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Author Topic: Why Not to use a large Memory Card as your only Card for a Trip  (Read 6073 times)

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tab62

« on: January 03, 2013, 22:04 »
0
One of my friends (co-worker as well) went to Burma and only used a single 32GB memory chip- well, you can guess what happen. The memory chip went south and she lost everything.  She came to me in tears- I am using my card recovery program on it and only got back 60% which I feel is not bad considering how bad the card was when I attempted to view it.   I've been told never put all your eggs in one basket - thus be careful when relying on just one big memory chip.  Lesson Learn the hard way...

Tom


« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2013, 22:09 »
+1
Good point but this is kinda common sense. Hope you recover it all  :P

« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2013, 22:27 »
+1
Nikon D800
- 800 shots per battery
- RAW files can go up to 76MB

thats 60.8 GB ;D

sure its safer to work with smaller cards but I would say the better deal is to transfer the files at the end of the day

tab62

« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2013, 23:06 »
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The sad thing is that she used a point & shoot and the card went south on day 10 of her trip...

« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2013, 03:43 »
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any comments on brand or reason ?  Humidity ??

Poncke

« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2013, 03:50 »
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I have 2 4 16 and 32 GB card. The 32GB is also the fastest at level 10. But I transfer all images at the end of the day to my laptop.

« Reply #6 on: January 04, 2013, 04:06 »
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With the Nikon d7000 you can use 2 SD cards. I shoot raw in slot1 and jpg(normal) in slot2. Thank you Nikon  ;)

« Reply #7 on: January 04, 2013, 04:07 »
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Even on photowalks, I carry multiple 4G cards and change them about 100 photos so I get part of the day on each one of them. Nothing worse than losing part of the day due to a bad card.

« Reply #8 on: January 04, 2013, 05:29 »
0
1. don't buy cheap cards
2. transfer your files on external hdd or whatever at the end of the day

« Reply #9 on: January 04, 2013, 05:32 »
+1
Cards are cheap nowdays... On a trip, I usually use one 16GB card for each day of the trip. In the evening I will change the cards (even if the card had much room left) and put the ready one in the hotel room's safe. Even if my camera bag was stolen, I still would have my images. And if one card fails, I lose only one day's photos.

I also try to delete as little images as possible, deleting images may cause fragmentation and make the card less salvable if something went wrong.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2013, 07:09 by Perry »

Veneratio

« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2013, 06:50 »
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Similar to Perry. Memory cards are cheap.

On trips I use one 8GB or 16GB card per location per day. Sometimes getting through maybe 4 or 5 cards a day to download but I will only lose one location, not even a whole day's shoot - only one location, so I know what I would need to revisit if needed and I can try and fit it into that trip

« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2013, 06:59 »
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In ten years, I havent't had any accident with memory cards. And I don't use to buy expensive cards.

« Reply #12 on: January 04, 2013, 07:06 »
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In eight years I have had only one complete card failure (Sandisk). Nowdays I use Kingston Elite Pro cards - they have a fancy name, but are quite affordable and reliable, I have ten 16GB cards of various ages and speeds and zero failure.

Maybe it's me being old and been used to expensive film, but I think people are saving in wrong places. Many have a camera bag with $3000 worth of equipment, but they still think spending $300 for a set of memory cards is steep. In the good old days that would have been less than what a hobbyist would have spent in films and processing in just a year...
« Last Edit: January 04, 2013, 07:16 by Perry »

« Reply #13 on: January 04, 2013, 09:00 »
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That really stinks... I think I would cry too if that happenned to me on an exotic/once in a lifetime type trip.
Like others have said, its always good to get in the habit of transferring your files onto a usb stick and/or using services such as Dropbox - no need to worry even if your laptop or computer goes down your files are secure.

Heres a shameless plug and a link to Dropbox :    http://db.tt/Pr9FPZk1

Really hoping you can recover most of  your friends images, so that all is not lost...

« Reply #14 on: January 04, 2013, 09:24 »
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A few years ago I was reading the advice not to format the memory card when making it empty. Only to do this when it is absolutely needed.
Regular formatting should damage the cards over time. Dont know if this is true, but since I only remove the images from the card when they are copied and backupped.
Never had problems with my CF cards by the way. Using Kingston, Sandisk and sometimes a few older (and slower) Dane-Elec cards.

tab62

« Reply #15 on: January 04, 2013, 09:49 »
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the card is a 32gb Sony class 10. She was in Burma thus hot and humid.

KB

« Reply #16 on: January 04, 2013, 13:06 »
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A few years ago I was reading the advice not to format the memory card when making it empty. Only to do this when it is absolutely needed.
Regular formatting should damage the cards over time.
My understanding is you should always format the card (in camera, only) to empty it; never delete images one by one. That fragments it, and if you don't ever format it you're asking for problems.

I've always frequently formatted cards, and have never lost one image due to a bad card (fingers crossed).

« Reply #17 on: January 04, 2013, 13:13 »
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I am pretty sure that I am not going to remove hundreds of images one by one!  ;D
Then I buy myself a new card every 6 months!
No. I simply remove the whole map with the images in it (in the cardreader).

« Reply #18 on: January 04, 2013, 13:54 »
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I always format my card (using my camera). I haven't got any clue why this would be harmful to the card(?)

gillian vann

  • *Gillian*
« Reply #19 on: January 04, 2013, 15:51 »
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It's annoying that there's such opposite information out there.
At college I learnt to format every time I do a new shoot.
Download every day.
use a card reader, no connecting directly to the computer.
nothing about deleting in camera, which I do sometimes do when I'm running out of space (and my spare card is not with me)

« Reply #20 on: January 04, 2013, 16:07 »
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It's annoying that there's such opposite information out there.
At college I learnt to format every time I do a new shoot.
Download every day.
use a card reader, no connecting directly to the computer.
nothing about deleting in camera, which I do sometimes do when I'm running out of space (and my spare card is not with me)

Why would using a card reader be better than connecting directly to the pc? The reader in the pc is exactly the same as an external card reader?

Anyways....i format the card before every shoot and copy my images to my pc as fast as possible.

« Reply #21 on: January 04, 2013, 16:30 »
0
In eight years I have had only one complete card failure (Sandisk). Nowdays I use Kingston Elite Pro cards - they have a fancy name, but are quite affordable and reliable, I have ten 16GB cards of various ages and speeds and zero failure.

don't think they are more fancy than Sandisk, anyway both have lifetime warranty I guess (doesn't matter much I know), I believe its pretty much a lot of bad luck because 99% will never fail

« Reply #22 on: January 04, 2013, 16:34 »
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don't think they are more fancy than Sandisk

I just meant the "Elite Pro"-name, sounds kind of expensive, but aren't :)

« Reply #23 on: January 04, 2013, 16:57 »
0
Quote
Why would using a card reader be better than connecting directly to the pc? The reader in the pc is exactly the same as an external card reader?

I think they meant connecting the camera to the PC to transfer files.

« Reply #24 on: January 04, 2013, 17:51 »
0
Quote
Why would using a card reader be better than connecting directly to the pc? The reader in the pc is exactly the same as an external card reader?

I think they meant connecting the camera to the PC to transfer files.

 :D ok that makes sense. But i really hardly know anyone who still does this!


 

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