msmoto said:
......I tend to download the photos to an external hard drive connected to the computer after a shoot, and reformat the camera entirely immediately after this. In the computer I have all the files in NEF and from that file I choose the downloads to Lightroom. ....

I do pretty much the same but using LR I also make a second copy

with important jobs ( weddings) I edit the RAW files and burn a set of jpeg to a couple of CDs (one of which is taken off site) before formatting the card(s)

I am not certain as to why I do what I do, but in the D4 is an XQD and CF card each 16 GB. And, I tend to download the photos to an external hard drive connected to the computer after a shoot, and reformat the camera entirely immediately after this. In the computer I have all the files in NEF and from that file I choose the downloads to Lightroom.

If, I am shooting an important job, I will look at the files in the hard drive to make certain I have those recorded and then reformat the memory in camera. Only after many years of photography have I determined my images are not priceless....and if they somehow are lost, well, I have lost tens of thousands due to Ektachrome dyes being unstable, so that is just the way it is. Hopefully, on Flickr, the images will stay for a while.

Ironically, when I ordered my D4, no one knew the cameras were delivered with the cards and reader. So, I have now two XQD readers and two 16 GB cards, but rarely use the second card as I perform the above and do not go out on long treks.

Huge SD cards (256, 128 and 64 GB) aren't needed for photography but come in handy inserted into a laptop as an extra "hard drive" or "removable media backup." I use from 4 to 32 GB and never fill them up. When a camera body has two card slots I will put one card in the first slot and a card containing twice as much GB into the second slot and set that second slot as backup. Then I shoot, edit and reformat the first card time and time again while just letting the second card fill up until it is nearly full before I reformat it. This way I have a backup of every shot from the last few shoots just in case I want to go beck and look for something I have already deleted when I edited. Cheap insurance. I use 4 GB in a D90, a 4 and 8GB pair in a D7000; 8 and 16 GB pair in a D600; and a 16 and 32 GB pair in a D800. I never come close to having a space problem but the most I usually shoot at a time is less than 300 images.

I have successfully moved over completely to the more expensive Sandisk cards and find that 2 16 GB SD Extreme cards at 90mb/s and 2 32GB CF cards at the same speed get the job done for me no matter what. I am still tempted by the insanely high speed Lexar cards though, but damn they sure are expensive...

SkintBrit said:
Seems like a good time to resurrect this thread, as Lexar introduces its $1000 256GB SDXC 400x card. One question........why would you want one?

There was a guy who scattered nikons or gopro's or something all over the arctic to take timelapse unattended for a few months. maybe he would need them ? Me, I'm like Msmoto, smaller cards are safer. I've picked up 4 x 16gb cards but no fast ones (90mbps+) yet :-)

9x 8gb sandisk extreme sd = 72gb

spraynpray said:
But that is worse than a 256Gb in a D800! Think of the lost shots if s**t happens - and you know it will, one day...

I understand your concern, and I'm somewhat worried myself, but honestly, I don't live off of my shooting so it's less of an issue for me.

8 gigs is a lot for a 6 mp camera, I agree, but it's convenient.

Only stills for me, so I use 2 x 8GB CF cards as my primary camera. Then I have 5 x 4GB CF cards that get used either as backups for the main camera, or primary in a backup body.

Lots of movie footage? The Mac Air has a dedicated SD slot and 256GB would either double the capacity or serve as a full backup. A grand is overpriced.

I have the following:

6 x 32GB, 4 x 16GB.

I use one card until its full (RAW + Jpeg) and then keep the card as an archive. I don't ever use delete (I can explain in gory detail why not; I have written device drivers for flash controllers). I upload keepers to the computer or tablet usually same day. I think the sweet spot is 16GB both in terms of cost and unit of failure. I back the cards up to a 2TB HDD before archiving them to the fire safe. I don't yet have an offsite storage plan other than Flickr.

I've only been doing digital SLR for 1.5 years so I don't know how well my plan will scale. I've taken about 10K pictures in that time and probably 3-4 hours of video.

256 wouldn't make sense for me.

For work with my D800 and shooting RAW I use 32 SD and 32 CF, using the CF as backup unless I am recording video, in which case I put photos on the SD and video on the CF. I have a second set of two cards in my bag, which I only use when I want to keep a separate shoot on separate cards. I haven't filled all 32 G in one day yet, but I have gone over half.

