How big of a memory card will the S5 recognize?

[CBR1100XX]

I have a 16GB which is flakey and don't know if it is the card or the S5 (my D700 doesn't always like it).

Is 8GB fine?

 

[Walter S Matthews]

It is probably the card.

I have used a 16GB Transcend on the S5 now for two years, heavy use on weekends for weddings, always in RAW, and have never had any problems with it or the S5 vis a vis corrupted files or lost files.

My PC internal Card reader will not see the 16 GB card and I have to use an external reader to download the files but that is the only problem i have had with it as it is sometimes irritating that I have to find the external reader to download.

 

[Bad Pic kev]

i use 8 gig transcend cards in my s5 with no issues
--
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pinned to my wall.
An image of you and of me and we're laughing and loving it all.

 

[bernardm]

Sandisk 8Gb Ultra 11 works fine in my S5

 

[terradyn]

I have a 32GB Transcend card in my S5 that works fine.

 

[Big Ga]

I have a 16GB which is flakey and don't know if it is the card or the S5 (my D700 doesn't always like it).

yea, you need to tell us what card it is.
I have 16GB lexar (premium?) in my S5 cams and they work fine.

16Gb Kingston elite pros were a no no though - and my D3s didn't always like those either ....

 

[CBR1100XX]

I have a 16GB which is flakey and don't know if it is the card or the S5 (my D700 doesn't always like it).

yea, you need to tell us what card it is.
I have 16GB lexar (premium?) in my S5 cams and they work fine.

16Gb Kingston elite pros were a no no though - and my D3s didn't always like those either ....

It was the Kingston.

 

[Anthony32599]

The Kingston 16 GB is an absolute disaster. The reason it sells at all is because it's so big and so cheap, but in many cameras, it produces read errors. Kingston should be ashamed of selling this card under the Elite Pro name. I've lost images thanks to this card.

Dump it and get another card.

Anthony

It was the Kingston.

--
check out my blog at http://anthonyonphotography.blogspot.com

 

[terradyn]

Scratch that. I hadn't made more than 16GB of photos at a given time before but on my latest trip I took 21GB and it looks like the last 6 or so gigs of images kept overwriting itself or something because I would up with 7 copies of the same image (jpeg and rafs 7 times) many times over instead of a bunch of pictures I had taken. Recovery software didn't seem to see any other files and all 7 copies of the same file have the same image in them.

 

[Big Ga]

Scratch that. I hadn't made more than 16GB of photos at a given time before but on my latest trip I took 21GB and it looks like the last 6 or so gigs of images kept overwriting itself or something because I would up with 7 copies of the same image (jpeg and rafs 7 times) many times over instead of a bunch of pictures I had taken. Recovery software didn't seem to see any other files and all 7 copies of the same file have the same image in them.

Hmmm... that's not good. You've got me wondering about the 16GB cards now.

not that I've had any problems as yet, but the reason I bought the 16GB cards was that I sometimes got dangerously close to full using 8GB ones. The question is .... have I now ever shot MORE than 8GB using the 16GB cards ???

 

[Anthony32599]

I subscribe to the "don't put all your eggs in 1 basket" scenario. In the "old days" of 35mm film, you had to reload after 24 shots or 36 shots, which took about a minute (or longer, if you had to open a box to get the new film and figure out where to stash the exposed film). With today's memory cards, I can reload in about 4 seconds, which is hardly an interruption. Anyway, the point is that with film, even if 1 roll didn't load properly, it didn't mess up the whole shoot or you didn't lose all the vacation photos.

You're better off with more cards that are smaller and less expensive, than 1 card that is expensive, especially if that 1 card fails. At least if you split a shoot up among many cards, a failure of 1 card is not a total loss.

Anthony

Scratch that. I hadn't made more than 16GB of photos at a given time before but on my latest trip I took 21GB and it looks like the last 6 or so gigs of images kept overwriting itself or something because I would up with 7 copies of the same image (jpeg and rafs 7 times) many times over instead of a bunch of pictures I had taken. Recovery software didn't seem to see any other files and all 7 copies of the same file have the same image in them.

Hmmm... that's not good. You've got me wondering about the 16GB cards now.

not that I've had any problems as yet, but the reason I bought the 16GB cards was that I sometimes got dangerously close to full using 8GB ones. The question is .... have I now ever shot MORE than 8GB using the 16GB cards ???

--
check out my blog at http://anthonyonphotography.blogspot.com

 

[Big Ga]

I subscribe to the "don't put all your eggs in 1 basket" scenario.

To each his own. I subscribe to the "if you want to scramble your eggs, keep taking them in and out of the basket" scenario. Sooner of later you're going to screw something up doing this. The question is, are the chances of doing this higher than the chances of one, known good, tested card, screwing up while it remains in the camera.

In the "old days" of 35mm film, you had to reload after 24 shots or 36 shots, which took about a minute (or longer, if you had to open a box to get the new film and figure out where to stash the exposed film). With today's memory cards, I can reload in about 4 seconds, which is hardly an interruption. Anyway, the point is that with film, even if 1 roll didn't load properly, it didn't mess up the whole shoot or you didn't lose all the vacation photos.

Film didn't have CF pins that can bend or get damaged either. 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. Plus, I bet that you cant realise that you're at the end of your shots, find the spares, ensure you're not using an already used one, then swap it, then put the used one away, all in 4 sec.

You're better off with more cards that are smaller and less expensive, than 1 card that is expensive, especially if that 1 card fails.

This is a matter of opinion and has been debated at length. Personally, for many critical situations, I disagree with it and I'd rather use one large card and keep it in the camera.

However truth be told, for really mission critical stuff, in this day and age, I would not consider using a camera that only had one card slot when the option is available to use another model that supports simultaneous backups.