How reliable are digital cameras for professional use?

avanti · Mar 16, 2004

I`ve just aquired a Fuji S2 for wedding photography and I`m having sleepless nights about going back to the studio after a shoot, plugging the microdrive into the PC and finding I`ve got nothing because of some mysterious software/hardware error.
Can I have some reassurance please! Does this ever happen and how can you make SURE?
At the moment two of us cover a wedding with the S2 doing the reportage, but the plan is to do separate weddings next year, and to tell the truth, I find the thought of all those priceless eggs in one basket ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING.

photogoddess · Mar 16, 2004

Chimp, look at your histogram and take a lap top. There is a software that can most times salvage photos off of a bad disc so that is a minor concern.

I haven't shot a wedding on digital yet but I've shot everything else on digital with good results. Take a back up camera and film just in case you have major equipment failure. Shoot a wedding with one photog shooting with digital and one with film. You can compare how the results look on a single job and I bet you have trouble telling the difference.

avanti · Mar 16, 2004

Thanks for that . . . . . yeah, we always carry loads of spare stuff anyway, camera breakdowns that I know about at the time are not really a worry
I suppose the laptop is the way to go for peace of mind!
What`s that software that can recover files from a bad disk? That would help me sleep better too.

Jeff Canes · Mar 16, 2004

I have heard a few negative reviews about microdrive cards, being mechanical drive if drop or exposed to dampness its likely they may fail. It maybe better to go with a standard Compact Flash card

markc · Mar 16, 2004

Yup. A Microdrive is just a miniture hard drive, while CF cards are solid-state. Luckily since all the components are super-small, they also have a lot less mass, making it harder for the head to damage the platter on a drop, but CF is still the way to go if you are worried about such things. I use a MD right now because I got it cheap off a friend, but once I have the cash I'll be upgrading to a large CF. I only have one small CF right now as a spare.

If it makes you feel any better, a good number of the wedding photographers I know use digitals. A lot of photojournalists do also.

doxx · Mar 17, 2004

I use Compact Flash only, they are extremely reliable...
The first couple of times I always carried a laptop when I went
to do 'professional' shoots out of my studio. I gave up - I don't
like to haul all this stuff around, plus I never ever had problems
in years of digital shooting.

A digital wallet would be a nice alternative to a laptop- they go
for about $300 also you can use the newer ipods with an adapter
as a digital wallet.

karissa · Mar 17, 2004

Other than hard drive failing (which you should back up anyway), I have never heard of anyone loosing pictures due to the storage device. I have never lost information with mine and I have taken a few thousand pictures. When I took my yearbook pictures this year at Bluncks they used a digital and I was able to pick the picture I wanted to go in the yearbook on the spot. Digital has its advantages.

Harpper · Mar 17, 2004

It sounds like you don't have a computer at home and if you don't want to get one you can get something like this. I don't know if that's what doxx was talking about when he said digital wallet, but basically if you are that paranoid a portable hard drive would probably calm your nerves.

Although what's nice about the portable hard drive I linked you to is that it has a built in LCD screen so that you can preview your pictures. Some digital cameras have horrible LCD screens so getting a dedicated one might be worth it. Also some of them allow you to hook it up to your tv for a bigger preview.

But you can save yourself the money because I haven't had any problems yet and it doesn't look like I'm alone. Just follow the basic rule for taking care of electronics....don't expose them to extreme hot and cold temperatures.

photogoddess · Mar 18, 2004

I think the software that saves images off of bad disks is called Image Rescue.

urameatball · Mar 19, 2004

the way Sports Illustrated did it during superbowl...
11 photographers all shooting digital
each was handed 15-20 512MB-1GB compact flash cards
16000+photographs and I heard none of them failed

... I think compact flash cards are quite reliable... don't know about Microdrives though, but I think there's a reason SI doesn't use them.
is that reassurance?

avanti · Mar 23, 2004

Thanks for all the tips guys - I have now got a couple of 256mb CF cards to go with the two 128mb ones I`ve got already and I`mm going to use them.
Guess what though? I`ve got a duff Fuji S2 . . . . it focuses on infinity when my two zoom lenses are set to their widest angle, even when the image looks PERFECTLY SHARP in the viewfinder. This should be impossible yeah? Surely I`m looking at the ttl image that I am going to get?
Well, it`s taken 3 wedding reportage shoots (about 600 shots, with a lot of testing in between), to pin the problem down to the wide angle shots using a 19-35mm and a 28-100mm zoom. If they are zoomed in at all they are OK, but on the 19mm or 28mm setting, when I look at the files they are all focused on infinity.
So it`s going back . . . . . . .