhere that talks about what or maybe better explains what type of CF cards are best.

[Longwatcher]

Since you didn't mention your camera. I will say that I normally start getting paranoid around the 150 image mark so for my D60 and 10D a 1GB card worked well for convienence versus paranoia, but on my 1DsMkII I would like a 3GB card, but since they don't make those (except as microdrive) I use 2GB cards as my max size at this time. I get about 100 images on a card. I might get a 4GB card for special events where I know I won't have time to change cards (although given write speed I doubt that) such as 4th of July fireworks.

So if you had a
D60/10D/300D/1D I would go for a 1GB card max (256 is smallest I would use normally)
20D/350XT/1DM2 I would go for a 2GB card max. (256 is smallest I would use normally)
1Ds/1DsMkII I have gone for 2GB, but might have a single 4GB on hand. (512MB is smallest I would use with either of these normally)

BTW: A typical shoot for me now fills up 12 to 25GB of data, which can fill up my hard-drive fast. With a 10D it used to be 2-4Gb of data for a 5-hour shoot.

further trivia:
With D60/10D
When I started I usually used a mix of 256MB cards. Until one 4th of July I found a 256MB card did not cut it, so I picked up a Sandisk standard 1GB card. Later I picked up a second 1Gb (Lexar 40x) for convienence. In all cases using a Picture Pad to download the cards to.
With 1DsMkII
none of my old cards cut it although the Lexar 40x is acceptable if I want to keep going while my other cards download. However, I have switched to a 2GB Sandisk Ultra II CF card and a 1GB Extreme III card. I also have a 256MB extreme SD card which I bought because it was on sale, the GB cards above were out and it was cheap (as in low cost) which I carry along as emergency backup along with my slower cards.

Just my experience and opinion,

[Mike Panic]

in raw i can fit 202 files on a 1gig lexar extreme II card... but i also use a portable storage device - image tank g2... which ive had for a year and a half - now their are ones that are cheaper and better built. takes about 6 min to transfer 1gig of images to the internal hdd

[gasrocks]

I have an X-Drive II, 60 gb and it does what I need and at a low price.

[DieselGirl]

Thanks for your imput guys. I have a 10D that I shoot with. I shoot physique shows with usually over 100 athletes for shows that run 10 hours that's why I need the big cards.

[RJSorensen]

My next cards will be 4G cards. A 2G will barely do a shoot. Today I shot 3.5G and had to come home to unload . . . plus when you get 'new' cameras . . . they always need more room the the last one. So unless your CF money is disposable, buy big, buy fast.

[IanD]

I'm currently using 3 1GB cards for the same reasons that other folks have stated, if a card corrupts or I loose one then all the images from a day are not gone as well. It is a rare occurance that I put the MKII on the "machine gun " setting and usually shoot at 3.2 fps. Tis true that I hate waiting 2.3 minutes to DL a 1GB card, and I'd probably go postal waiting for 4 gb to do the same. :)

[pfuller88]

4GB or nothing. I consistantly use well over 1GB every shoot I go on. The last thing I want to worry about is changing cards. Never had a problem with a card. Future cameras will use up a 1GB card in a couple dozen shots.

[22littlereasons]

As mentioned a few times already, I think it's not the size of the card... but how many pictures you're prepared to put at risk. Back in the film days your exposure to risk was no more than 36 pictures per film. A little more if you loaded your own film.

So, if you're getting 100 or so RAW pictures from a 1Gb card - isn't that enough risk? Well, to each his own. *s*

[ijohnson]

Wow!! These DSLRs really spoil you. I am sure that I can change a CF card in about 1/30th of the time that it takes to wind and change a film cartridge, if not 1/100th. And it is funny to think that people are ONLY getting 100 shots to a CF card. Poor little guys.

I get the smaller cards (512) because they are cheaper and safer. They only take about 4-5 seconds to change and I can get about 20 of them in my pocket.

Anything else is a complete waste of money for me. Fortunately, unlike the lens, nobody sees how small it is.

