I'm shooing raw.
I have 4 of 4GB CF Memory Card.

I like to buy some more memory card what are you guys recommend? 4GB or 8Gb?

Please, plaease advice me.


Thank you!

For my 5 and 20D's...I'm a big fan of Sandisk Extreme III 4GB's. 8GB is almost too much of a risk for me if I were to lose that entire card. A 4 GB is about 200 images in RAW mode...if I lost one...it would only be about 10% of the images from the day (and since I shoot two cameras -- it would be mitigated even more by having a 2nd camera going so that even if I lost one of the cards -- I shouldn't lose EVERYTHING from any given segment of the day). Back in the film days 8 rolls was a good # (can you believe that????)...so now 8 cards is my magic number.

Just my 2 cents...over-priced at free...

I'm with Dan.
I'd go with a 4gig over an 8gig simply due to the fact that you're gonna have a card crap out on you at one point or another. Yeah you'll have to change cards more frequently, but I'd much rather do that than loose 400+ images.

We're moving up to 4GB cards...
One cause they are getting cheap enough to do so..
and two, because that is the perfect size to dump directly to DVD for backup.



Greg

I have one 8 gig card, and I use it all the time. I was very very afraid but I had no choice to get it when I needed the extra cards, as the store was out of 4 gig cards at the time. I sucked it up and got the 8 gig.

I have had no problems, it has been super nice to use during ceremonies where I don't have to worry about changing card in the middle of an important moment.

I will keep you guys updated.

(I got mine from calumet it is their pro spec brand and they have a lifetime warranty on their products, if it corrupted or failed for any reason they would replace it no charge.)

I use 8Gb in my 5d (I have 3 of them), 4Gb in my 20D (I have two of them).

I know 400 pictures would be a lot if something did happen to the camera. But, honestly, I think it's more likely that the "something" would be getting lost or damaged from being inserted or removed the camera than some random catastrophic event. With 8GB cards, there's less of them to keep track of and they don't get transfered as much.

I've been shooting for 4 years and in that time I had three cards corrupt on me, one just had all the pictures go bad. After that happened I went into a camera store and the guy there who had been helpful before with me selecting all my gear from him told me that just by writing and rewriting over them so much I shooting to the point that they would fail (i.e. weren't really designed to be worked as hard as I do-I shoot a lot).

Anyhow, since then I've been buying cards and dating them and after I've had them for a year I assume they will corrupt soon and discard them. Paranoid, probably but no card I've had for less than a year has corrupted yet.

To your question, I'd by the 4G in case you get a corrupted card. I keep cards in a little pack I wear that also holds batteries for quick transfer.

Thank you guy, so much!

I like to go with 4gb. I will go to frys now and get 4 card. Can you guy advise one more thing! Which brand is good?

Thank you much. You guys reply are really helpfull.

I am waiting your comment during drive to frys.

I shoot exclusively Sandisk Ultra II 2gb cards in my 1D Mark II N, and Sandisk Extreme III 4gb cards in my 1Ds Mark II. Those sizes keep me in check as I get around 230 images per card and I can keep track of what's on what card... plus if I lost a card or had something fail, I wouldn't be losing craploads of images at a time.

I would be terrified to shoot with an 8 gig card... too many eggs in one basket!

Thank you so much guys.....!

I got 4 of 4GB Lexar Pro X300 from fry's. Thank you!

i use 2g sandisk extreme III - i have about 10 of those, plus only one 4g sandisk extreme which is what i use for the reception. i would never use an 8 probably because i have such sucky luck these days. it takes me 2 seconds to change out my card so i rarely miss anything.

So I'm curious. Has anyone had a card so corrupted that they couldn't recover the files? In the years I've been shooting digital I've had about 4 instances of "corruption" that manifested itself in different ways. Sometimes the shots could be viewed in camera but not by the card reader. Others the camera simply said "No Image" when trying to review. In each and every case I was able to recover the files using Photorescue software. Not once did I lose my shots. I know it's disconcerting when it happens but maybe we're fretting over this too much. Or, am I playing with fire?

Also, this was with three different cards. In each case I formated the card in the card reader and then again in the camera and continued to use them without issue. Of course, I don't use them much now because they're too small. .

I have a variety of cards. I just got a Sandisk extreme III 8gb the other day cause I saw it on dealnews for 100$. However I would never use anything larger than a 4gb for a wedding. So the 8gb is slated for car shoots and personal use.

This past sat I took a full extreme III 4gb card and tried to mount it on my laptop to find that something was wrong. I then put it back in the camera and the camera gave me Err CF so I put it in a case and tried not to worry about it till I got home. I tossed it into my PC (don't have mac recovery software) and it got all my files back and a few from the 2 prior shoots.. baffled me cause I format 3 times between shoots and thought I had filled the card.

I've also had Sandisk replace cards that I didn't trust anymore. They have awesome customer service and they only require that you tell them where and when you bought the card.... they didn't even need proof.

I don't think that's paranoia, it's cheap insurance.

The Lifetime Warranty inspires a lot of false confidence in a card because while the seller will replace the card the warranty rarely includes data recovery!

That being said I still like 8 GB, though we're using a mix of 4 GB and 2 GB Sandisk and Lexar CF cards at the moment (since we bought so many).

I'm thinking that with the D3 we'll get 1-2 8 GB cards and use them as backup cards in the second CF slot, having the camera write RAW to the 4 GB card in slot 1 and JPEG in slot 2, the 8 GB...