I read the thread about the freezing D800, quite a few of the posts were about the possibility of memory cards being a factor, just wondering if the D800 needs the latest super fast cards or not, it mentioned that lexar and sandisk are the only ones nikon recommend, am taking delivery soonish and want a couple of appropriate cards. cheers
Memory Card Issues
(18 posts) (7 voices)-
I have a SanDisk 64GB Extreme SD and a Lexar 64GB CF. Never had any issues so far. Taking the family to the Zoo today. Will be using my D800 and 28-300 VR with said memory cards.
Later,
JeffPosted 1 year ago # -
SanDisk 32GB "extreme Pro" work for the SDHC card, as well as Polaroid 32 GB SDHC cards (a non-approved brand).
My D800 locks up when I try to use a Patriot CF card although the specs on the box are the same as the Sandisk "Extreme Pro" 32GB CF card that does work. So my experience is that the CF card is more likely to cause a problem than the SD card. The Patriot CF card works fine recurring video on a DVR we use for a Sony underwater video camera, but it chokes the D800 for some reason.
32 GB holds 400 RAW files. If you go with one 64 SD and one 64 CG like Jeff, you will get 1600 exposures prior to filling your cards! That's a days work!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hi,
I don't have the D8000 (yet!). The thing that is relevant there is I don't know the file sizes and how much card space is used, so with that...
I typically will use 8GB/16GB cards on jobs and change them on the job.
I have the content delivered to both slots so I have duplicates, and replace the duplicates frequently.
Points : I have two backs up at all times, If one fails, I have have back up, and the failure is for a smaller chip.
My best,
Mike
Posted 1 year ago # -
Mike Gunter said:
...I typically will use 8GB/16GB cards on jobs and change them on the job....Mike, the D800 stores about 12.5 lossless compressed NEF files per GB. So a 16 GB card will hold about 200 exposures. So the question becomes how often would you have to change cards during a shoot to consider it inconvenient? In my case, I have come from many years of shooting film, so I am not used to the freedom of shooting without worried about having to change film, so I have yet to fill a 32 GB card in a single shoot.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hi Wataru,
Then it looks like you could use the technique I'm suggesting. Every 85-100 shots, replacing 2 16GB cards with fresh cards.
You'd then have fresh cards and redundancy with your media.
Smaller cards are somewhat cheaper, a slight advantage.
I've also filed 2 32GB cards up via 1 to overflow to 2 in one setting, replacing both cards, doing it again, and no worries.
So I don't know that what I'm suggesting is really necessary, but I am sure that redundancy is a good thing, a touch cheaper, and a whole lot of piece of mind.
My best,
Mike
Posted 1 year ago # -
Thanks for the insight's, will go with Jeff's tip probably, i take it that 45mbs is more than ok for the D800, am from the film side of things as well, memory cards are like infinite rolls of vari iso, color, black and white film all on the same roll, is there any advantage to having the 95mbs cards other than transfer rates?
Posted 1 year ago # -
When movie recording with the D800 Nikon recommends a class 6 card or faster
In the UK, Amazon have Sandisk Ultra SDXC UHS-I Class 10 64GB for £45Posted 1 year ago # -
What few things I have seen is the the fastest performance is to use just one CF card (90mb/s+). CF cards are faster than SD cards at the same "class" level so a "faster" SD card to pair to it, probably wouldn't be a bad idea.
The question comes down to "how much continuous shooting maxing the FPS are you going to do?" If not much, it doesn't matter too much. I have a supper fast CF lower GB card for my D300 when I need the clear the buffer since I don't need it often. For normal stuff I just use a slower but larger 32gb card.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Kidraver said:
Just wondering if having two different size/speed cards in the D800 would be a problem?if you are using the second card as a back up the slower card will dictate write speed
as Tao mentions continuous shooting maxing the FPS causes problems. once full the buffer of my D800 takes a while to clear
if you do a lot of continuous shooting maxing the FPS then maybe the D4 is better bet
Posted 1 year ago # -
Thanks guys, i do not expect to be maxing out the fps, just want to get the correct combination of memory cards that will not bug the D800, so i would be ok with the 45mbs? i was imagining the 95mbs would aid the D800's software operation in some way, but it seems from what i have read here that it wont matter.
Posted 1 year ago # -
45 would be fine for most shooting I would think. There are a lot of sales going on right now - B&H had one on cards.
Make sure to find the "Write speed". Not all 45mb cards are the same - the Video ones are only 10mp write which will bog you down. I got burned on one of those once.
The 45mb one's to get (actually all of the SanDisk one to get) are the "Extreme Pro" versions. Those are the one's that are 45mb write and read.
Labeling standards on memory cards are useless and basically non-existent. Class 10 cards only need to write at a min of 10mb/s to obtain that class. So that means in that class, SanDisk has cards the write anyware from 10mb/s to 100mb/s.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I got 45MB/s SD cards for my D800 and they work quite good, got a good price on them but certainly the 90MB/s cards would work better.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Cheers adamz but you have confused me a bit (not hard to do) when you say the 95mbs will work better what does that mean? i can imagine they upload faster and stuff but not sure if they will make the camera work more effectively, this is my dilemma, i mean with FP 4 and HP 5 film one knew where one was with them, but with cards i dont know how they interact with the camera, ie does the internal operating system benefit from the extra speed or are there other factors involved? once again cheers to all those who have contributed.
Posted 1 year ago # -
With large files you have to clear the camera's internal memory (buffer) otherwise is slows the camera down as it doesn't have anymore room to store photos. A card with a really fast Write speed will aid in clearing that internal memory out so it can keep shooting. It appears that the camera can send data over 120mb/s to a card. The slower the write speed of the card, the more of a bottle neck this would create and slow the camera down. It is like trying to drain a swimming pool using a straw (slow card) or a fire hose (fast card.)
If you are waiting 30+ sec between shots, it's not a big deal. If you are firing off fairly rapid bursts, then it does.
Posted 1 year ago #
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