[ScottE]

For outdoor sports I have 2 and 1 gb cards. I prefer the 2 gb cards when shooting RAW with my 20D because you don't have to change cards as often. It is real easy to go through 200 images that a 2 gb card holds. A 1 gb card just does not last long enough and I hate changing cards more than I have to if I am outside in either rain or snow.

I am seriously looking at 4 or 6 gb microdrives. The first 6 RAW shots are just as fast as a Sandisk Etreme CF card, but after that the download time is slower so it is longer before your can take more shots. On the other hand, the prospect of being able to do a whole days shoot without changing cards is attractive.

I don't worry much about CF cards failing. I have shot a lot using CF cards an microdrives and have only had two CF cards and no microdrives fail. The CF cards that failed were both 256 mb Lexar cards that I picked up at a bargain price. They failed after several shots had been taken. I was able to recover some, but not all the pictures that had been taken up to the time of failure.

Even if I was worried about failures I would still want big cards. You don't have to fill them so you can change big cards just as often as you do small cards, but if a series of shots came up you could keep on shooting with the big card when the small card would be flashing CF FULL.

Scott

[DieselGirl]

Maybe I'll settle for two 2 GB cards!

[Volatile]

how do you guys possibly store that much data long term? how many GB of photos do you have, let's say from the past year?

[poke]

how do you guys possibly store that much data long term? how many GB of photos do you have, let's say from the past year?

2 x 250GB HDD
2 x 40GB HDD
2 x 40GB USB HDD
1 x 30Gb X-Drive
1 x DDS4 HP Sure Store Tape drive for archiving.
1 x 40Gb Web Gallery for storing the regularly looked at stuff

I've got 150Gb of photos that I have kept since Sept last year. Before that, I wasn't shooting raw, and only had a 3 megapixel camera, so it never mattered.

[davidwegs]

I have: 2x4gig CF's, 4x2gig CF's, 4x1gig,CF's, 2x512 CF's, 3x2gig MD's (hitachi) and 1x4gig MD.

I have left myself with 1.5 gigs on two shoots, and that's having 2x 20d's and 1x1Ds2 shooting.

I would recommend the 2gig CF's. I think erwincomputers.com has the Sandisk Ultra II for about $160.00.

I am getting these for the forseeable future.

Currently storing about 2 terra bytes, well actually only about 1 terra byte of shots, but with space for more. Its split between A Mac with 2x160gigs for working on, three 250gigs (firewire) Two PC's with 2x 120gigs each and each one of those has a 160gig on USB2.0

[Maureen Souza]

I have a variety of cards but currently have a 2GB in my camera, 1GB in my bag, 1Gb in my back up camera(Pro1) and a few piddly 256MB thrown in the botom of the bag:) If I'm shooting a big event like a wedding, I don't want to make a lot of changes in the middle of something.

[DieselGirl]

how do you guys possibly store that much data long term? how many GB of photos do you have, let's say from the past year?

Big ole hard drives and DVD burner.

:)

[Jon, The Elder]

DieselGirl - somewhere back in this mess, someone mentioned their Epson P-2000.
I have and use mine for downloading CF cards to it, (20gig hardrive) I also use it for proofing/selling on site at the event. The P-2000 is not cheap but it is a quality unit. Accepts and shows RAW and Jpeg's. You can zoom/pan/tilt and display your EXIF data on screen. Clear Sharp viewer.

Same price as about 3, one gig CF cards !

Give it serious consideration - Jon

[tommykjensen]

DieselGirl - somewhere back in this mess, someone mentioned their Epson P-2000.
I have and use mine for downloading CF cards to it, (20gig hardrive) I also use it for proofing/selling on site at the event. The P-2000 is not cheap but it is a quality unit. Accepts and shows RAW and Jpeg's. You can zoom/pan/tilt and display your EXIF data on screen. Clear Sharp viewer.


