How do you use your two card slots?

tomhongkong

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Having two card slots on EM1.ii gives a number of options for what is saved on what card in what slot.

It would be very helpful to me, as an EM1.ii newbie, if folks could say what they have found to be the best practical arrangement, and what card type and capacity they have in each slot

Many thanks

tom
 
1st slot video

2nd slot photo

Or

1st slot data

2nd slot backup
 
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Slot 1: Raw stills and occasional video

Slot 2: empty

If you value fast start-up from power on this is a good approach. As an amateur enthusiast shooter I have no need for redundancy to insure against lost images. Plus, I have never experienced an SD card failure.

Lee
 
Write identical to both.

Cards are both UHS II, 64G
 
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I use slot 1. And if I forget to put the card back in, I use slot 2.

Lifesaver! :)
 
Slot 1 - RAW

Slot 2 - JPEG highest res
 
I'm using the G9.

I put a very high speed 32 GB card (and more expensive) in slot one for RAW images only.

In slot two goes a 128GB slower and cheaper card that gets JPGs and all video.

This way I get my buffer cleared fastest when shooting RAW images for my daughters sports events and still have JPG backups if I need them.

I can get just over a thousand RAWs on the first card.

If I'm just shooting video then I'll usually just use two of the larger slower cards and make two copies. They are plenty fast enough even for the now 10bit 422 capabilities of the G9.

Having all this flexibility is awesome and there are many ways to tweak it to suit your needs.
 
I put an Ace in the first slot and a King in the second slot. BLACKJACK! :-)

Seriously, though, here is how I have my E-M1ii set up:
  • Card Slot 1 (UHS-2) — 64 GB Sandisk Extreme Pro (300 MB/s)
  • Card Slot 2 (UHS-1) — 64 GB Sandisk Extreme Plus (150 MB/s)
Most of the time, I have the cards set to "Auto Switch," but for no particular reason. Because I mostly shoot stills, 64 GB is almost always far more than I need at any one time. Even shooting the occasional video, I haven't ever reached the point at which the cards actually had to switch.

However, if I know I'm going to shoot a lot of video along with some stills, I might send the videos to Slot 1 and the stills to Slot 2. In the ten months that I have had my E-M1ii, I have only done this once and I only filled a fraction of either card.

If it's something that is extra important, I will save to both cards (if I remember). I have done this several times. I'm a civil engineer and I sometimes do project site visits (recon for writing proposals, site verification during design, etc.) and construction site visits. In both cases, I like to save to both cards. Site visits are expensive and construction can't be shot again later. Also, a friend has asked if I would take family photos in the next couple weeks. That one I will save to both cards.

Finally, I am part of a small team at our church that photographs events and other stuff. When our Communications guy needs the pics right away, I save to one of my older 16 GB cards that I stick in the UHS-1 slot. That way, if he loses the card, I'm not heartbroken. This has only happened once, and it was quite a few years ago when I was using my E-5. When he doesn't need the pics right way, I take them home to cull, crop, and do minor adjustments, then I copy the images to one of my old 16 GB cards.
 
Having two card slots on EM1.ii gives a number of options for what is saved on what card in what slot.

It would be very helpful to me, as an EM1.ii newbie, if folks could say what they have found to be the best practical arrangement, and what card type and capacity they have in each slot

Many thanks

tom
I shoot raw only and use Card 1 as the primary media for stills with automatic overflow to Card 2.

I have Card 2 set as the media for video

I use SanDisk 32G Extreme Plus HC I, and 64G Extreme XC I cards

I've never felt impeded by write speeds using these cards for 4K video or high frame rate stills.

Peter
 
One slot raw and the other jpeg for quick sharing.

Really appreciate not having jpeg and raw on the same card for processing.

Neil
 
I use a sandisk pro uhs2 32 gig in top slot, a 64gig extreme pro bottom slot and duplicate lsf jpegs + raw and bottom slot for video + backup. I bought the camera for pro shoots and backup.

Don

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Olympus EM5mk2 ,EM1mk2
http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/9412035244
past toys. k100d, k10d,k7,fz5,fz150,500uz,canon G9, Olympus xz1 em5mk1
 
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don't have the m1.2 but the G9 has two UHS-II card slots.

As I do no video I use CS#1 with a 128GB UHS-II card for RAW and CS#2 with a 64gb UHS-i for jpeg.

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If only closed minds came with closed mouths..
 
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Plus, I have never experienced an SD card failure.
... until one day. I have never experienced an SD card failure too, until last week. Genuine Sandisk 128gb Extreme PRO can't be formatted out of the box.
now in my 1 slot - 128gb Lexar 128gb - RAW & video
2nd slot - JPGs (backup and fast share)
 
Having two card slots on EM1.ii gives a number of options for what is saved on what card in what slot.

It would be very helpful to me, as an EM1.ii newbie, if folks could say what they have found to be the best practical arrangement, and what card type and capacity they have in each slot

Many thanks

tom
Thank for the replies. They have been very interesting, not least because there seems to be such a difference in the way people use the slots.

I had myself sort of decided that I would have a 32 Gb fast card in slot 1 and a slower bigger card in slot 2 which I could use as back up (probably keeping it in for a week's shooting). But that raised all sorts of questions which I have not been able to answer satisfactorily, and perhaps someone can help with just a couple.

