Hey Guys,

I recently purchased some 8 GB CF cards for an event I shot. I used only 3 cards - amazing. Given the massive megapixel growth we have just witnessed during this season though, the question is....if you had to purchase today, what would you get?

James

I shoot 16GB cards unless I happen to run off without them, then I use my older 8GB spares. As soon as the Sandisk 32GB cards are available and budget permits, I'll be getting four of them. I think the Lexar 32GB cards are out now, so if I had to buy today, that would be my choice. For now though, I'll wait for Sandisk.

The lack of hassle with worrying about changing cards is well worth the price of admission, which seems to be falling quickly anyway. I have two slots and set the camera to record to both cards at once so I have an instant backup. Otherwise, the all the eggs in one basket thing might scare me a bit.

James,
Pretec has unveiled 64GB and 100GB, 233X Compact Flash cards, the highest capacity CF cards in the world. Now that should satisfy even the hungriest hi-rez camera and/or accommodate the new Hi Def video capabilities of the newer cameras.

I try to use the size card that will let me shoot a show all day with only one full download at night. That's always been a 4 GB card but I'm moving up to 8 GB with the 50D. I tend to agree with Jim Poor in that I'd rather only lose one day's work if the card craps out during a weekend shoot but I tend to monitor what's going on and I dump what I've shot onto my Epson P-2000 every 3 hrs or so. The idea of shooting an entire weekend of shows and never dumping the data scares the heck out of me.

But for most personal work and portrait sessions, the 4 GB cards are still ideal.

Jim

4 gigs for me, i'd like to buy some 8 gig cards but new cards are a luxury item right now and the money is better spent on gas. I can get 200 RAW images on a 4 gig card, so I swap out a lot during the day. I back them up in the field on a hyperdrive. . .

At present, I have 5 - 8 gig, 5 - 4 gig, 10 - 2 gig, more one gig's than I care to count and even have a half dozen 512mb cards laying around. I have never had a card fail on me, but did have one formatted after a day of shooting by a grandson, Not a problem, I was able to rescue all the photos and Exif data without a problem.... I don't have any of the higher capacities as of yet, but will probably buy one or two when I go home next time. I always carry a large capacity hard drive to store all the photos on and drop all my work on dual layer DVD's for archiving. Here in Oregon, I have a box set up raid 5 and everything goes there just in case of a failure...

Now, If I could only be as good as most of you..... One day, perhaps, one day....

I do not like to shoot huge cards because I have had cards fail on me. I lost hours of shooting on a 2gb card a couple years ago.

I accidentally formatted a 4gb this weekend, but, was able to rescue them. It took hours though.

I prefer the 2gb because the loss is less if something does happen. I just have mine numbered and try to use them in that order

I've got 2-2gb cards and 1-1gb card, this covers everything for me. I always download them to my laptop at the end of the day, then transfer those to cd for safekeeping.

don

I have 6 1GB, 3 2GB and 3 4GB cards. I plan on getting 3 8GB cards to go with my D300 and D700.

Most of the time 4GB is plenty for me, but there are times when a larger card is a necessity.

I had thought that 4 GB was safe and large enough until I found myself shooting grizzly bears in BC. I went through a 4GB in a very brief time. Culling shots to get more room while shooting two bears play fighting taught me the value of having larger capacity at hand

I have a hard time filling up a 4 gig card on an outing....pretty selective in my shots.....and some outings I need more than one...always yave 3 - 4 GB cards in my bag as well as my trusty Epson....just for those times I really need to capture diffrent variations on a composition that I find.

I find smaller cards with the elbow room to expand keeps me thinking about my shot more....kinda a mental dicipline game if you will.

Roman