Huge SD Cards.

NikonDude · Jun 6, 2012

When I 1st started with digital photography they sold 64 mb SD Cards.

Now they make 128 Gb SD cards, with plans to make 1 TB Sd Cards.

Most SLRS I hear about are 12 megapixels. Mine is 10.

With a 2 GB sd Card, a 12MP Cam can take around 390 photos.

That's over 10 rolls of film.

The people who sell SD cards act like you should be carrying a mini hard drive with you.

It's generally a bad idea, and here is why.

Let's say you go on vacation. It's day 4 out of 5. You already have 500 photos of your trip. Your also carrying a laptop with you.

You could transfer the contents of the SD card to your laptop, but why bother? You can still shoot 1000 more photos.

So now your out on a boat and you take your SD card out. While you have it in your hand, a large bug lands on you. You throw your hand up to swat it, and your SD card is now flying into the lake.

There went all your photos. Gone. Sure, the card IS waterproof, but good luck trying to find it. :mrgreen:

Having a big SD card is kind of a bad thing. It makes you lazy, and since you have 128 Gb of storage, why even bother transferring all your pics? A 128 Gb sd card can store over 30,000 photos taken with a 12 MP cam.

I can see why a large SD card might be OK for Camcorders, because the more space, the better.

However with a Cam, I think 16 Gb would be plenty. A 16 Gb SD can hold over 3800 photos taken with a 12 MP cam.

Out of space? Then transfer your files to a PC. That way there is less risk of loosing all your photos on the card.

The reason why I wrote this, is because I myself have fallen into the guilty pleasure of leaving all my photos on my SD Card. Now when I ac***ulate a weeks worth of photos, or one special event, I transfer the files to my pc. That way in case I loose my card (it's only the size of a quarter), my photos are safe at home.

belial · Jun 6, 2012

Agree with you whole heartedly. And not only the things you said but cards can get corrupted. I carry 4 4gb cards for this reason and sometimes switch before a card is full. This way if worst possible happens I'm not out the entire shoot.

NikonDude · Jun 6, 2012

belial said:
Agree with you whole heartedly. And not only the things you said but cards can get corrupted. I carry 4 4gb cards for this reason and sometimes switch before a card is full. This way if worst possible happens I'm not out the entire shoot.

You made a good point. SD cards uses flash memory, which is stored by electrical signals. It took one click of a taser to corrupt an old (falling apart) sd card I had.

So I'm sure that static electricity could wreak havoc on a card.

Patriot · Jun 7, 2012

What?

I'm sorry but i have a 32gb memory card and a 8 gb card does it make me lazy to use both? Sometime I record with the same camera rather than take out my camcorder.

So now your out on a boat and you take your SD card out. While you have it in your hand, a large bug lands on you. You throw your hand up to swat it, and your SD card is now flying into the lake.

There went all your photos. Gone. Sure, the card IS waterproof, but good luck trying to find it. :mrgreen:

Why would you have your card in your hand unless your swapping it out or putting it in. This isn't Starship Troopers where a gaint bug is going to kill you. Plus why would you attemp to swat the bug with the card in your hand. If you lose your card that way then you deserved it.

Since we're making up senarios how about this one. I leave base on a two day trip hiking in the mountains without bringing my 17.5 laptop because it's too big. A 32gb and 8 gb card would last me for those two days without me worrying about over filling. I now have all of my pictures from those days saved possibly just on the 32gb card because it big enough.

Having more cards just means that's it more of a chance of losing them. What about wedding people that shoot a lot of pictures. A fewer big cards would mean less time switching and missing that moment.

Everything has it's pros and cons though.

StandingBear1983 · Jun 7, 2012

I wish i had access to posts 5 years ago...when pepole complained about 'the fact' that you 'don't need' more then a 2GB cards so why do they have now 8GB...'that's overkill for sure'

.

That is the way the world is turning my friend...you can't stop technology..personally i think its a fantastic thing!, specially if you have a D800, a 1TB SD card with a D800 you will be free to shoot...also about the 36mp of the D800, today they say the same '36mp...man thats overkill..who needs it?!', but it will become normal in a year when everything will have 40mp and up...so you actually will NEED those 1TB SD cards in the future. or even now...as i said, if you have a D800 for example. or that 40mp phone camera

.

Patriot · Jun 7, 2012

The SD cards are getting bigger and faster too. In the next 10 to 15 years we might start to see most cameras with over 40MP as a norm. Desktop are getting faster too as better tech comes out, those large files won't mean anything to them.

matseski · Jun 7, 2012

and remember, SD cards are not only used for photography. In HD video terms 128GB is not a huge number. Especially as consumer devices move into 3D and 4k territory...

SCraig · Jun 7, 2012

Here's a thought: Use what you want and let others do the same.

I use 32gb cards in my D7000 and 16gb cards in my D90. I have shot right at 2,000 photographs in a day and did not have the luxury of changing SDHC cards every few minutes. That's the way I like my cameras set up and it's the way I'll continue to do it.

Joshonator · Jun 7, 2012

I have two 32gb cards and an 8gb but I don't think I've ever gone over 1000 shots without importing the photos and reformatting the card. I've been paying attention more to quality than quantity lately because those files take up a lot of space, and it's better to have one great shot than 500 mediocre ones. I upgraded to 32gb when I started shooting HD video... You can go through gigabytes in quite a hurry in this manner.

12sndsgood · Jun 7, 2012

video recording was my first thought. if yoru doing allot of recording your going to tear thru the storage space quickly. as for cameras, every new camera the photo gets bigger. on my D3000 i was using an 8 gig card, on my D7000 that same 8 gig card maybe gets me something like 200 photos. not bad. but if i'm doing something like shooting indy cars i can go thru 200 photos pretty quickly. so i have upgraded to 16 gig. and on days when i'm just screwing around i wouldn't mind having a larger card in. I do agree that its not great to keep all your eggs in one basket. but it's not that big a deal. esp. if doing video. to have a larger card. just because you have a larger card doesnt mean you have to keep it in till its totally full.

there are other uses for sc cards as well. my stereo in my car has an sd reader. so as i get new music it goes right onto my sd card and i now have every single cd of mine in my car on that sd card to use anytime i choose.

Village Idiot · Jun 7, 2012

I only have 8GB CF cards for my 5D MKII and I can only fit about 24 minutes of video on them. That means lots of swapping when shooting video.

I have a 16GB for my M43 camera and it'll run out of battery long before it runs out of space. With still photos I don't like to have a lot of pictures on one cards but the larger cards are definitely useful for video.

yerlem · Jun 7, 2012

I have a 16gB card. I thought it was too big at first, but I recently went to a Caribbean island for 2 weeks and didn't have a laptop (I was only carrying a backpack). I also backpack and camp, so bringing a laptop is out of the question.
If you get lazy it's your own fault, really... When I'm home I usually download everything as soon as possible because I want to see what I got!

Trever1t · Jun 7, 2012

if you shot in 14 bit RAW or uncompressed TIFF that number goes way down.....

Patriot · Jun 7, 2012

yerlem said:
I have a 16gB card. I thought it was too big at first, but I recently went to a Caribbean island for 2 weeks and didn't have a laptop (I was only carrying a backpack). I also backpack and camp, so bringing a laptop is out of the question.
If you get lazy it's your own fault, really... When I'm home I usually download everything as soon as possible because I want to see what I got!

Yep that's exactly what I was saying. I leave home for long periods of time without my laptop so all I have is the card to store them until I get back. I do just as you said and download them asap.