How Many Memory Cards Do U Carry?

Generally, if you're traveling for 7 to 10 days on a wildlife/landscape photo trip say to somewhere in Africa, Asia or Latin America and if you're taking 2 cameras then how many memory cards will you take with you. Assume that you will mostly shoot photo's and not so much video.

I'd be taking 6 to 8 cards. If you need some SD check my comments at https://photography-on-the.net …showthread.php?​p=18712269.

With 2 bodies, definitely 20 cards.

I recently took an 8 day trip for bird photography and didn't take a computer, so all of the photos I took had to live on the cards until I got home from the trip.

I took two bodies - the main body and a backup (which I didn't have to use).

I took two 64GB cards and four 32GB cards for my main body. It was overkill, as I only used about 65 percent of the total capacity.

The RAW files I shoot with that body are about 24MB a piece.

It isn't about how many cards. It's about how many GBs. And that should be based on the size of the files that you shoot.

Just saying how many cards to take is useless because card size and file size varies so greatly, and there is no such thing as a 'normal' card size.

Estimate how many frames you will shoot on an average day, multiply that by the size of each frame's file, and then add 20 or 30 percent extra capacity in case things go really well and you end up shooting more than you estimated.

The 7DII with the best RAW + JPEG as a combination will put about 220 images on an 8 GB card. So the SD cards I linked to, 32 GB would hold about 880 images per card. 8 cards x 880 images/card = 7040 images. I emphasize this is for storing the best RAW and the best JPEG. Your 7DII can take CF or SD cards but the image count would be the same for either; as others have said it is strictly GB per image.

Will you be shooting any video?

Just 2, but I'm no pro

I would generally use a 64GB in one camera and a 32GB in the other, plus one or two spares. One of the spares is a 128GB card. I think it is slower than the others otherwise it would live in the camera. So for me, one card in each camera and one spare for each camera. And this is overkill. I never fill these cards and I've never had to use a backup card.

I generally back up all pics to a laptop each night but leave them on the card as backup. If I do culling and editing, then I will also back up the laptop files to a small external HD.

I currently have 4-32GB CF with matching SD’s and another 4-16GB with matching SD’s in the card wallet. When I packed a small kit to take with me to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family, I threw the wallet in the bag. That’s about 3500 RAW files if I write to duplicate cards on the 5DIV, I may not need them but they’re available if needed.

I don't think that this questionable is answerable as there are so many different types of people with different shooting preferences. I've been to airshows standing next to people who was pressing the shutter button every couple of seconds coming away with several thousand images. I wouldn't be surprised if they had close to 10,000 images in a 4 hour photo shoot. Then you have others like me who at the same event come away with maybe 2 or 3 hundred. What kind of shooter are you? Spray and pray or plan out each shot? Do you plan to do daily culls? These will make a difference in how many cards you need.

For me, personally, I'm like Tom R. I plan out each shot and then take just a couple. I also cull often so my daily image count tends to be low.

1 that’s in the camera

I like to have a minimum of one card per day but I rarely fill one up each day. I usually have a laptop and upload my shoot each day but I keep the cards as backup, in another place, until I get home. 90% of my cards are 32 gig and that lets me store 600-800 photos depending on the camera body.

As others have said, the exact number of cards definitely depends on your shooting style, raw/jpg, camera sensor size, etc. One piece of advice I've followed is that it's better to carry more, smaller cards rather than one or two large cards of the same total capacity. That hedges your photos against card failure, lost/stolen camera, etc. It's a little more annoying to change cards more often, but I've found that I rarely use up a 32 gig card in one day so I just switch out the card each day.

el_duderino04 wrote in post #18766300
As others have said, the exact number of cards definitely depends on your shooting style, raw/jpg, camera sensor size, etc. One piece of advice I've followed is that it's better to carry more, smaller cards rather than one or two large cards of the same total capacity. That hedges your photos against card failure, lost/stolen camera, etc. It's a little more annoying to change cards more often, but I've found that I rarely use up a 32 gig card in one day so I just switch out the card each day.

Well, today's small card is yesterday's big card. I don't think anybody carries 4GB cards around any more changing them out every few hours. Anyway, there is IMO a much greater risk in dropping/losing/zappin​g cards changing them in the field than there is in the card developing a fault while in the camera.

Archibald wrote in post #18766329
Well, today's small card is yesterday's big card. I don't think anybody carries 4GB cards around any more changing them out every few hours. Anyway, there is IMO a much greater risk in dropping/losing/zappin​g cards changing them in the field than there is in the card developing a fault while in the camera.

That's true, in addition to the possibility of introducing issues by switching cards between cameras. Obviously, the more cards you have, the more this becomes likely, which does militate against carrying a lot of cards. I guess it mostly comes down to each person's determination of what is the most likely or most debilitating issue to come up (a card getting corrupted in the camera/lost or stolen with the camera, versus a corruption happening from more frequent card changes.) I'm not sure there's necessarily a right answer either way.

I still bring quite a few but find myself filling less and less. Quality or quantity?