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D800 Memory cards

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EOS Photographer

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As we all know D800 will create 75MB RAW files.

For any event that require large number of photo's you will need large capacity SD/CF cards. Would a CF card adapter together with a 128GB SD card work?

I would like to make a automatic backup of the files therefore prefer to use 2 of the same memory cards. Also, 128GB CF cards are insanely expensive here in Europe.
 
I think that would be a bad move.

I read that you can get about 130 images on a 8gb card.I'm getting some 16gb cards.
They are not very expensive.

If you have a very large card and something goes wrong you stand the chance of losing all your images.If you have a few smaller cards you will only lose some of youe images
--
Diverroy
 
I am a Canon 5D2 user, currently using 32 and 64GB cards and never had any problems (knock on wood). So I am not afraid to start using 128GB cards.

Constantly needing to switch cards would be a no-go for me.
My question therefore is would a CF to SDXC adapter work on the D800 or not?
Not what kind of cards to use :)
 
EOS Photographer said:
As we all know D800 will create 75MB RAW files.
Click to expand...
will : yes. must : no. You might wish to consider lossless compressed RAW, which are likely half the file size with no difference in image quality.
EOS Photographer said:
For any event that require large number of photo's you will need large capacity SD/CF cards. Would a CF card adapter together with a 128GB SD card work?
Click to expand...
Any SD card larger than 32GB is an SDXC card, a recent update of the SD specification. If you pursue such an adapter, make sure it supports SDXC. My recommendation is to avoid such adapters.
EOS Photographer said:
I would like to make a automatic backup of the files therefore prefer to use 2 of the same memory cards.
Click to expand...
Using a CF=> SD adapter is a greater added risk than using both SDXC and CF cards.
EOS Photographer said:
Also, 128GB CF cards are insanely expensive here in Europe.
Click to expand...
Buy more affordable cards until the market price for highest density cards declines (which is only a matter of time).

The sweet spot for memory card pricing is 16GB-32GB, at the moment. And yes, even in the USA, there is a cost premium for CF cards.
--
Bob Elkind

Family, mostly sports. Seriously, folks, I'm not that good. If I can do it, you can do it!
photo galleries at http://eteam.zenfolio.com
my relationship with my camera is strictly photonic
 
bob elkind said:
EOS Photographer said:
As we all know D800 will create 75MB RAW files.
Click to expand...
will : yes. must : no. You might wish to consider lossless compressed RAW, which are likely half the file size with no difference in image quality.
Click to expand...
Sure, that's an idea, that has been playing through my head.

But comming from Canon to Nikon I have no idea how 'fast' or 'slow' these write speeds are using lossless compressed NEF files.

Each photo may in worst case already take up to 2 second to write.
 
I get roughly 100 image files per GB with my D3. I would expect to get 30 per GB with the D800 in normal shooting mode. With a 8GB card that translates into 240 images. How many pictures do you take per day now with your camera?

With an average wedding I take 2500 pictures and they fit on 3-4 8GB CF cards. If I were to use the D800 (and I will not be doing so) that would turn into 10-12 8GB cards. I dislike putting all my eggs into one basket as I have had images lost due to defective CF cards.

For travel I shoot at most 400 images a day and with a 20 day trip the likely total would be around 3000 images in total and this can be handled with 10 8GB CF cards.

The CF card manufacturers are faced with a problem as the price for a 1GB of flash storage continues to fall rapidly. To maintain their profit margins they need to sell higher capacity and ultra fast CF cards at a premium price. Gullible photographers buy these premium priced cards and it is like buying a 1 ton truck with 400 horsepower to drive around town - most of the extra capacity that is bought will never be used.

I can buy in the states a SanDisk Extreme 60Mbs UDMA 8GB CF card for $39. If I bought them today and needed an extra 32GB of storage the cost would be $160. Or if I wanted to use 16GB cards, which will hold about 500 D800 image files each or 1000 images in total, I can buy them today for $60 each for a total cost of $120.

Do you really shoot more than 1000 images before you are able to upload them to your computer?

I have about 42GB in CF cards and could see adding several 16GB CF cards after the D800 arrives and I have used it for awhile. The longer I wait the lower the price I will pay for the cards. It also pays to watch for SanDisk rebates.
 
I generally agree with everything here + I would add that you can look at Transcend cards for a fraction of the price.

R
calson said:
I get roughly 100 image files per GB with my D3. I would expect to get 30 per GB with the D800 in normal shooting mode. With a 8GB card that translates into 240 images. How many pictures do you take per day now with your camera?

With an average wedding I take 2500 pictures and they fit on 3-4 8GB CF cards. If I were to use the D800 (and I will not be doing so) that would turn into 10-12 8GB cards. I dislike putting all my eggs into one basket as I have had images lost due to defective CF cards.