A typical .NEF file is about 40 MB so you get 800 on a card. My typical .MOV files are around 125 MB, so I have plenty of room for those as well, as I only do 3 or 4 .MOV files per session.

32 GB is more than enough. I think 16 would work fine as well. 256 GB? I couldn't use it. That's 6400 photos or 2000 videos! I might put 256 in my SD port as a storage drive for photos, but I have a nice 2 TB HD that backs up to my server, so I can't see paying that kind of money. I don't think I can get a card to back up to the server automatically anyway.

Anyone see a reason for such a large card? I suppose photographers are not the only ones to use SD cards, and so shouldn't be so arrogant as to think that Lexar made it for us. Might be quite useful I suppose if you've got a tablet that takes one?

NSXType-R said:
I still use 1 8 gig Sandisk SD card for my D40. Over 2000 shots in one card!

But that is worse than a 256Gb in a D800! Think of the lost shots if s**t happens - and you know it will, one day...

I still use 1 8 gig Sandisk SD card for my D40. Over 2000 shots in one card!

Like msmoto, I'd rather go for more smaller cards to insulate myself from a malfunction. I've also recently purchased a 160GB storage drive, which is another option.

I use a 16GB QXD and CF 16GB in the D4. But, rarely ever come close to filling either as I am insistent on editing, downloading the contents, and re-formatting the cards after each shoot. And this is done sometimes three times a day.

I find I work better if I get all the final images completed as quickly as possible after a shoot. Then delete the ones I do not find acceptable or unwanted.

I would rather use a smaller card and use several than one huge size card as there is always a possibility of a malfunction.

And, that photo of the old Nikon F250...I think it held about 33 feet of film and could get about 250 images out of it without reloading. In those days, we purchased film in 100 foot rolls and loaded our own film cassettes. I think I had about fifty cassettes and usually had 10-20 loaded. And, for reasons I do not understand, we rarely had dust on our images....

i would want a 256GB for my d800... if it cost 100$(in 4~ years... maybe)

i think if the only pro cameras were more than 36 pixels and i were in the market to buy another camera i would probably just downgrade to a consumer level at that rate.

Reading the early posts of this thread made me laugh $100 for 2Gb SD's - wow! I pay around £1 per Gb for faster SD's now!

As for buying 256Gb? Ain't gonna happen at any price let alone $1000.

Seems like a good time to resurrect this thread, as Lexar introduces its $1000 256GB SDXC 400x card. One question........why would you want one?

jonnyapple said:
Also, a related question: what's the longest roll of film you ever had in a film camera?

for me 40-41 - rarely and 38-39 as a standard

I work in a gallery as the documentary photographer for all the shows that we have, so I need some of those things! I've had them for a while, use em as digi-polaroid, and for the very rare occasions that I still bring my digital with me when working on personal projects.

They're good cards though, I used em last year in sub-zero temperatures a few times and didn't really experience any slowdown...also did a series of portraits after the school shooting we had in my town while I was living in Finland last year.

Wow, pretty fancy cards considering you mostly shoot film!

I use 120 film and 36exp rolls of 35mm mostly. But I have a few of these "SeeEff" cards lying about...

All Sandisk:

2x 1GB Extreme III
2x 2GB Extreme III
1x 4GB Extreme IV

RobertD said:
I shot air-to-air for Gates Learjet with a Hasselblad 500C with 4 70mm backs. Each back held 15 feet of film.

Any pictures of that setup Robert

Pete

jonnyapple said:
CF: 6x4GB, 4x2GB = 32GB
SD: 2x8GB, 4x4GB, 2x1GB = 34GB

Also, a related question: what's the longest roll of film you ever had in a film camera? For me, 36. Compare that with around 550 D90 raw files from a single 8GB card. Kind of makes me want to go out and shoot some more pictures.

I hear some people load their own film, so they fit a hell of a lot of film in their rolls (or they go back and refill them). It's cheaper to buy in bulk and load them. I guess what you could do is not cut them and use that weird back thingy in that picture.

SDHC 8 GB Sandisk Extreme II for the D40 and a 2 GB Extreme II for my Nikon Coolpix 3700. That thing's hilarious- 2 gigs is way more than what I need- I can shoot for half a year with that thing- it could probably fit 3000+ pictures.

RobertD said:
Each back held 15 feet of film.

Holy crap!