I just ordered two compact flash cards over one...

Hope

Hope

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I basically ordered two 16GB over one 32GB even though the 32GB would have been cheaper.

Have I done the right thing?

I'm just going off the theory of data loss being more likely with one card!

Opinions please?
 
Perfectly sensible, I'd rather lose 500 pics than 1000 for example!
 
A 16GB card is no more likely to fail than a 32GB one, however it spreads the chances of both going bad at the same time. However Murphy's Law states that the important shot will be on the faulty 16GB card :D
 
artyman said:
A 16GB card is no more likely to fail than a 32GB one, however it spreads the chances of both going bad at the same time. However Murphy's Law states that the important shot will be on the faulty 16GB card :D
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Nah, the important shot will be when the 1st card has filled up and the 2nd card is in the process of being put into the camera. ;)
 
I would rather lose 1 16gb card & still have a 16gb card left than lose the 32gb card with no spare if that makes sense :-)
 
stu.artd said:
Nah, the important shot will be when the 1st card has filled up and the 2nd card is in the process of being put into the camera. ;)
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Spot on, and yes it has happened to me, so bigger the better.
 
I find it very strange when people feel the need to spread the pictures among multiple SD cards. You can only prevent data loss by having good backup strategy. Splitting the pictures over multiple SD cards only increases the failure rate, and has a potential problem of mis-placing the out-of-camera card. Of course, having a second card (maybe with lower capacity) is still a good idea so that you can continue shooting if the main card fails, though.
 
pmhn said:
I find it very strange when people feel the need to spread the pictures among multiple SD cards. You can only prevent data loss by having good backup strategy. Splitting the pictures over multiple SD cards only increases the failure rate, and has a potential problem of mis-placing the out-of-camera card. Of course, having a second card (maybe with lower capacity) is still a good idea so that you can continue shooting if the main card fails, though.
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So on your theory you would buy the biggest card you can get, go on a once in a lifetime holiday, take 1000's of pics and have them all on one card??
Then the card goes belly up or the camera frys it or something else goes wrong and you loose the lot.

Having multiple cards means if you do loose pics its of one part of what ever.
then back them up on a storage device aswell, all safe
 
That's where having a camera with two card slots really helps....can write to both at the same time.
 
Hope said:
large one!

I basically ordered two 16GB over one 32GB even though the 32GB would have been cheaper.

Have I done the right thing?

I'm just going off the theory of data loss being more likely with one card!

Opinions please?
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Yes, if you are happy with your decision. As you can see from the replies you've had there are mixed opinions over 1 or 2 cards. Personally, I use smaller capacity cards over 1 very large one

neilos100 said:
That's where having a camera with two card slots really helps....can write to both at the same time.
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Yes, but not many bodies do have 2 slots
 
For those who feel the need to use smaller card to be safe get few thousand 16 megabyte cards, one for each photo. Better safe than sorry you know ;)


Also those who have been debating this for the last 6 years ago who told me to get 1GB cards over 2GB cards, could you please tell me who the hell still makes 1GB these days.
 
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I've moved onto 32gb cards mainly so I don't have to worry about needing to change card during the day, then making sure through the rest of the day that I still have the other card on me safely. I shoot using two bodies though so if I do have an issue with the card I will still have some coverage from that time.

As for using them on holiday, my card is usually backed up each night onto netbook and external hard drive, then I change the card when it's nearly full.

Juggling lots of small cards for me is more worrying than all on one card in the camera.
 
Thanks for all the opinions!

I appreciate lots of you take a lot of photos e.g weddings or race tracks etc but my main purpose for purpose was a one month long tourism trip. I worked out I'd get 400 18MP raw files on a 16GB card which is quite a lot! So two cards gives me 800 shots plus I will be backing up often.

In hindsight maybe a 16 and 32 would have been better but it's hard to justify the cost of two 32GB cards at around 70 pounds each.
 
I went to america with 32GB worth of cards, 1 8gb and the rest where 4gb, I shot everything in RAW and was getting 362 images onto my 8GB card and 186images onto the 4GB cards. I backed up every night onto my net book.

I am not a japanese tourist who would shoot every single thing they seen so I just took shots of what I wanted memories of.

I went everywhere with my camera and only once did I have to change a card whilst out for the day. and that was the grand canyon and hoover dam.

I backed up every night and labeled all the cards so when I got home I transferred everything onto my PC.

People go years with only one card and it NEVER corrupts or goes bad, you can take a card out of the box put it in the camera fire two shots and it can fry itself.

I went to egypt 3 years ago and went diving, I had 3 sd cards for the camera (compact in a housing) filled the first two cards and on the last day of diving I did three dives, managed so excellent pics and then I handed my camera to the guy on deck as I got out of the water, he put in a bucket of fresh water with all the masks, and when I went to get it it had opened up and fried the camera. More luck than judgement I got all the pics back from the card, I was lucky bit could have lost the best days diving pics in the blink of an eye, its so easy
 
My Samsung 16gb holds over 900 images. As soon as I'm at the computer I take them off the card and put them onto the HD on the pc and back up on external HD.

In the unlikely event I fill a card in one shoot there's 2 4gb cards in my bag. Haven't needed them as yet using this system
 
As of now I'm gambling with just one 16Gb CF, but I do need to buy another, now the price is dropping.

Just keep an eye on the amount left, swap them in a quiet moment when below say 100, this should help you not miss the photo of the day.
 
