If you are a pro, do you use two card slots for backup? Locked

lawny13 wrote:

LensSodomist wrote:

Rudix wrote:

pedz wrote:

I don't want to start the debate if the EOS R is a pro body or not. I'm fine declaring that it is not. But one of the nits against it is it has only one card slot and "no pro would ever use it" is stated emphatically very often. So, I'm curious.

I'm an avid amateur that might make a few dollars here and there on my photography and I have a nice job to pay for my toys. The few professional photographers I've known tended to be on an extremely tight budget and had consumer grade bodies that were a few years old. I've also got this hint from some YouTube videos.

I'm curious if you use a body with dual card slots and you have it set up to copy each image to both cards.

I think if I was really worried, I would cycle through a lot of small cards and, if I could afford it, have a pocket PC that could backup the cards as they got full to safer storage rather than trusting the camera to do the backup. The camera doing the backup still has a single point of failure and a firmware glitch in the camera seems more likely than today's cards having the glitch. To rephrase, it seems like both copies the camera is making are going to get damaged more often than just one copy.

I have been shooting professionally since 2003 using mostly Canon 1 series bodies that has 2 slots. I have never used the 2 slots as backup, mostly just one card and if I need the extra capacity 2 cards but not as backup.

In all that time and lots of photos (around 1.7 million "keepers" in my collection) I have never had card corruption or lost a single image! I believe this whole storm about the lack of a second slot on the R is just random noise......

Sorry but your explanation makes no sense.

Here's an application of your logic:

1. I've been smoking cigs for 60 years and I never got lung cancer, so why should I quit?
2. I've never been in a car accident in 40 years of driving, so why do I need car insurance?
3. I've never had a drive crash on my PC, so why do I need a back up?
4. My DSLR card has never got corrupted so why do I need to use slot?
5. My dad worked the coal mines for 40 years and he provided ok, so why do I need to get a college degree?

You obviously are not a true professional.

1. You are obviously just swinging around your opinion. First off not all pros will need dual cards. if you do studio portrait work it is obviously less of a necessity compared to a wedding photographer. Someone who shoots certain subject that would allow you to re-shoot easily were a card to fail can afford not having dual cards.
2. Your definition of pro seems to be quite off. If you make a living with photography then you are a pro, period simple as that regardless of the camera you have. If someone for example shot using film which pretty much also has no backup then what? They are not a pro?
And your arguments can also be reversed. Do you ever fly? Do you apply the same logic when flying? Cause planes do crash or have accidents. Do you wear a para-shot every time you get on the plane on the off chance that that something goes wrong and the cabin get a hole that sucks you and everyone out? No you don't. It is a matter of statistics.
Cards can effectively go through almost 100,000 write cycles, and mechanically 3000-5000 mechanical insertions in the body. So failures tend to occur every 3-5 years if you actually remove it often. If you never take the card out of the body the chances of failure decrease drastically. And if you are making money with your camera you can easily justify a new card every 1-2 years.
Not everyone finds it to be a necessity and it is up to them to make that choice. Someone berating them and telling them they are not a professional is not a very professional way of treating others now is it? Cause if that is how you act I would not want to pay you to do any work for me.

Wouldn't it just be better to pay a few bucks and put the 2nd card in the 2nd slot?

Just buy the 2nd card and put it in. Then you can rest assured of no retakes.

There are pros, then there are pros worth hiring.