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Do I really NEED another memory card?

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Theresa K

Theresa K

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I have three, relatively fast (80x Lexar and Ultra II), 1G memory cards. But the deals look SO good right now. How much memory do you really need?
--
Theresa Kelly
http://theresak.smugmug.com/
Oly E-3OO + some other stuff

Constructive criticism always welcome!

 
. . . . figure out how many images you can store with your current CD's, then, figure out how many images you capture on a "typical shoot".

Having done this, decide whether to use logic or feelings and proceed accordingly !

Either method will provide the desired result.

(I just bought a 2GB Extreme III . . . . which I DID NOT need . .. but, it was a relatively cheap mistake !! )

In either case, hava good Thursday . . . .

Paul
Vancouver, WA

http://www.pbase.com/spdavis
 
I have a 2G Extreme III & 2 - 1 G Lexar 80WA. The ExtremeIII blows away the Lexar, especially shooting RAW on the E-300. It's almost instant transfer (although I never shoot in peashooter mode).
 
SanDisk Extreme® III CompactFlash® 4GB should keep you shooting for a day. Never consider anything less then 100x writing speed if you shoot RAW with the E-300 or E-500. New brands coming out with 120x, 133x, and even faster writing speeds. The competition is getting fierce, hence the SanDisk has lowered the prices substantially.

I just bought a 4GB, and it last for a days photos with a good margin. I'll only use this card in future, and my old Lexar 1GB 80x will only be an emergency backup.

What I haven't checked is if there are any the writing speed differences between a FAT16 formatted 2GB card and a FAT32 formatted 4GB card?

Here are some recent photos taken with the 4GB SanDisk Extreme III:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1022&message=17198662
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1022&message=17198733
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1022&message=17198750
 
A few years ago I went on a week's bike trip from Malaga to Seville and back with my then digital camera. Fuji 4900. I had about 6 smartcards for this but forgot them all except one. That meant I could only take 80 shots on my trip, or buy a new card.
I finished up with 80 shots.

Every one was really good.

There's a lesson in that.

Anyone who needs a 4gig card for a day's shooting is afflicted by the dreaded photographic diarrhoea. Lots of motion but nothing solid.

Chaps, go out as a challenge and shoot 10 shots.

That'll teach you to concentrate.
 
Theresa K said:
I have three, relatively fast (80x Lexar and Ultra II), 1G memory
cards. But the deals look SO good right now. How much memory do
you really need?
Click to expand...
I just finished shooting four acts in an improv festival. 667 frames in a couple hours of shooting. The whole shoot would have fit on your cards as best quality E-1 JPEGs, which is what I was producing. I'd have needed eight of those cards if I'd shot the event RAW but I didn't see any point in it given the end use of these images.

The idea of shooting RAW all the time was tempting me toward the Seagate 8GB microdrive, but after taking a realistic look at how I use my images, I couldn't justify wasting the time downloading and processing and storing the gigantic RAW files all the time for the few times RAW development would have mattered to me. Maybe someday. But right now improving my eye and my shooting technique will get me better images than shooting RAW. Thus the 3.5GB in memory cards I have is plenty even for heavy photo nights like tonight.

If I needed more memory I'd wait until just before the event and then buy it. Flash ALWAYS looks like a bargain, but the prices keep dropping. The first flash I bought cost about $10/MB and I thought it was a great deal because a few years before that it cost $100/MB. That was back when Sandisk was still named Sundisk and a 20MB solid state drive cost $2000. The current rate for the premium CF format flash today is about 7 CENTS a megabyte and the prices continue to fall. Wait until you really need it before you buy it.
 
I have 8GB. However, those were all bought for the Kodak which produces around 14MP files, so fills a card pretty fast. With the E1 I've only filled a 2GB card a couple of times, and that's shooting RAW +highest quality jpegs; but then i haven't been away with the camera. And to be very honest, it's easier to take extra cards if you're away than to lug around some kind of storage solution.
Flick.
 
Hi Theresa,

I think 2 to 3 cards are enough, provided you have a PSD with you.

Since a few weeks i am using a transcend photobank, 20Gig, which covers for a big amount of pictures.

Emptying a card into it gives you the time to have a snack or look a bit around, which is not that bad !

And if you compare the costs, this 20gig stuff is about twice the price of 2 1GIG CF card. That made it for me.

Cheers !

Marc

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdezemery
 
Well, you can never have too many CF cards, imo.

But if you are worried about buying them, don't you have a birthday coming up, or a delayed Valentine's day present or something (like "it's Thursday")?

Just my 2d worth of excuses.

Regards, David
 
aussiedavid said:
No. Three should be more than enough. In practice now that's
another issue And I'm still laughing from other thread—David
Click to expand...
David & Theresa,

I get by with two 1GB and one 256mb cards, but carry a 40GB storage device that I rigged up. As for the other thread David, we won't go there. I got up this morning and found out you can't go there. Maybe got hotter after I went to bed. Must be that loooooong arm reached out and...................................
JW
 
I am thinking that what I have probably gives me plenty of shots for a day trip, I would only need more if I go on a vacation. At that point I can either buy more cards or look for a storage device.
--
Theresa Kelly
http://theresak.smugmug.com/
Oly E-3OO + some other stuff

Constructive criticism always welcome!

 
JW PHOTO said:
aussiedavid said:
No. Three should be more than enough. In practice now that's
another issue And I'm still laughing from other thread—David
Click to expand...
David & Theresa,
I get by with two 1GB and one 256mb cards, but carry a 40GB storage
device that I rigged up. As for the other thread David, we won't
go there. I got up this morning and found out you can't go there.
Click to expand...
I found it very entertaining, planned on looking to see what happened. :(

I think I will start learning about portagle storage devices for travel instead of more cards.
--
Theresa Kelly
http://theresak.smugmug.com/
Oly E-3OO + some other stuff

Constructive criticism always welcome!

 
i would say if you need the memory for the present moment then go for it....if you are going on vacation later on in the year then i would say wait, memory will be faster and probably cheaper then, or you may rather invest in a PSD instead.....my biggest battle is "want" vs "need"..... unfortunately i want everything that i dont need?....8)

brian
 
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