Does Size Matter?

I was wondering what preferences you all have on what size card you use?
I shoot in raw and large jpg simultaneously on my t5i, as I am not proficient
with Lightroom or the Canon software yet. That way I have a raw file for later
on when I choose to learn more about post processing. For now I just have
fun posting the jpgs on Facebook, and emailing them to friends, while I learn
more about my camera.

Don't try to juggle half-a-dozen baskets of eggs - put all your eggs in one, safe, basket. I have one card that will handle a whole day's shooting. The only way that card is going to go through the laundry is if I accidentaly stick my camera, or my PC, in the washing machine. Over 12 years of CF usage and I've never had one fail (well, one - but that was my fault because I removed it from a PDA while it was writing a whole bunch of data).

Read more at: https://photography-on-the.net …read.php?t=1101​309&page=4

I think this depends on one's shooting style. Two lines of though seems to be prevalent around here. Have multiple medium sized cards or one large sized card. The former (eggs in multiple baskets) and guards against a lost or corrupt card, ie you still have shots on the other cards but can fill up faster. That's no good if you have to switch cards and miss shots. The latter (all eggs in one basket) means you only have to deal with one card and not worry about switching but what happens if that one card gets corrupted. Each has its merits I think.

Whichever you go with. Always have another card (just in case).

Currently I use 32 Gb CF. I have another exact same size and brand card as my backup.

It's really a matter of how you use it.

Some will say it's better to have multiple smaller cards so that if one fails, a person still has part of their session available.

I use 32gb cards because they are relatively affordable these days, and they can hold a lot of photos but more importantly, quite a bit of video as well. On my T2i I would get something along the lines of 12 min / 4 gb, so the cards would fill up fast shooting the kid's pageants, and a 16gb card wouldn't get it done.

I strongly recommend against buying more space than you need for the moment. Although not as fast as in the past, cards get cheaper and cheaper every day, so buying extra capacity earlier than needed is counter productive.

I replace the cards preemptively as well. When I notice that a card's read speed is decaying I replace it quickly, as this has been a reliable indicator of future card failure for my circumstances with SD cards. On a related note, I've had excellent results with an off brand - AData. SanDisk had gotten to where I was replacing a card annually, so I moved on from them and haven't looked back.

JPG and RAW? Like Hollis, I'd suggest against it. Bite the bullet and get a copy of Lightroom and learn how to process RAW images. The most basic of adjustments are quick and easy, though the software has capabilities that can take some time to learn fully. Best of all, Lightroom allows quick and efficient viewing and comparing of photos.

Good luck!

Jim

I think it depends largely on where and how you shoot. I'm mostly a travel photographer so I tend to use small cards. 16 and often 8 gigs. After an intense or particularly interesting session I swap the card out, store it in a safe place an back it up at my first opportunity. Sometimes I'm in places where the possibility of gear theft is high. I don't mind losing a camera as much as I would mind losing a whole day of shots I'll never be able to replace. The cards themselves are very though though. It is funny that a poster above mentions a washing machine because once I did put an SD card through a wash and dry cycle and both the card and the data were fine.

Modern solid state memory cards are exceptionally reliable, but not totally infallible. Currently I own 4 32GB cards, and a pair of 16GB cards for my cameras, but in general only a single card gets used for day to day shooting. The extra cards only get pulled out during long event shooting. If I'm out photographing a series of games then I will devote a single card to a given section, and swap at the end of it and ready another card for the next section. This breaks things up nicely when I get home and want to quickly organize everything into sub groups based on the game.

So for a double header I will do the first half of the first game on one card, the second half on another, the intermission show on one of the small cards, and split the second game on the other two large ones. Second 16 GB gets carried around in a case tucked in my pocket for emergency spare.

For longer events, such as weekend tournaments, where there are more individual events than what I have cards for, then I will cycle them in the field. The laptop comes along and cards get downloaded to the laptop, backed up to the external drive, and then scrubbed while I'm shooting the next game. Helpful if I can have someone tending the laptop to handle the upload and scrubbing so I'm not rushed between games. I don't even sort them into groups in lightroom, just keyword on upload with an identifier for each segment, and then filter by that later.

Now that I'm planning to add a second body to the mix for the new year I think things might get a little different in workflow for longer events. I will likely time sync both cameras, and then just shoot straight though on a given card till it is nearly full, then keep careful notes on times. (Photo of your boot to give a visual breakup between sections was an idea I picked up somewhere.)


But for other things, if I'm just going out and taking a small handful of photos, then I don't bother with thinking about other cards at all, beyond making sure I have a spare kicking around in the gear bag for if I get an error.

I'm a firm believer that one should always have a spare card with them, even if you have no intentions to use it. The idea of holding all your eggs in that one very reliable basket rather than trying to juggle stuff is all well and good, but if that reliable basket Does break... Well then you're smacked twice as hard, as you have not only lost everything you've already taken, but you then can't take anything more after the fact. Having spare cards has saved a bunch of photos a few times due to someone accidentally formatting the wrong card. We were able to stash the 'deleted' card away, and run recovery software on it after the fact.