Hope said:
....In hindsight maybe a 16 and 32 would have been better but it's hard to justify the cost of two 32GB cards at around 70 pounds each.
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Since moving over to SD cards, I'd forgotten about cost.... CF cards are robust but they don't half cost a fair whack.
 
I shoot a lot of landscapes, cityscapes and events, using a 32 or 16 GB card for RAW and a 4 or 16 GB card to capture the back-up jpegs. I like the bigger cards so I don't have to switch out cards if the weather or other conditions are less than ideal, and I don't have to keep track of a number of extra cards. It's also a little less bother when I get home to download all my photos from one card. I don't worry much about cards going bad. It can happen, but the likelihood is small.
 
I too will probably do that, if one card lasts me two weeks and still has capacity, I will change it anyway for the two weeks following.

Plus the way I looked at it today was this:

A 16GB (decently quick) CF card like the one I got was £40, £40 would buy me 5 16GB USB pen drives, so I can just buy one USB stick for each CF card (for £8) create a copy onto the stick while I am away at a fraction of the cost of a larger card, plus I will have a copy on my hard drive and possibly on my dropbox/skydrive type thing too!
 
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Depends what you are doing really.
For me multiple cards is ideal. Backpacking staying in hostels change the card every few days. And put them in different places in my pack. I know far to many people who have had cameras stolen coming to the end of a month long trip and are left gutted.
 
Found them and only £12.55 on amazon

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A few dozen of these will keep your images nice and safe, but if you really want to risk a bigger card for lots of images the Delkin do a nice 32GB military grade card for £550
 
Hope said:
Don't you have to be in the military though?
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LOL. of course not, I think Delkin call them military while other just say industrial grade. Who in their right mind is going to blow over five hundred pounds on a CF card these days anyway. :)

Utilizing high density single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash and the latest in controller technology, Delkin has engineered these cards to achieve read speeds up to 105MB/s and write speeds up to 95MB/s. In addition to the immense storage capacity and impressive sequential data transfer speeds, Delkin’s cards are also built to withstand the extreme environmental conditions of military, aerospace and industrial applications. The industrial-grade ruggedness of the 32GB and 64GB CF cards delivers an operating temperature of -40 to 85°C, plus shock and vibration resistance.
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SpikeK6 said:
So on your theory you would buy the biggest card you can get, go on a once in a lifetime holiday, take 1000's of pics and have them all on one card??
Then the card goes belly up or the camera frys it or something else goes wrong and you loose the lot.

Having multiple cards means if you do loose pics its of one part of what ever.
then back them up on a storage device aswell, all safe
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Its very unlikely that you'd not back the one-large card up at the end of each day.

I'm definitely of the mindset that its far more likely that a card will get lost than it will fail. The safest place I can think of to store a card is in my camera. Also, with a failed card you have a chance to recover photos. With a lost card they're gone forever.
 
decigallen said:
Its very unlikely that you'd not back the one-large card up at the end of each day.

I'm definitely of the mindset that its far more likely that a card will get lost than it will fail. The safest place I can think of to store a card is in my camera. Also, with a failed card you have a chance to recover photos. With a lost card they're gone forever.
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I'm not so sure.
When we go on holiday I take my camera but the PC is left behind - so no memory card backups when on holiday for me. :)
 
decigallen said:
Its very unlikely that you'd not back the one-large card up at the end of each day.

I'm definitely of the mindset that its far more likely that a card will get lost than it will fail. The safest place I can think of to store a card is in my camera. Also, with a failed card you have a chance to recover photos. With a lost card they're gone forever.
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Same here, I spent ages looking for a card I dropped when shooting an outdoor event once, and that was a 16gb one, who know how many 4gb cards I would have lost dropped by now.

I'll love to see a graph comparing lost cards to failed cards.
 
Well i can tell you my ratio:

lost: 4 (thankfully without any significant data loss)
Failed: 0

That's why I prefer to use a card that will do me for a whole shoot. I've accidentally formatted over a card a few times but have always been able to recover the pics.
 
It depends how important what you are shooting is - when i do weddings i usually use 4 8GB cards (across two bodies) - having all your shots on one card is a daft strategy not only because of card failure, but also loss, and indeed camera theft.
 
I shoot weddings too. Its a different strategy to what you use but hardly a daft one.

I shoot with two bodies. Both are attached to me from the morning until I stop in the evening. The cards stay in them from the morning til I transfer the images onto 2 backup drives when i'm done.

You're again, talking likelihoods. How many people here have had a camera stolen at a wedding? I know dozens of wedding photographers - many shooting for decades - and i've not heard of that happen.

How many have lost jackets or bags? How many have had stuff fall out of their pockets? A far higher proportion I'm sure (I have left coats behind a couple of times).

And as a wedding photographer you should always have a contract that covers you in case of accidental data loss - be it through card failure or theft.
 
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Ive had a camera stolen from the car on the way home - memory cards were safe zipped into two seperate pouches on my belt

and while a contract can cover you in court - nothing can cover you from the reputational harm caused from losing someones irreplaceable pictures
 
Again, I travel from the ceremony to my house. I don't leave my car unattended with gear in it. Actually, I never leave my car unattended with gear in it period! If I'm doing destination weddings I take the gear into my hotel room and back everything up.

Its unfortunate your gear went missing from your car but the chances of that happening to me at a wedding are very slim due to how I work.

You have a system that works for you but there is equal logic to my method so its a bit ridiculous to describe it as 'daft'
 
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