Just how fast does a card need to be for the EM1.ii? There is a lot of pressure pushing us to buy expensive 300Mb/s UHSll cards, but I seem to be taking shots OK with cheapo 80Mb/s UHSl models. Mind you, I don't spray and pray (too old fashioned for that) and seldom take more than 4 shots in a burst (even that is something I have only just been experimenting with, with AF-c) So how big/fast a burst can be sustained with slow cards? When are we forced to use UHSll?

If I use the two slots as I envisaged above, and the camera is writing simultaneously to both slots, isn't it going to slowed down to the speed of the second slot (UHSl)? Doesn't that mean an expensive card in slot 1 is wasted?

Some benchmarks show that it is slower to write Raws to the fast slot, and JPEGs to the other (in a Raw + Jpeg situation) , than writing them all to the fast slot, so the potential advantage of separating RAW and Jpeg goes away (I know it's one less step in PP if they have been sorted out in camera)

I am a bit stuck to see where all the speed advantage of the fast slot takes me.

Please keep your replies coming, I am learning a lot!

thanks

tom
 
On my G9

slot 1 : full size jpegs

slot 2 : raw + occasional video

H
 
Having two card slots on EM1.ii gives a number of options for what is saved on what card in what slot.

It would be very helpful to me, as an EM1.ii newbie, if folks could say what they have found to be the best practical arrangement, and what card type and capacity they have in each slot

Many thanks

tom
Thank for the replies. They have been very interesting, not least because there seems to be such a difference in the way people use the slots.

I had myself sort of decided that I would have a 32 Gb fast card in slot 1 and a slower bigger card in slot 2 which I could use as back up (probably keeping it in for a week's shooting). But that raised all sorts of questions which I have not been able to answer satisfactorily, and perhaps someone can help with just a couple.

Just how fast does a card need to be for the EM1.ii? There is a lot of pressure pushing us to buy expensive 300Mb/s UHSll cards, but I seem to be taking shots OK with cheapo 80Mb/s UHSl models. Mind you, I don't spray and pray (too old fashioned for that) and seldom take more than 4 shots in a burst (even that is something I have only just been experimenting with, with AF-c) So how big/fast a burst can be sustained with slow cards? When are we forced to use UHSll?

If I use the two slots as I envisaged above, and the camera is writing simultaneously to both slots, isn't it going to slowed down to the speed of the second slot (UHSl)? Doesn't that mean an expensive card in slot 1 is wasted?

Some benchmarks show that it is slower to write Raws to the fast slot, and JPEGs to the other (in a Raw + Jpeg situation) , than writing them all to the fast slot, so the potential advantage of separating RAW and Jpeg goes away (I know it's one less step in PP if they have been sorted out in camera)

I am a bit stuck to see where all the speed advantage of the fast slot takes me.

Please keep your replies coming, I am learning a lot!

thanks

tom
I dont do alot of burst neither. and shooting 4k video on the slower card seems as fast as the uhs2 card slot. someone who shoots sports might need the faster card though.

Don
 
Primary in slot one. Overflow to slot two.

However, once with a friend at a national park her card filled up.

I pulled my card out of slot two so she could continue shooting.
 
The E-M1 Mk II appears to be able to write at about 160 MB/s to slot 1.


I have been using the much less expensive Lexar 1000x UHS-II 32 GB cards for raw files at 10 fps without encountering any problems. I originally had the camera writing the same file to both cards, but quit doing that when I discovered that it was faster writing to slot 1 only. Slot 2 is now a convenient place to keep a spare card. Even if the camera is writing to both slots simultaneously, which I doubt, the save time will still be that of the slower card.
 
Having two card slots on EM1.ii gives a number of options for what is saved on what card in what slot.

It would be very helpful to me, as an EM1.ii newbie, if folks could say what they have found to be the best practical arrangement, and what card type and capacity they have in each slot

Many thanks

tom
Thank for the replies. They have been very interesting, not least because there seems to be such a difference in the way people use the slots.

I had myself sort of decided that I would have a 32 Gb fast card in slot 1 and a slower bigger card in slot 2 which I could use as back up (probably keeping it in for a week's shooting). But that raised all sorts of questions which I have not been able to answer satisfactorily, and perhaps someone can help with just a couple.

Just how fast does a card need to be for the EM1.ii? There is a lot of pressure pushing us to buy expensive 300Mb/s UHSll cards, but I seem to be taking shots OK with cheapo 80Mb/s UHSl models. Mind you, I don't spray and pray (too old fashioned for that) and seldom take more than 4 shots in a burst (even that is something I have only just been experimenting with, with AF-c) So how big/fast a burst can be sustained with slow cards? When are we forced to use UHSll?

If I use the two slots as I envisaged above, and the camera is writing simultaneously to both slots, isn't it going to slowed down to the speed of the second slot (UHSl)? Doesn't that mean an expensive card in slot 1 is wasted?

Some benchmarks show that it is slower to write Raws to the fast slot, and JPEGs to the other (in a Raw + Jpeg situation) , than writing them all to the fast slot, so the potential advantage of separating RAW and Jpeg goes away (I know it's one less step in PP if they have been sorted out in camera)

I am a bit stuck to see where all the speed advantage of the fast slot takes me.

Please keep your replies coming, I am learning a lot!

thanks

tom
V30 sd cards should have enough write speed to handle any photography format using brust. V30 cards should handle video up to 300 megabits per second. If it is higher the card will crash. There are two codex in the gh5 that exceede 300mbits. In this case you v60 or higher card.
 
yesterday I had my photos go to one card and videos to other card

the most common sense need is to have raw on one card and jpg on the other card.

good luck.
 

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