Yes I can highly recommend the Epson P2000. But mine has a 40 GB harddrive with about 36 available for photos.

The display is excellent, much better than the lcd on 20D.

[DieselGirl]

Yes I can highly recommend the Epson P2000. But mine has a 40 GB harddrive with about 36 available for photos.

The display is excellent, much better than the lcd on 20D.

How's the batter life on this bad boy? I've used one before that belonged to a friend and the battery life wasn't good. I don't recall the unit model name or number however.

[DionM]

Here's my experience:

I used to have 3x Sandisk Ultra IIs - 2GB, 1GB and 512MB. This pretty much suited me right - on dedicated photo shoot type days (travel / mucking around) I would fill them all. I had the different sizes as I was worried about corrupting CF cards.

Then a few days ago my photo bag got pickpocketed and the memory card wallet with my 1GB and 512MB cards got pinched, the 2GB was in the camera.

I will probably replace the 1GB and 512MB cards with a single 2GB card, and not worry about CF cards getting corrupted. This will mean I can work with two cards maximum - one in a small CF case (not a big memory card wallet) and one in the camera.

In my experience theft is more likely than CF failure :confused:

[tommykjensen]

How's the batter life on this bad boy? I've used one before that belonged to a friend and the battery life wasn't good. I don't recall the unit model name or number however.

I have not had it so long yet. But on the first charge I have at least copied 1 GB 4 times used the viewing capability a lot and listened to MP3 for at least 30-45 minutes.

[tim]

Next time I buy a CF card i'll not bother with less than 2GB, and for now i'll avoid 4GB cards because of price and beacuse of anything goes wrong i'd lose too many images.

[Jon]

I'm now buying 2 GB flash and 4 GB MD cards. Those go in the 20D, while the older and smaller cards trickle down to the D60 and A80.
You need a lot of space available to the camera because you really should be shooting, not editing, while on the shoot. Do your editing and discards later, on a good display. But the long-term storage solution is lots of disk space (I'm at least approaching a terabyte) and a DVD burner, with abundant redundant copies.

[Todd Jacobsen]

Reality check...

1) Buy the card(s) that provide the best GB/price

2) Changing out CF cards takes 10-20 seconds MAX (and even then your doing it slow)

3) HD direct transfer devices will download a CF card faster than you can fill one (if you have three cards, you will never "run out".

4) Paranoia on losing data is real. 100 images is a lot of data, losing MORE than that can cost a shoot - gotta ask, what is the cost/loss ratio for this shoot - that should drive CF size used.

5) Multiple CF sized cards will provide the most flexibility when facing various shoot layouts.

6) Actual CF size options is dependent on camera resolution. WIth a 10D, I would recommend sticking with 1 & 2 GB cards. A 512 card would fill in in a pinch. If you had a camera that could shoot RAW+JPEG, and you wanted to do that, then you may not want to go down to a 512.

[roine]

Hello

You may consider that many Digital Wallets, eg Tripper, dont handle cards bigger than 2GB

Roine

[mbze430]

Personally I don't like putting all my eggs in one basket. As some have mention, on a 8mp camera 2gb is about average for RAW, this gives you about 180 shots. I have 3 cards, and that gives me 540 shots. I think it's plenty for a day of shooting. Can always unload that after a day of shooting to a removeable or laptop. And start over again the next day.

Personally I use the 2gb Lexmark 80x

[R1 Kid]

I think the general idea card here is 2GB if you like to take a little risk. 1GB if you like playing it safe. Very few votes for the 4GB card and for good reason. Not to mention the write speed is much slower than the 1 & 2 GB cards.

[DieselGirl]

Thanks everyone. Great advice!

[Persian-Rice]

I only use 512, but it has become somewhat of a necessity for me. Anything bigger and I don't get enough time to have them pp'ed.

If I were to go bigger it would be 1gig, but I prefer to use smaller ones. I have 8x 512 ultra II cards. The only risk is losing them, I almost lost one right in the middle of shooting an event, luckily I found it after almost having a stroke.

