D7100 SD card question

sbr · Jan 26, 2015

Hi,
A questions regarding my D7100. I’m trying to figure out how to set the 2 SD cards to both RAW. When I press the Quality button on the back and scroll the command to RAW RAW it shows the 2 card set to RAW in the back LCD info screen as I want them to be…..BUT in the menu when you scroll to the screen that says configure 2nd SD card it has 3 options for the second card, Overflow, Backup and 1st RAW 2nd jpeg which is in contradiction to RAW for both card shown on the LCD. Kind of confusing that the menu it does not give you the same options as when holding in the back Quality button and scrolling the command dial? Any insight as to what I am missing? The owner’s manual is not that clear. I am fairly new to the camera and still learning it.

Braineack · Jan 26, 2015

then select backup...

Alexr25 · Jan 26, 2015

You select whether the camera saves the images as RAW files, jpeg files, at various qualities, or both RAW plus jpeg files in the "SHOOTING MENU/Image quality".
The menu "SHOOTING MENU/Role played by card in Slot 2" as the name suggests sets what the role of card 2 is going to be.
In "Backup" the camera writes the same files to both cards 1 and 2.
In "Overflow" the camera writes to card 1 and when that is full it write to card 2.
In "RAW Slot 1 - JPEG Slot2" if the camera is set to record in any of the RAW + Jpeg modes the RAW files get sent to card 1 and the Jpeg files get sent to card 2 but if the camera is set to record only RAW or only Jpeg then the image files are sent to card 1 and when it is full to card 2. In other words slot 2 reverts to "Overflow" mode.

wfooshee · Jan 26, 2015

You're looking at two different options. One selects your shooting mode: RAW only, JPEG only (and at what quality,) or RAW + JPEG. The other option defines the role of the second card.

The setting of RAW slot 1 + JPEG slot 2 only has effect when you are shooting RAW+JPEG. If you shoot RAW only or JPEG only, then RAW slot 1 + JPEG slot 2 has no effect, and slot 2 is an overflow. If you select Raw Slot 1 + JPEG slot 2 and shoot RAW+JPEG, you have no option for dual copies. That option merely separates your RAW files and your JPEG files onto separate cards.

Shooting RAW+JPEG and setting 2nd card to backup does give you 2 copies of each file type, a RAW and a JPEG on each card.

Selecting "Backup" for the 2nd card role makes a copy of every file onto each card, whatever your shooting mode. If you're looking for redundancy at all costs, then Backup is what you want for the 2nd card.