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?

I still think it's not a genuine card. I'm shooting and was shooting in burst modes on different cameras from d200, through d90, d300s, d3s and never had a problem with overheating. got errors couple of times but only when I was using PQI or Kingston cards. Never had such a problem with sandisk, and never the card was hotter than usual.
Anyway, if it's sandisk it's most likely on limitless warranty so send it to them for an exchange.

Firmware wont fix the 4 gigs as they all are supported already. 16gb cards however get picky unless you install it. It doesn't hurt to try...

And really try them. The card is replaceable. The photos aren't.

It is possible the card is just bad. It happens...and if you are still having problems with the card on the computer and your camera is working fine with other cards then it 100% just the bad card. One of mine died and I could never get anything recovered from it (but it was a not great brand) and I didn't have a whole lot on it. Never heard of one overheating, but yes in theory once an overheated piece of equipment cooled down it would then work again...which it isn't.

Just curious if you have the newest firmware on the D7000? It was released 11/10/2011. Card might still be dead, but might check out the firmware anyway.

Try Drivesavers, they work wonders (although pricey) can recover most data most of the time. Also only get genuine sandisk ultra or extreme cards. I'm surprised that happened. Probably a factory defect. Never had an issue with any of mine in any of my bodies including my d7000. Make sure water didn't get in there and short circuit it (although I've stuck wet cards(bad idea) in a body and they shot fine)

Always I am using genuine cards, unfotunately the error occured. d7000 has two slots for cards, and it was overflow mode. lst card filled with snaps and 2nd card filled with 150snaps, these 150 snaps got. but the lst card become error. So I thnk the OVERFLOW mode is not secure.

first of all, use genuine sandisk cards next time, as You have in 99.99% a fake one. secondly, if You have a genuine card than You can download freely RescuePro from sandisk. If You can't download it You can buy it, and this software will recover data from the card. I've used it personally couple of times and always was more than happy with the results.

But, how can I recover valuable photos in the card.