[ijohnson]

I only use 512, but it has become somewhat of a necessity for me. Anything bigger and I don't get enough time to have them pp'ed.

If I were to go bigger it would be 1gig, but I prefer to use smaller ones. I have 8x 512 ultra II cards. The only risk is losing them, I almost lost one right in the middle of shooting an event, luckily I found it after almost having a stroke.

Yes, finally a voice of reason. I can't think of a time that the 5 seconds required to change CF cards would ever interfere with a shoot. I am sure that someone here will argue with me.

I remember shooting rolls of 12 exposure film with my Minolta XD-5. I am incredibly happy to get several time more than that from a CF card and be able to change my "film" in 5 seconds.

[Persian-Rice]

ijohnson, there are situations where small cards arent really a big deal. Most of the people here are amateurs that do work on their own time, if it gets done tomorrow or in a week it doesnt really matter.

For me, when I shoot hockey I need to have images pp'ed and ready for print no more then 1 1/2 hour after the image is taken. Now multiply that by the several hundred images I take, I barely pull it off with my brother who is my assistant so to speak. If I was going to use a big card, there would be a long period where images would sit idle on the card and precious time would be wasted.

The biggest setback of a big card is the time you need to wait for files to transfer. Now if you go buy one huge card and fill it up and need to keep taking shots, then you are in big trouble and cant do anything about it.

I have made the argument that a card can go bad, and it can, it has happened to me and many others. But as technology improves and the ultra II and Extreme are made, they are becoming much more reliable.

Other then that, I still don't see it necessary to need to take 50-60 shots on one card. As you said, film allows for maybe half that and it takes more time to change. I would also rather lose a 512 card then a big expensive card with many more images on it.

Cheers

[MarkH]

I would like to offer my opinion here:

I think that Diesel Girl's decision to go with 2 x 2GB cards is the right way to go; plenty of shots before having to change cards means more time to take photos.

I also think that Persion-RIce's solution is the right way to go; take a small number of photos, then cange cards. Less risk of losing shots on a bad card. But without an assistant waiting for those shots to process them I would not go this way (security vs convenience needs to be considered). But obviously Persian-Rice not only considers the security vs convenience, but also what works best for him with his workflow. It is always good to consider all aspects.

For me it is easier to use larger cards and change less often, preferably with enough storage to shoot all day. I have a PD7X with a 30GB HDD to use when away from my PC, but I would prefer to just use it in the evening and not in the field (I like to use it with the power plugged in so I don't stress over the batteries going flat during a transfer, but I could also do this with the car charger). I only have the one camera, my 10D. I don't want to change the CF card too often, partly because I can't do it quickly - I have to wait for the camera to finish writing to the card (much slower on the D30/D60/10D/300D/1D/1Ds cameras with their Digic processors than with the 350D/20D/1DMkII/1DsMKII with the Digic 2 processors) before opening the CF door. I think for the cameras up to 8MPix - 1 or 2GB cards are good. For the 11/16MPix cameras I would say that 2 or 4GB would be the best way to go.

Next week I will be shooting lots of fast action, so I will be filling up my CF cards quite quickly. I am just waiting for the arrival of Petter Solberg, Marcus Gronholm, Sebastian Loeb, Marko Martin, Toni Gardemeister, Harri Rovanpara, etc. Next week I will be shooting these guys in action for 4 days in a row.

[juneappal]

Wow!! These DSLRs really spoil you. I am sure that I can change a CF card in about 1/30th of the time that it takes to wind and change a film cartridge, if not 1/100th. And it is funny to think that people are ONLY getting 100 shots to a CF card. Poor little guys.

I get the smaller cards (512) because they are cheaper and safer. They only take about 4-5 seconds to change and I can get about 20 of them in my pocket.



And the 512's are *cheap* these days - I bought a brand new viking 512 online for $17 dollars last night (after rebate) (As well as 2 256's for $4 each)