2gb or 4gb Compact Flash?

binghott · March 6, 2006

i currently have two 1gb cf cards, i use a 20d and drebel, i like to shoot a lot and i really need more space. i want to buy a sandisk 4gb ultra II ($176 at buy.com) but it's either backordered or ridiculously expensive everywhere. i could get one off ebay for about $200 if i wanted.

should i just get a couple 2gb's for about $90/each? also, does anyone know anything about the 4gb seagate compact flash photo hard drive? i was considering it, but i have very little faith in mini hard drives.

thanks

Bob Bell · March 6, 2006

binghott wrote:

i currently have two 1gb cf cards, i use a 20d and drebel, i like to shoot a lot and i really need more space. i want to buy a sandisk 4gb ultra II ($176 at buy.com) but it's either backordered or ridiculously expensive everywhere. i could get one off ebay for about $200 if i wanted.

should i just get a couple 2gb's for about $90/each? also, does anyone know anything about the 4gb seagate compact flash photo hard drive? i was considering it, but i have very little faith in mini hard drives.

thanks

I have a bunch of 1 and 2 gig cards and at the time because of prices, it was the only cheap way to go. Now that prices are becoming the same per gig as you go to larger cards, I would buy the biggest cards you can get (use multiple cards for shoots and stuff) because new bodies are only going to require more space per image. I will probably pick up 2 4 gig cards and retire the 1 gig ones.

Bodley · March 6, 2006

binghott wrote:

i currently have two 1gb cf cards, i use a 20d and drebel, i like to shoot a lot and i really need more space. i want to buy a sandisk 4gb ultra II ($176 at buy.com) but it's either backordered or ridiculously expensive everywhere.

I would go with the 4 (changing cards is a PITA if your in the midst of some action), especially if you shoot RAW. That being said, if you don't exceed the two 1's you have now then a 2 should be fine.

mercphoto · March 6, 2006

binghott wrote:

should i just get a couple 2gb's for about $90/each? also, does anyone know anything about the 4gb seagate compact flash photo hard drive? i was considering it, but i have very little faith in mini hard drives.

I had a 2G Sandisk Ultra-II go through the laundry at least once, if not twice. Folks here on DGrin said don't worry, and they proved to be correct. I'm amazed. I would doubt if a CF hard disk could do the same. I've heard they don't like being dropped, let alone laundered. Go solid state.

Nice thing about two 2G's versus one 4G is you'd have one card for each camera, ready to go. Me, I decided to buy an Epson P-2000 rather than more CF space. I've used it successfully at four races this year so far. Only problem is, that thing is much bigger to carry than spare cards!

Mitchell · March 6, 2006

My question would be "Do you need the Ultra II?" With the type of portrait photography that you do, you really don't need the speed you are paying for with these cards. Even shooting raw, I doubt you will exceed your buffer with portrait photography.
I have a Kingston Elite 4gb card in my 12mp camera. Even with high fps shooting at sporting events, I've never had a problem writing fast enough to the card. I only paid $120 for this card. I also have a 1gb ultra II and have not noted a difference in the speed.

Get a 4mb card. Just not sure you need to hold out for an UltraII.

pathfinder · March 6, 2006

I just purchased an 8Gb CF card, as the 4 Gb cards can be filled in a busy day of shooting RAW images in most modern DSLRs. I personally will no longer buy 2Gb cards...

I really like not having to swap cards in the field. Every time you open the door and swap cards, is a time for something bad to happen - drop a card down a manhole, off the top of a building, into the lake, etc etc. I'd really rather swap cards after I am home in the security of my office or home.

I also use 4 Gb cards and 2Gb cards. 1 Gb seems way too small for shooting in RAW, today. OK for jpgs though.

binghott · March 7, 2006

great tips everyone, thanks! i think i'm gonna wait and get the 4gb ultra II or maybe get it off ebay.

mitchell, good question, but i most certainly do need the high speed. although i post my portrait work here the most, i shoot a lot more sports and live bands. both of which i've found necessary to ride the burst mode. my two current cards are both high speed (one is an ultra II), but i also have a 256mb slow card that i've had to use as a last resort a couple times (which is why i need another card). shooting burst without a high speed card in my 20d was annoyingly slower.

also, when i shoot models, i often like to shoot bursts of maybe even 20 pictures, because i know that at least one of those will come out better than the others. hair, eyes, smile, and tons of other things can vary just by a fraction of a second, especially when it's windy.

merc, i've had a card go through the washer too, still works perfectly fine!

thanks again! if you have more advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

Bob Bell · March 7, 2006

Bing,

How many shots do you take for a model shoot?

For reference on saturday, I had an ad shoot for a classic car part / clothing company with 2 cars, 1 model, 3 wardrobe changes and took 110 shots total and delivered 78 images.

Are you taking 4-500 shots and editing all of them? printing proof sheets?

What percentage of shots are you keeping?

I'm not implying that you are doing anything wrong or bad, just trying to figure out how large your shoots are from a workflow/editing standpoint.