For travel I shoot at most 400 images a day and with a 20 day trip the likely total would be around 3000 images in total and this can be handled with 10 8GB CF cards.

The CF card manufacturers are faced with a problem as the price for a 1GB of flash storage continues to fall rapidly. To maintain their profit margins they need to sell higher capacity and ultra fast CF cards at a premium price. Gullible photographers buy these premium priced cards and it is like buying a 1 ton truck with 400 horsepower to drive around town - most of the extra capacity that is bought will never be used.

I can buy in the states a SanDisk Extreme 60Mbs UDMA 8GB CF card for $39. If I bought them today and needed an extra 32GB of storage the cost would be $160. Or if I wanted to use 16GB cards, which will hold about 500 D800 image files each or 1000 images in total, I can buy them today for $60 each for a total cost of $120.

Do you really shoot more than 1000 images before you are able to upload them to your computer?

I have about 42GB in CF cards and could see adding several 16GB CF cards after the D800 arrives and I have used it for awhile. The longer I wait the lower the price I will pay for the cards. It also pays to watch for SanDisk rebates.
Click to expand...
--
http://www.cuibono.ca
 
lanef said:
So I guess my 16GB SDHC card could take around 426 [D800] photos of lossless compressed RAW?
Click to expand...
That's a good estimate.

--
Bob Elkind

Family, mostly sports. Seriously, folks, I'm not that good. If I can do it, you can do it!
photo galleries at http://eteam.zenfolio.com
my relationship with my camera is strictly photonic
 
bob elkind said:
lanef said:
So I guess my 16GB SDHC card could take around 426 [D800] photos of lossless compressed RAW?
Click to expand...
That's a good estimate.
Click to expand...
Based on the Nikon brochure, an 8GB Card should store 103 NEF Lossless 14 Bit, or 133 for 12 bit, so your 16GB card will only be storing around 200-260 photos.

Of course I don't know if the Nikon numbers are average or worst case - the cameras certainly tend to overestimate size, when displaying remaining shot space.

But it looks like a D800 with 16GB cards, will be much like the old days of a D70 with 1GB cards - And Sandisk 16 GB Extreme cards are cheaper now than 1GB Ulltra II cards were when I bought a D70.

Thankfully I have about 160GB worth of CF cards (bought for 8-10 week holidays). I'll be fine with a D800 for normal shoots, but will need more again if I go on a long holiday with a D800.
 
stadl said:
Based on the Nikon brochure, an 8GB Card should store 103 NEF Lossless 14 Bit, or 133 for 12 bit, so your 16GB card will only be storing around 200-260 photos.

Of course I don't know if the Nikon numbers are average or worst case - the cameras certainly tend to overestimate size, when displaying remaining shot space.
Click to expand...
You will quickly learn to dismiss the Nikon estimates as excessively conservative. This has been the case since I first purchased a D70, if not earlier. This subject comes up every few weeks since... forever. Just search the forum for "shots remaining" to get an idea of how often this subject is discussed. A few past example threads:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=31238407
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=40009706
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=31091000
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=27399294

--
Bob Elkind

Family, mostly sports. Seriously, folks, I'm not that good. If I can do it, you can do it!
photo galleries at http://eteam.zenfolio.com
my relationship with my camera is strictly photonic
 
The Nikon chart numbers are just flat out wrong. They copied the uncompressed capacity numbers into the lossless compressed rows. The lossless compressed numbers should be almost twice what they are.

8GB/41MB is about 200 photos.
 
The sd cards are so much less, it may have been better to get two sd card slots in the d800
EOS Photographer said:
As we all know D800 will create 75MB RAW files.

For any event that require large number of photo's you will need large capacity SD/CF cards. Would a CF card adapter together with a 128GB SD card work?

I would like to make a automatic backup of the files therefore prefer to use 2 of the same memory cards. Also, 128GB CF cards are insanely expensive here in Europe.
Click to expand...
 
djsphynx said:
I generally agree with everything here + I would add that you can look at Transcend cards for a fraction of the price.
Click to expand...
I can get a 32GB Transcend CF at a reasonable price (in Canada). So, here's my plan:

I will use my 64GB 'class 10' SDXC that I already have to store lossless compressed NEF. Then, I will use the Transcend 32GB to store JPEG.

I also have another 64GB SDXC as backup.

I do have a stack of CF's from my D70 days but the larger ones are only 4GB...
 
Doh, Missed that when looking at the chart.

I was familiar with how badly Nikon over-estimates size, and was expecting the stated numbers for shots on a card to be on the low side, but not totally wrong due to their copy and paste error.
maladat said:
The Nikon chart numbers are just flat out wrong. They copied the uncompressed capacity numbers into the lossless compressed rows. The lossless compressed numbers should be almost twice what they are.

8GB/41MB is about 200 photos.
Click to expand...
 
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