CF Card - One Large or Many Small (40D + 50D)

I've always used somewhat small cards -- 2, 4, and 8 gigs, never anything bigger -- so that if a card dies I don't lose all the shots. This will change, however, when I get my 1D Mark III. With that camera, I intend to shoot RAW+Jpeg, storing all the RAWs on the CF card and all the Jpegs on the SD card. That way if either card fails, I've still got all the shots on the other card.

I've also considered one of those portable Epson backup devices. It won't be as important when I get my 1D 3, but it wouldn't hurt.

i don't have any cards larger than 8gb simply because i probably won't hit the 8gb limit on a single assignment, and so i have no real need for a single larger card versus say, two cards of half that capacity.

multiple 8gb

I've been using CF cards for over 12 years and have never had one fail. I have, however, lost a card full of images (I put it somewhere 'safe' in the heat of the moment). Now that I can afford to do so I have one huge card for a full day's shooting (and an older, smaller, card just in case the first one should fail).

I used 4gb and 8gb (and a couple of 2gb) cards last year w/ my 40D. Now that I have a 7D, 8gb is really the lower limit of what I think is usable for a sports shoot. Shooting RAW @ 8 fps burns up an 8gb card pretty quick. I went w/ 4 16gb cards rather than 2 32gb or 1 64gb because I didn't want to risk losing everything if the card went south.

I think many of people on here are way too worried about cards failing. There's absolutely no reason not to go with a large capacity card.

Razeus wrote in post #12115375
I think many of people on here are way too worried about cards failing. There's absolutely no reason not to go with a large capacity card.

Even if the cards never failed, I can think of reasons to not use just one big card. I have a friend that shoots sports. A lot of times multiple games at one event. He uses separate cards for each game. It's his way of organizing things, and I think it's a perfectly valid one. Just sayin'

I mix 16gb and 8gb cards. I use the blue think tank pocket pixies, half 16gb and half 8gbs.

Mk1Racer wrote in post #12115466
Even if the cards never failed, I can think of reasons to not use just one big card. I have a friend that shoots sports. A lot of times multiple games at one event. He uses separate cards for each game. It's his way of organizing things, and I think it's a perfectly valid one. Just sayin'

Well, it's not like you don't have the option of creating separate folders on the card with your camera. Just saying.

and none of the folders on the cards have to have anything to do with the folders, collections and smart collections the photos will end up in.

I still use 2GB/4GB CF cards with my 40D. I see no reason to put all my pictures into one large capacity card because if that one card fails, everything is gone.

MCAsan wrote in post #12119269
and none of the folders on the cards have to have anything to do with the folders, collections and smart collections the photos will end up in.

Exactly. So it doesn't matter if you use 1 or many folders. But it does matter if you want to get your shots organized on your camera and keep things separate via making folders on your camera.

xMClass wrote in post #12125691
I still use 2GB/4GB CF cards with my 40D. I see no reason to put all my pictures into one large capacity card because if that one card fails, everything is gone.

And how often has a card failed on you? I'm curious.

Like most people, I'd go for 4 or 8 gig cards, less to lose if one goes bad. Not saying that one will go bad, but I always err on the cautious side of things.

Remember, Murphy was an optimist!

Is there a greater risk of 1 large card failing.....
Is there a greater risk of losing or damaging one of many cards....

Depends on your style.
If you are very organized and have a method that insures know what is on all those cards and you will not lose or damage a card, then small can work for you.
If you are not that organized and prefer to put all attention into taking photos then one large card can work for you.

I started out using lots of cards, I had a hard time keeping track of them and had several close calls and then actually did lose one.
Now I use big cards...much better solution for me.