How many gigs of storage are you bringing to a shoot?

binghott · March 7, 2006

bob, i can't believe you only took 110 pictures for that shoot, and i'm amazed that you could get 78 good ones out of it.

for a typical photo shoot i'll take a minimum of 300 shots. when i shoot around sunset i'm usually around 300 because i don't have that much time to work with. if i shoot mid-day, i might bring my laptop along to dump my cards as i go, which can be a pain in the ass. i'd say i'm looking for 10-50 great shots out of a shoot.

when i shoot sports i usually take 100-500 shots, i don't remember ever running out of space while shooting any sports. when i shoot live bands is when i really fill up my cards. a half-hour set can easily fill up both my 1gb cards because i like to ride the burst as much as i can. i don't want to miss a moment and with bands especially, a fraction of a second can make or break a shot.

when i shot my first wedding, i took 1600+ pictures. i was getting about 300 shots per card, and just swapping and dumping into my laptop. the other weddings i did were nearly the same. i really need more space badly!

to put it in perspective, in 13 months of use, i shot over 60,000 pictures on my digital rebel and had to get the broken shutter replaced. i hope that gives you a good idea about how much i shoot!

mercphoto · March 7, 2006

You might want to consider being more deliberate about when you click the shutter. Taking 300 shots to keep 10-50 is not a high percentage.

binghott wrote:

i don't want to miss a moment and with bands especially, a fraction of a second can make or break a shot.

Do the math. Five frames a second is about 1 shot ever 0.2 seconds. Think of how far a guitar player or drummer can move their hands in 0.2 of a second. With burst you are hoping for luck to get the shot you want. You are correct that a fraction of a second can make or break a shot. But if you think burst is the solution, I think you can do better.

I shoot a lot of high-speed sports and I don't burst. Most motorsports photographers I know are that way. I wait for the shot I want, time it, react. Doing otherwise just creates unnecessary work, and it sounds like you create a lot of work for yourself.

Andy · March 7, 2006

pathfinder wrote:

drop a card down a manhole

Nightingale told me to tell you that the proper term is "sewer maintenance entry" or "personhole" but the latter I think, just sounds "wrong."

Bob Bell · March 7, 2006

Bing, You definately take a lot of shots. Im kind of suprised you don't carry 4-4 gig cards already. So you don't have to delete images until after you haved edited as a backup to the laptop.

Bill, I have been thinking about a p2000 or something like it for a while. Do you like the P2000 with raw files? I get backed up on editing so it would be nice to store 10 gigs somewhere other than CF.

chuckh · March 7, 2006

Bob Bell wrote:

Bing, You definately take a lot of shots. Im kind of suprised you don't carry 4-4 gig cards already. So you don't have to delete images until after you haved edited as a backup to the laptop.

Bill, I have been thinking about a p2000 or something like it for a while. Do you like the P2000 with raw files? I get backed up on editing so it would be nice to store 10 gigs somewhere other than CF.

Hi Bob,

I just received my Hyperdrive HD80 in preparation for a vacation with my wife in a couple of weeks. I've practiced downloading images to the HD80 and from the HD80 to my computer. It works pretty slick.

The unit is pretty basic in that it doesn't display images once they are downloaded from your card media. You can set it to do a CRC check to validate that it has downloaded your images. It behaves like a typical USB device once you connect it to your computer USB port.

It operates on 4 AA NiMH batteries and the unit itself acts as a battery charger.

You can buy the unit without a hard disk for $149. You can opt to have it pre-installed with 40-120GB hard drives with prices ranging from $199-399.

Here is a pretty good write-up by a non-HyperDrive affiliated HD80 owner.

This unit downloads about 4 times faster then the Epson P-2000.

mercphoto · March 7, 2006

Bob Bell wrote:

Bill, I have been thinking about a p2000 or something like it for a while. Do you like the P2000 with raw files? I get backed up on editing so it would be nice to store 10 gigs somewhere other than CF.

I shot a scouts graduation ceremony in RAW (I fear indoor low level lighting, so shoot RAW for that!) and found that it did fine previewing my 20D RAW images. It is, however, a bit slow of a device. The screen is large and beautiful, but even shooting JPG it takes a while to move from image to image. It is, however, much cheaper per GB than flash cards are. But a similar product w/o a screen is cheaper still, and looking back I should have gone with the X drive.

Backed up on editing? Get a FireWire external drive. Fast, cheap.

Bob Bell · March 7, 2006

mercphoto wrote:

I shot a scouts graduation ceremony in RAW (I fear indoor low level lighting, so shoot RAW for that!) and found that it did fine previewing my 20D RAW images. It is, however, a bit slow of a device. The screen is large and beautiful, but even shooting JPG it takes a while to move from image to image. It is, however, much cheaper per GB than flash cards are. But a similar product w/o a screen is cheaper still, and looking back I should have gone with the X drive.

Backed up on editing? Get a FireWire external drive. Fast, cheap.

I know external drives are cool, I guess I am just hung up on the fact that you can review the embedded jpg. For the shootout, be nice to review the days shoots without needing a TV or PC. Plus I'm trying to make time for Rocky Mountain trip and a trip to jasper/bandff and not having to hike with a laptop would nice.

binghott · March 13, 2006

the 4gb card is available from amazon now for $185 w/ free shipping. i could get two 2gb cards instead for $1 more. any opinions on what i should do?
besides crashed cards, is there some advantage to having more smaller cards that i'm missing? right now i'm leaning towards the 4gb card.

thanks!

pathfinder · March 13, 2006

I think the 4Gb size is a nice size at this time - fits on 1 DVD easily - and by the time I edit and delte RAW files, I still will have enough room on a single DVD to burn the RAW and final edited images. And 4 Gb is big enough that you don't end up having to swap in the field which I prefer to avoid.

binghott · March 13, 2006

pathfinder wrote:

I think the 4Gb size is a nice size at this time - fits on 1 DVD easily - and by the time I edit and delte RAW files, I still will have enough room on a single DVD to burn the RAW and final edited images. And 4 Gb is big enough that you don't end up having to swap in the field which I prefer to avoid.

brilliant! that's perfect, i'm very sure i'm getting the 4gb!

pathfinder · March 13, 2006

2gb or 4gb Compact Flash?

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