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 :-)

I thought maybe there was some notes here on trying to subdue the glare but most discussion seems to be on theft. I'd agree that most thieves can spot a camera of value and taping stuff doesn't cut it. If you photograph enough you will develop your own style. I do not fear someone interrupting me with gear questions but I can understand in some settings this may be a problem. I have never had a gang even try to steal camera gear from me but it does happen. Once I had a group of bad guys cross the street in NYC and they realized I was not in the least bit intimidated and after several minutes they asked me to take a group photo, which I did. There are more people on this planet than it can support. Your camera and your skill can help tell a story and hopefully you will make a difference. I myself don't like tape as it can make it very hard to clean the camera up. I think camo wrappers are the easiest and classiest ways to subdue gear. I have been in places were tape was used to keep gear from making noise and when the camo wrappers are used with tape it can keep the sticky tape residue from defacing critical areas.

9x 8gb sandisk extreme sd = 72gb

For me, I simply just put it in the backpack, when its not in use. I never freely carry it around in a crowded area, and I do not use the straps either. When I do use it, I have it held by my side and most importantly, I do not take my hands off of it or lose track of it. And if you feel like you really are going to a hostile area, make sure to bring pepper spray also.

I do not use the bright nikon straps but a plain black strap. That it.

framer

warprints said:
I've never taped up a camera. My cameras were stolen one time - in a burglary, so taping would not have helped. One other time I was at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and was going down a back street to get to a different vantage point, when I was confronted by a nice young man who advised me that someone could easily take my cameras from me. I generally carry my main shooting camera in a fashion that I think MSMoto described in her original post. When the guy said that to me, I looked at my camera in my hand with the strap wrappen around my wrist, and said "I'd like to see someone try." We stared at each other for a few moments, and with an expletive, he walked away.

LOL, I remember you sharing that story before warprints, I wish I had been there to witness it :-) Personally I hope being a third dan in jujitsu and knowing how to spin my magnesium bodies on my Black Rapid DR-1 like nunchaku, will have a similar ability to deter. :-) Hopefully I'll never have to find out. (There are always bigger fish in the sea).

I've never taped up a camera. My cameras were stolen one time - in a burglary, so taping would not have helped. One other time I was at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and was going down a back street to get to a different vantage point, when I was confronted by a nice young man who advised me that someone could easily take my cameras from me. I generally carry my main shooting camera in a fashion that I think MSMoto described in her original post. When the guy said that to me, I looked at my camera in my hand with the strap wrappen around my wrist, and said "I'd like to see someone try." We stared at each other for a few moments, and with an expletive, he walked away.

I never used the gaffers tape on any of my film cameras F,F2,F3,fm-2,fe-2. Never felt the need,now with my digital body suddenly there seems to be great interest. So I use the tape to cover up the nikon logo & model on my D200 & on my 80-200.

I hear ya, I just woulda thought that big 70-200 hanging around a persons neck would be a bigger "Hey! I'm expensive, steal me!" than the smaller Nikon logo, I do see your point though.

What no Gold 'F' to reflect warm tones for portraits?!?!

Great videos on that thread btw. But seriously, what photographer doesn't want the "bazooka lens" f/.95 with great bokeh, awesome contrast and speed of thought focusing? It would balance so nicely with my D10x, that is until I can upgrade to the D11 - way better DR, high ISO and infinite buffer. :)

Oh, this is even more obvious when one has the double Black Rapid Strap and a big camera on each side! But, as strange as it may seem, the name on the camera immediately creates a point of focus and draw attention. The black on all the light surfaces was originally used when shooting close up shots and no reflections were desired. It is the original idea of the camera being black. I have one black "F" body, one silver "F" body.

Now to the ego issue...having the name/model blacked out makes folks ask...and in many situations, being able to say it is an older camera is the best way to go... or follow the lead of this thread....:-)

http://nikonrumors.com/forum/topic.php?id=8403

I'm glad I did a search before posting a new thread. At a slow point at work today I thought to myself, when photographers tape over their camera or lens trying to be 'stealthy' what does that really accomplish? My thinking is this: Putting a battery grip on a D60 and you'll have people complimenting on your "Pro" setup, so I don't think thieves would know any difference between a rinkydink Nikon/Canon/Leica/Sony entry or pro level equipment. My second point, if you put gaffer tape over the horse emblem on a Ferrari you still know it's a car and probably an expensive one and still valuable enough to steal. The same applies to a camera, if it looks like an expensive camera and smells like an expensive camera it more than likely is an expensive camera, brand/model name showing or not.

BTW I'm not suggesting you flaunt it either.

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.