Memory is cheap, so the long of it is to not sell yourself short by not having more than you need on hand.

I use a 64gb card, and have a 16 as well. It Mau be to big but I already had it and never used it. I generally extract my pictures to my computer daily so even a 16gb would work but I won't fill more than one 16 in a day so if it fails it doesn't matter the size

I bought my card on Amazon and I paid less than $30 for my 64

Use whatever size you are comfortable with

I want to first thank everyone for their advice. It is one of the great things about this group of people.
There seem to be merits to all sides of the equation. Which puts me pretty much right back where I started.
At least I have some information to base my decision on.

Is there any reason to not shoot in both jpg and raw? I do have a copy of Lightroom, I just get bored and easily sidetracked when it comes to teaching myself programs. I will eventually figure it out enough to ask the right questions.

ScottyZ wrote in post #17354806
I want to first thank everyone for their advice. It is one of the great things about this group of people.
There seem to be merits to all sides of the equation. Which puts me pretty much right back where I started.
At least I have some information to base my decision on.

Is there any reason to not shoot in both jpg and raw? I do have a copy of Lightroom, I just get bored and easily sidetracked when it comes to teaching myself programs. I will eventually figure it out enough to ask the right questions.

If there was a single way that was perfect and fool proof, then that would be what everyone did. Sadly, no method is completely perfect and flawless, so we're all left kind of trying to decide what risks and pitfalls we're really to take.

As for not shooting jpg and raw at the same time, that really depends on your workflow and the software you're using.

I generally only shoot and save to raw .cr2 files, load into Lightroom, cull, rate, process (mostly with presets and then small adjustments), and then export to generate usable photos. Some people will do more sorting 'on card' to speed things up if they're a high volume shooter (such as sports photographers), but I tend to set things up to download and walk away from the computer for a bit, so it doesn't bother me how long the transfer takes.

However other people will shoot both, pull only the jpegs off the card for their initial pass (And hang onto the card for the time being), sort and grade based on the jpeg, and then only pull the raw images they want off the card before formatting. Others don't even bother with raw images, and will happily work from just jpegs produced by the camera. Whatever works best for you.

Hi!

I use smaller cards. I have 8, 16, and 32GB cards, and I rotate their use. Typically I shoot in RAW, though sometimes I need to shoot just in jpeg and there are occasions when I need to shoot both RAW and jpeg. After a day of shooting, I will download photos to the computer, back them up, verify the backup, and then work with the photos in Lightroom. Once the photo processing is done, I'll reformat the card(s) and use the next card in rotation.

Shooting in both RAW and jpeg takes longer for the camera to process. Both files need to be written to the memory card(s) in the camera. If you're taking the occasional photo, the write time doesn't usually matter. If you're taking groups of photos in rapid succession however, your camera could stop you at an inconvenient time as it may get get backed up in writing files to the memory card(s).

Personally I wouldn't shoot both RAW and jpeg if I wasn't going to use both formats. Once I've processed a set of photos, the likelihood I'll go back a year or two later to work them in the other format is zero. Scotty, specifically with RAW, if you don't know how to work with it and aren't ready to work with it, don't waste the space on your computer. When you're ready to work in RAW, sure, shoot both RAW and jpeg for a bit and work with the RAW images.

There are lots of things to consider in cards: capacity, cost, read/write speed, and reliability, for instance. Use what you need and what makes sense for you.

Hope this helps!

ScottyZ wrote in post #17354806
Is there any reason to not shoot in both jpg and raw? I do have a copy of Lightroom, I just get bored and easily sidetracked when it comes to teaching myself programs. I will eventually figure it out enough to ask the right questions.

For myself, shooting jpg and raw slows my frame rate and fills the buffer faster. I did toy with the approach early on. And then in post, one image gets edited and the other is not, leading to some confusion.


Does the practice violate ethical standards of photography? Not so much, but I think you'll find it an unwelcome hassle in the long run.

I've only had 1 CF card start acting strange on me, and Lexar replaced it for free. And I didn't lose any data either. 32 GB is my card size of choice.

I have a 5DIII, shoot raw, and still use the 8 GB cards I got when I had the 5D with its 1/3 sized files. I have kids and keep my camera ready to shoot so I can run and grab it on a moment's notice. This means I may only shoot a few shots at a time. The smaller memory cards means Lightroom takes less time to scan it so I can pull off the new shots. I don't clear the card until it gets close to full so the card can serve as a temporary backup. I can still get over 250 shots on a card which is plenty most of the time. Also, the relatively slow cards aren't a problem since I'm usually shooting indoors with the flash at home.

I do have a 32 GB high speed card that I use when I know I'll need the capacity and/or high speed. ie. outdoor action shots. That holds almost 1000 shots which is plenty for me.

Whatever i do or wherever i go i always have two 16gb class 10 cards. One in my 6D and the other as a spare one or in the fuji x100s when i take both cameras with me. Then i have another 8gb card just in case (never had to use it tough)