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

PAntunes wrote:

lawny13 wrote:

Holscen wrote:

What if ...your card failed, what if it was your camera, your lens? Could you get the job done? Would your client like it if you failed to get the shots, your name and business would be tarnished

I always do paid jobs with 2 bodies, which was just as well because failure happens.

First big assignment I did for an international music magazine had me going to New York from London to shoot a band. I shot it on 2 Nikon F100 film cameras. Guess what, my motordrive failed on frame 1. No worries as I had a backup F100 otherwise my career might have ended before it began.

I used to shoot transparency then too, you had to be spot on with exposure and have perfect development. You wouldn’t always put all your rolls in processing at the same time, in case of an issue, and you’d run a clip test if you were a perfectionist.

The bottom line is that things fail and accidents happen. I’ve had cards fail, shutters fail, aperture blades fail, lenses get smashed and stolen, but I’ve always had a way round because I had a backup.

If you’ve been lucky enough to avoid problems with one camera, card, lens or flash...well that’s good..but luck can run out.

I believe if a pro prepares for the worst “what if” scenarios, then they can just roll on through any problems without breaking a sweat and deliver the job successfully.

I use 2 cameras, both with dual cards, many lenses, 2 flashes. The only thing I don’t have room for in my bag is excuses or apologies.

Ok, get what you are saying.
But in your case since you have 2 bodies and multiple lenses, shooting through out an event with bodies that only have 1 card slot would work, as long as you change things up, but not only shooting 1 perspective on 1 body.
Just as you implied shooting an event with just one body just cause it has 2 card slots assuming that it is the only thing to worry about would be silly, cause the body, lenses, shutter, hot shoe etc etc can all fail, and most of those things don't have backups short of a second body.
For events of course I think 2 card slots are better than one, but I think it is far more important to have a backup body over a backup card slot. Generally since the card slots are actually electronically connected on the same circuit, if the unit fails in the body itself then 2 cards wouldn't save you either.
Anyway, things go wrong, and it is up to the professional to determine how to handle it.

But the second body doesn't save the picture you took on the first body. If you're running with a 35mm and a 85mm, you won't get the group photo you took at 35mm on the camera that had the 85mm. Card failures can happen when you're taking the photo, but most of the time is when you're trying to copy the images to the computer. And by then, you can't go back and take a photo with a second camera.

I used to shoot weddings back in the 90s as a weekend warrior (I don't, these days, as a proper pro). I never carried 2 bodies - always 3 and sometimes 4.  One body each for Portra 160NC and 400NC, one spare loaded with whichever I was shooting at the time (outdoor and indoor films), and sometimes the 4th with the other film in.
I would try to get every shot that mattered on 2 cameras, and I had 2 lenses to do each job, pretty much. I used to take my films to my local pro lab, and on different days, to reduce the risk of a problem there. I was always paranoid about losing a film, even more than any other risk - and that still holds true with memory cards.
Anyway, these days I shoot conferences and small business stuff. For conferences, I get my shots in the first minute or two of each speaker, review and copy what I have to disk, then shoot any additional stuff. That means I don't need a second card, in effect. Most of my location shooting can be duplicated. Portraits are generally shot tethered, to show the client.
So although I really get the idea of redundancy, I just don't particularly need it. Of course most of my shooting IS done with twin cards, but not all of it, and I'm no longer worried about it.